A Little Touch of Paradise

The year 2023 hasn’t been an easy year for me and by the time December and Christmas come around I was tired, burnt out and in desperate need of an escape — a downtime to recharge — a time to just regroup and be me.

I asked and I received more than I bargained for……….a reminder to be careful what you ask for………because you may not get exactly what you want but I promise you’ll get exactly what you need.

And I needed to disconnect from life; disconnect from the world and spend some time in solitude.

I booked what I thought was going to be the perfect little getaway; a little touch of paradise, hidden away in the Gold Coast Hinterland; the perfect place for a time out and disconnect from the world.

I booked a 10 day stay at Bespoke Geo-Dome Tree House from the 26 December, Boxing Day, through Airbnb.

As many of my past readers know, I haven’t had the best experience with Airbnb, especially my booking in August 2023 when I travelled to Broome, but this time round I struck gold!

When I woke on Boxing Day I found a message from my Airbnb host, Paula, informing me that the storm that had hit us on Christmas Day had taken out the power to the Geo-Dome and surrounding areas.

Paula gave me a number of options, including a refund to enable me to stay elsewhere but I didn’t want to give up the beautiful and unusual accommodation I had been anticipating during the months leading up to my stay.

However, due to Paula’s clear communication and the fact I was an experienced category 5 cyclone survivor (not once but twice), I was able to plan and organise myself for the prospect of being without power for a day or so.

The worst of it would be the lack of water because Paula had explained the water was pumped to the Dome by electric pump. What’s a day or so without a shower?

I called into a petrol station to pick up a phone charger that plugged into the cigarette lighter in the car because my son had given me a phone mount for Christmas and this come with a battery power pack. He also lent me his battery power pack that he usually used. This way I could charge both packs on the drive down and this should allow me to recharge my phone for the day or so without power.

All set, I started the drive from Brisbane, only to discover that the 1.5 hour drive was suddenly a 3 hour drive because the storm had done some terrible damage to some parts of the country I’d be travelling through. Three times my navigator took me off the motorway and through suburbs I didn’t know existed because of road closures and trees down.

I drove through suburbs that were an absolute mess. Tree limbs and other debris littering the sides of the roads, traffic at a crawl and traffic lights blank due to no power and reinforced concrete power poles snapped in half.

The Christmas Day Storm was the worst to ever hit the area and officially classified as a mini cyclone, seeing over 100,000 homes without power. It was chaos.

Thankfully luck was on my side, because anyone who knows me, knows I have the worst sense of direction on anyone you’ll ever meet. So when I arrived at, what felt like the middle of nowhere, and found the gorgeous Geo-Dome I booked, I was extremely thankful to discover it was only after I arrived that my mobile phone reception dropped out. If it had dropped out even 10 minutes earlier I may never have found the little touch of paradise that I’d booked.

After I parked, Paula come to meet me onsite and explained she’d placed inside an esky with ice — I had bought an esky with ice myself but hers was a heavy duty one and would keep food colder than the one I’d brought with me — a single burner gas stove, two battery operated lamps and a battery power pack to recharge my phone.

I was impressed and thankful for her thoughtfulness.

Paula also purchased a slab of bottled water and left it for me so I’d have drinking water.

No sooner had I unpacked the car and settled in, inspected my accommodation — which was as beautiful as described on the Airbnb website — and sat down on the outside deck to relax, than another storm hit the area.

It started with hailstones — thankfully only small stones — lightening, thunder and a barrage of rain.

After making a coffee, I climbed into bed and watched the storm through the clear view of the Dome, until I fell into a blissful sleep.

It wasn’t until I woke the next morning that I discovered my phone reception must have come online very briefly in the night because I had a couple of messages from Paula. Messages from the night before saying she’d bring me dry bed linen once the rain stopped, as it was so wild it must have come in the top of the dome and wet the bed.

A second message showed that Paula had noticed the lights off when she attempted to bring the bedding and said she’d leave me in peace.

The Dome had stood the test of time as I was dry, cozy and blissfully asleep, however, I was grateful to Paula for her concern and attentiveness.

I knew this was a first for Paula, what with no power to the property and she was attempting to make my stay as seamless and stress free as possible. I wanted to reassure her and let her know I was okay but without internet or phone reception I wasn’t able to contact Paula.

Thankfully Paula had messaged in the morning to say she’d touch base with me at noon when the next power outage update was due. All I could do was wait.

Once Paula arrived I was able to reassure her and thank her for her genuine concern. I was also able to explain I didn’t have phone reception or internet to be able to respond to her messages.

During the day Paula thoughtfully dropped me off some more bedding, more bottled water, some candles, batteries and kindly left me her mobile phone so I could hotspot her internet to enable me a couple of hours online.

I was in awe of her generosity and extremely grateful. Paula had gone over and above her role as host. My instant thought that went through my mind is that we need more people like Paula in this world.

After another night of relaxing sleep, I woke hoping I’d have power and mobile phone coverage back but it was not to be.

It was now Thursday 28 December and still no power, phone reception, internet or water.

But I understood this was out of Paula’s control and she had done everything within her power to make my stay as comfortable as possible given the circumstances.

I was more than impressed.

Then mid morning Paula arrived with a fresh bag of ice for the esky and her mobile phone once again. She explained she was going to do some work around the property, so I was free to use the internet for a couple of hours.

Again I was overcome with her generosity.

And as icing on the cake Paula arrived Thursday afternoon to tell me she’d purchased a generator so I could have power and most importantly water. I was desperate for a shower so as you can imagine, I could have hugged her.

My first decision was to have a bath, out on the deck under the stars, surrounded by fairy lights. Pure magic.

35 degree heat the last couple of days, and sponge baths can only make you feel so clean……but Thursday night I was able to climb in the outdoor bath, surrounded by gorgeous fairy lights and Mother Nature…….what more could a girl want?

Thank you Paula…….you were my own personal earth angel.

The power was finally restored to the area on 2 January 2024.

All in all, this little hiccup, that was outside of anyone’s control, did not detract from the beautiful scenery, the glorious accommodation and the awesome wildlife I got to experience, not to mention the ability to totally disconnect — more-so than I originally planned but obviously needed — and recharge.

The Geo-Dome is not only astonishingly beautiful and incredibly unusual but it is hand built by Paula herself. There is even a personal book inside the dome outlining and taking you through the entire construction process, which I found extremely interesting.

Therefore, without further ado, I give my wholehearted endorsement of both the property itself and Paula as an amazing host.

I cannot fault either the property or Paula and if you’re looking for a little touch of paradise, I would highly recommend booking the Geo-Dome, knowing you’ll never have another breakaway like it.

If you're ever in Neranwood Queensland, book this beautiful accommodation and enjoy.

Please click the link below my name to read more of my work. I would also like to thank you for taking the time to read this today and for all your support.

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Please visit my website if you'd like more information on my newly published book, Battle Angel : The Ultimate She Warrior.

Originally published on Medium