Here’s a holiday idea with a difference – mustering cattle at a romantic luxury retreat. Peppers Hidden Vale, just 60 minutes south west of Brisbane, is an authentic cattle station turned elegant country retreat with roots to Queensland’s pioneering past embedded in the early 1800s.
Peppers Hidden Vale lets guests participate in a real cattle drive on horseback, taste authentic outback tucker and learn the finer points of mustering strays and cracking whips from larrikin stockman guides.
Visitors can saddle up for the Dinner Camp Muster - a full day experience from $180 per person including riding with a musterer and bringing in cattle, morning smoko of billy tea and damper, camp oven lunch and stockyard cattle activities such as whip cracking, roping and horsemanship demonstrations, bottle feeding a poddy calf and more.
An an evening ride on the Razor Back range offers spectacular views of the station coupled with an overnight Rustic Cabins experience from $290 per person. This includes an overnight stay in comfortable bush cabins with ring campfire for relaxing under the stars, evening entertainment listening to yarns by a bush poet and singer and hearty barbecue breakfast before bringing the cattle back to the stockyards the following morning.
Visitors can linger longer in relaxed country surrounds and lap up the luxury for which Peppers Hidden Vale is renowned with additional nights at the retreat available for the special price of $299 per night including hearty breakfast for two. Transfers from Brisbane and the Gold Coast are available for $45 per person.
For bookings please contact Peppers Hidden Vale on (+617) 5465 5900 or by emailing hiddenvale@peppers.com.au. www.peppers.com.au
About Peppers Hidden Vale:
First settled in the early 1800s, with the original homestead taking shape in the 1920s, the property is testimony to Australia's colonial past, revived with the indulgent touch of Peppers.
While maintaining the heritage and elegance of a bygone era, Peppers Hidden Vale blends a charming taste of yesteryear with a retreat experience to be savoured equally for its award winning dining and indulgent body treatments.
In true Peppers style, the retreat has a focus on first-rate food and wine experiences. The highly regarded Cotton’s Restaurant, named after one of the early pioneer families who once owned the property, won the 2008 Best Hotel Restaurant crown at the Restaurant and Catering Queensland Awards for Excellence, while the retreat itself has reached the finals at the Queensland Tourism Awards for deluxe accommodation three years in a row.
Cotton’s prides itself on using the freshest produce that South East Queensland Country is famed for in its innovative menus matched with a superb wine list. As personal as it is enticing and appealing, the restaurant offers something new and exciting for guests every time under the guidance of experienced master chefs.
Favourites including the signature Wagyu beef grown on the property and a wide choice of sumptuous, seasonal cuisine can be enjoyed in an intimate atmosphere with beautiful views over the surrounding countryside.
Accommodation choices range from a quaint one-bedroom Chinese cottage built in the late 1800s to a six-bedroom cottage formerly the home of the property’s station manager and two brand new luxury heritage suites where an old-world exterior belies a heart of stylish, contemporary fittings, plasma TVs, DVDs and other mod cons.