G'day from Australia! We live in Port Macquarie, New South Wales and just over a year ago took over a Bed & Breakfast only 200m from Lighthouse Beach - such a dream come true since touring in Europe on our honeymoon in 1997 and falling in love with the concept of B&B's and hosting people from around the world! We've been absolutely loving welcoming guests from 30 different countries since taking over - we have such a beautiful gift to share this part of the world with them. My passion is helping each guest to have a memorable story to share and precious moments to cherish when they return home. We had months of bookings disappear in a matter of days once the borders were closed and we were placed into a lockdown mode in March of this year... as a Bed & Breakfast we were legally only allowed to host essential workers or for compassionate reasons (persons without a fixed address temporarily due to not being able to travel home). Was quite a shock to see all that we knew to be to just disappear and shift within a blink of an eye... and a 'new normal' was upon us.
We had a couple from Germany that was with us for a few nights as this started unfolding and they extended a few more nights as we all waited for what the travel directions would be... they tried to move their flight home but were unsuccessful and thus had 3 more weeks still here in Australia. As we discussed options of how much they could travel from Port Macquarie to see for day trips - this too was cut short with increasing restrictions and only essential reasons to leave your home was enforced.