Yesterday was laundry, rest, and prepare for our drive up the Pacific Coast Highway to the Coff’s Harbor area. Lou’s brother Ray arrived in the evening to spend the night. We’re making the trip with him in his vehicle. He lives in the Sydney suburb of Kellyville, which is an hour or so south of Lou’s so Ray didn’t want to risk getting stuck in traffic Friday morning. All went smoothly and we departed at about 9:30.
The drive was uneventful, although Ray’s driving kept all of us on our toes. He has some habits that raises the hair on the back of my neck and makes Christine squeeze her eyes shut. But all went okay and we got to Coff’s Harbor at about 4:00 p.m. after stops for gas (petrol as the Aussies say) and lunch. Ray needed to obtain some medication that he had forgotten so we went to a chemist shop. He was able to get some assistance in getting his prescriptions from the doctor and to obtain what he needed. Again, what would have been somewhat of an ordeal in the States, was efficiently done here.
The area around Coff’s Harbour is very nice. We crossed several wide rivers and there were lovely rolling hills. Farms, mostly livestock, dotted the countryside. Mountains were off in the distance. Things looked greener in this part of NSW because they’ve had more rainfall that in the southern part of the state.
Coff’s Harbour is a city of about 72,000 in the region called the Mid North Coast of New South Wales. Coffs Harbour’s economy was once based mainly on bananas, now being superseded by blueberries as well as tourism and fishing. The wider region is known as the Bananacoast. It is a holiday destination and a resort-type city.
Banana farm 
Banana trees all over the hills
From Coff’s Harbour we traveled about 35 km to Nana Glen, a small village inland from Coff’s Harbour. As I mentioned, one of the things of note about Nana Glen is that Russell Crowe, the actor, owns 325 hectares in Nana Glen. His property abuts Tony’s land. The area is beautiful with lots of timber but as we got closer to Tony and Liz’s place, we could see the ravages of the bushfire that devastated the area in November. I will talk more in detail about this and what it took for Tony to save his home in the next post.
Tony and Liz have a spread of 100 acres and it is an amazing place. They are the hardest workers I know and what they have accomplished is phenomenal! Christine and I were here in 1994 and I have some clear images in my mind about what the farm looked like then and there is nothing similar today. Back then, their main living space was a shed, a big one, but really a shed. Other than a small pony shed, there wasn’t much else on the property other than trees. The shed has become a two story, beautiful 4 bedroom home with car port, detached office/apartment, a huge machinery shed, and nicest of all, a large gazebo and swimming pool.
What Liz and Tony have created around their home is a tropical oasis. And the most remarkable thing is that all of the palms and other vegetation were grown and planted by them. The palm trees are amazing.
Beautiful palms grown from seed 
Geraniums everywhere 
Red pops of color everywhere 
Palms along the second floor veranda 
Tall palms
The gazebo is a fabulous place with full outdoor kitchen. We eat our meals in the gazebo at a huge round table with a giant lazy susan in the middle. Liz and Tony’s son Shane made this wonderful table. The gazebo sits on top of a huge cistern that I remembered from our first visit. The cistern had a cement top on it and is now the base on which the gazebo sits. The pool is just off the gazebo. With all the palms around the gazebo and pool, you’d swear you were in a tropical resort. It is so beautiful.
Gazebo 
Pool 
Pool 
Full outdoor kitchen in the gazebo
In the photo of the driveway you may have noticed two very large solar panels. Tony had this system installed about 10 years ago. The two panels have been named Bert and Ernie, which I think is hilarious. I think there are 15 panels in each system. They are fully mechanized and track the sun throughout the day. It all seems very sophisticated to me and Tony gave us a show and tell on his system. There is also a generator and the two systems work together to keep power going to the house. This system is one of the things that helped save the house.
Part of plant nursery 
Equipment shed
Tony has some cattle that are in paddocks out in front of the house. In addition to all the amazing bird sounds we hear, the cattle add to the cacophony with bellows, which I like to hear.
Cow seen from the veranda 
Young cows 
Tony feeding the cows 
Feeding time
There are several paddocks on the property where the cows are. As you can imagine there is a lot of fencing on 100 acres containing lots of paddocks. Some of the fencing is electrified. And of course there are lots of gates.
A majority of the timber around Tony and Liz’s property is hardwood, predominantly varieties of eucalyptus. Tony cut all the timber used in the house from the property and milled it himself. The trees are incredibly straight and very tall. I’ll post more photos over the next couple of days.
Tony and Liz have been incredibly welcoming. They are a well-matched pair who balance each other. I think it is lovely that their business is named TLC Enterprises (Tony and Liz Caruana – TLC), but boy have they worked hard. They were to have retired the first of this year, but they will be doing another big job next weekend, which has created a fair amount of stress for Tony. One of their specialties is cleaning and they will be doing the cleaning of a stadium during a 3-day event. They work so hard around their property and to have business work, including landscaping, office cleaning and all sorts of other ventures, I don’t know how they do it. My wish for them is that this job next weekend truly is the end of their employed life and they can start to enjoy the wonderful oasis they have created.
