STAR GAZING
Star Gazing - Luxury Travel Magazine
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Star Gazing | |||||
| By: Christina Pfeiffer, Issue 28 – Spring 2006 | |||||
| (Rawnsley Park Station – South Australia, Australia) | |||||
| A NEW LUXURY ECO-VILLA HIDEAWAY. My bath is running as I sit on the verandah of my eco-villa in Rawnsley Park Station, 430-kilometres north of Adelaide, (around four and a half hours drive, or a short flight). I am bundled up in a plush white bathrobe, nibbling on cheese and sipping red wine. I am mesmerised by the ochre sandstone peak of South Australia’s Rawnsley Bluff, which is aglow from the rays of the setting sun. Wild wallabies hop across the distant landscape of this 3,000 hectare (7,410 acre) property run by Tony and Julienne Smith. Tony, who is a fourth-generation Flinders Ranges sheep farmer, is passionate about maintaining the area’s wild yet natural beauty. The four new eco-villas combine old homestead design with contemporary finishes, and were built to blend into the landscape. High ceilings, apex-shaped roofs and long verandahs are stylishly complemented by polished timber floorboards, white-washed walls, and furnishings in muted earthy tones. Vase arrangements filled with red earth and brown sticks provide an elegant continuity to the surrounding natural backdrop. By day, you can sink into a comfortable soft caramel leather sofa, and put your feet up on a long chocolate ottoman while listening to music, and enjoy the views through floor-toceiling sliding glass doors. When night falls, you can watch a DVD on one of the latest flat-screen LCD television screens, or simply lie back in bed and gaze at the stars through the expansive overhead skylights. Each villa is constructed with a concrete slab floor and rendered straw bale walls to provide the thermal mass that keeps the villas comfortably warm during the cold nights and cool during the hot summer days. Meals from the nearby Woolshed Restaurant have names that are mind-boggling. Who would guess that Bluey’s Round Up is a warm Kangaroo Salad with spicy pepper and plum sauce? Flights over nearby Wilpena Pound, mountain biking, horse-riding, nature walks and 4WD tours are available, but for those wanting to simply enjoy the landscape, these ecovillas are a perfect place to be. | |||||
| Details: | |||||
| Rawnsley Park Station: www.rawnsleypark.com.au | |||||
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