We had experienced our most stressful travelling day before arriving at Tumbledown Nature Refuge. One of the kids was feverish and unhappy, and a vital part had fallen off our rented camper trailer while driving over the Main Range, which meant that we had to frantically find an RV supply store for a replacement so that we could inflate the camper to sleep in. Consequently we were all feeling slightly frazzled as we drove through Stanthorpe and out towards Greenlands, where we had booked a campsite at Tumbledown Nature Refuge.

As we drove slowly down the 1.5km driveway, deep into the heart of the property, I felt myself relax. Our campsite, Quoll’s Hideaway, was nestled in the bush, past the dam. When we arrived, a little basket with homegrown herbs and fruit awaited us, atop a treasure chest of thoughtful items just in case we’d forgotten something, and a map of walks on the property. Log seating encircled the fire pit, and neatly stacked piles of firewood and kindling were nearby for our use.

A path with a sign pointing to the “Thunderbox” leads to a sweet little shelter which contains a marvellous composting toilet, ingeniously built into a wheelie bin, and a camp shower you can fill with water. Signposted walking paths tempted us to explore. A short walk around the dam from our campsite led to the homestead, and its neighbouring building containing a camp kitchen, a solar-heated shower, and another composting toilet.

Jayn, the owner of Tumbledown, has built all of the structures on the property, including the homestead and a delightful little log cabin. She is a thoughtful host, happy to assist with anything we needed. She clearly puts so much thought and work into her management of Tumbledown, and learning more about her custodianship of the land makes the property seem even more special.

There are 12kms of bushwalking tracks over Tumbledown Nature Refuge, and we only explored a few of them. We followed the Granite Walk one afternoon, which is marked by a mixture of tree markers, and stone cairns where the track goes across slabs of granite. Edward really enjoyed this experience of finding and following the trail, and eagerly became our trail leader, leading us past stunning views and winding through the trees. We felt like we were the only people in the world – the only sounds that of the birds, the wind, and our footsteps (and less idyllically, Frances occasionally grizzling in my ear that she was tired, even though I carried her the entire way).

Tumbledown is only a 20 minute drive from Stanthorpe, and it was the perfect base to explore some of the touristy delights of the area. We had planned to go into Girraween National Park, but we were enjoying exploring Tumbledown so much that we did more of that instead, to make the most of our time there. On our last evening we took the track to Sunset Rock and sat there with a drink, looking across to the sun setting behind the distant mountains, bathing us all in orange light. 

I cannot recommend Tumbledown Nature Refuge enough as a spectacular camping spot in the Stanthorpe area. It is a unique experience on a very special property, and is a showcase of the amazing forests in the Granite Belt area.  The Tumbledown homestead and the log cabin are also available to stay in, and next time we plan to hire the homestead for a quick weekend stay so that we can enjoy more of the area.

Tumbledown Nature Refuge doesn’t have an internet presence as yet, but you can contact Jayn on the details below to enquire about booking campsites, the homestead, or the log cabin.

Some of my favourite moments from our recent trip to NZ’s South Island:

1. Queenstown would not be my usual favourite holiday spot – it’s so touristy, and my preferred kind of travel is out of tourist season. Hanging out with crowds of other tourists is not my idea of a good time. But Queenstown makes up for its touristy feel by being jaw droppingly gorgeous – I loved picking our way along the snow covered ground along the shore of the lake at the end of the day, and sitting in our apartment drinking a glass of cheap red, watching the changing light over the lake and surrounding mountains.

2. The inland lakes, like Lake Tekapo, which are such a vivid turquoise blue that they don’t look real – particularly after it snowed, the lake glowed against the surrounding whiteness. We went snow tubing when we were there, hurling ourselves down a hill in inflatable tubes while looking out on the spectacular vista of the lake.

3. Tuatara are the only living members of the order Sphenodonti and have a variety of sci-fi-esque features like a photo receptive “third eye” on top of their head. And they probably live for hundreds of years. Seeing them moving around at the bird park (very very slowly, as befits such a long lived creature) was pretty incredible.

4. I wanted to stop every 5 steps or so as we walked around the Kaikoura Peninsula and take a photograph of the slightly different angle of the views we saw in every direction. Looking down to the ocean, we could see a small seal colony basking in the sun at the foot of the cliffs – looking behind us, we saw snow capped mountains across the horizon, past a green field of grazing cattle, and stepped hills that were once the site of fortified pa. No other people in sight, and we sat for a while on the clifftop watching a seal swimming and listening to the sound of the waves.

It was fairly overcast when we went across to Stradbroke Island a couple of weeks ago, but there were odd rays of sunshine that broke through the cloud cover. We took advantage of a relatively clear late afternoon, and walked down to sit on some rocks by the beach, drinking red wine and smoking a cigar (in the case of my father). The waves peeled in to the shore, and we watched the fishing boats on the horizon and the clouds slowly moving across the sky.

I hadn’t been to the beach in ages, and spent a while squatting on the sand with my macro lens taking photos of shells. I like taking photos of shells. They don’t move as much as insects, so I don’t have quite as many blurry shots to delete at the end of the day.

We stayed in a little beach house – a townhouse with three levels and little balconies, where you could see a glimpse of the sea. The townhouse next door was full of blokes celerating a buck’s weekend, one of them told us apologetically. “Just, you know, come over and tell us to shut up if we get too noisy.” Crows and kookaburras hung around in the trees outside, eyeing off the barbecue. The blokes next door threw scraps of meat to the kookaburras, and I watched them diving to catch the food in mid-air. We decided they were a group of siblings – three young birds, similar in size.

My brother pointed out a group of whales spouting out to sea – puffs of mist rising from a slightly darker patch of sea. I think it’s the first time I’ve seen whales – if you can call such a small glimpse seeing a whale. I am wondering whether to go on a whale watching cruise while we are in New Zealand next week – I think it would be amazing to get a bit closer, but equally wonder whether a trip would be worth it to get a brief glimpse of a whale tail before it dives again.

We were driving second, which meant we watched our friends’ four wheel drive sliding crazily along the muddy track before we followed them. It didn’t fill me with confidence. I don’t think I particularly enjoyed clinging on in the passenger seat as we drove through some particularly steep and muddy sections – I mean, it’s a bit of an adrenaline rush, but it’s also fairly terrifying, feeling the car slip about underneath you. I enjoyed the places we got to though – standing on the side of a hill looking out over the Maleny valley.

We went driving in the truck this morning, up Shaws Pocket Road, which I had read a bit about online. If you look at the road on maps, you can see that it narrows down and continues through past a quarry to somewhere in Ormeau. After reading various forums online, I’m still not sure whether access to the road is entirely legal. It’s on maps, and there’s no signs forbidding access, but I have a feeling that if you follow it all the way to Ormeau it might go through some private land, particularly the bit near the quarry.

It was the first time we’d actually driven the truck in four wheel drive, so we locked the hubs in and headed up the steep dirt track. I wouldn’t want to go up there if it was raining, not unless we were much more experienced – it feels very steep, and there’s lots of dips in the track that would fill up with water. We only followed it for a little while, coming across one trail rider who saw us, swung around and rode away again (which somewhat confirms my feelings about the legality of access). I think it takes you up a ridge and then along the top of a range of hills – we could glimpse views down into the surrounding valleys through the trees.

I would be tempted to try out heading into the Logan Village pine forest, which is literally at the end of our street, but there’s plenty of signs around there forbidding access to cars and bikes. Despite that, it’s constantly full of trail bikes, judging by the noise on weekends, but it would be rather difficult to pretend you weren’t supposed to be in there – and I think the police do occasionally do some patrolling through there. I have this strange desire not to get arrested for trespassing. I think we’ll just stick to unsigned tracks and hope for the best.