We travelled to Mansfield with the intention of doing some research on buying a property in the area as we are thinking of retiring to the area come our retirement in seven years. Little did we realise that we would fall in love with house on 8.5 acres and end up buying it!

Kookaburra Cottage

Even the estate agent thought we were a little mad "are you sure you don't need more time to think it over?" was one of his questions and the look of amazement on his face when he came back with the counter offer from the seller and we said "that's fine". I thought he thought we'd haggle for ages. But I knew immediately I walked onto the property and into the little country cottage (only two years old) that it was mine! It had a feeling of comfort and when I wandered down to the natural spring, the grass seemed to whisper to me that this was where I should be. Fanciful I know, but its true. The views are unbelievable! You can see Mount Buller,

View towards Mount Buller

Mount Stirling. the Strathbogie ranges as well as the Delatite valley and across to the Paps from the kitchen and living areas.

The view across the Delatite Valley

The land is fenced, mainly cleared - it has a few old trees on the property (it use to pasture cattle) and best of all it has its own spring fed dam. The property also sits on the edge of a state forest (5 mins walk from the house) so Terry and I plan to do quite a bit of bush walking in the winter months.

Another view of the Kookaburra Cottage

Until our retirement, we intend to use the cottage as a holiday home and will spend every other weekend in Mansfield. We agreed to a 90 day changeover and I'm going to need those 90 days (80 days left) as I have to buy the furniture to furnish the house (which will be quite exciting) and Terry has to buy a ride on mower/tractor.

Of course, you can imagine our son's are already planning their holidays! Geoff reckons he'll be ski-boarding this ski season (the house is only 40 mins from the ski slopes) and Matt's thinks it will be a great getaway for his little family. Obviously my waggling hips as I danced to the Cuban music whilst I cooked had the desired effect on Terry - must have managed to put something magical into the food!