2010-2013
The Chaos
Tielka is taking a lot of cash to grow. In late 2010, we make the financial decision to rent out our apartment in Melbourne, Australia, and move in with my parents just a 15-minute drive away.
Tielka is run from multiple locations. The Tielka office is set up in the study in my parent's house. Blending and packaging is done initially in the (council-approved) home kitchen, then later at a friend's (council-approved) home kitchen, and then at our son's school kitchen. Finished goods are stored in a fitted-out container behind the school building, where orders are processed. Bulk items are kept in a storage unit.
Running operations from multiple locations is nightmarish. Somehow we manage.
Our middle son, Paul, is born in 2011 into the chaos. He has the most beautiful, gentle, happy, peaceful temperament and is a great joy to our family.
Alexei and I both go through the highs and lows of running a new business with feelings of enthusiasm, hopelessness, peace in spite of chaos, frustration, wanting to give up, and determination to keep going. Serendipitously, our lows never seem to coincide, and we always seem to keep up with our apartment mortgage repayments.
Finances are tricky and the hope of ever living in our own home again, let alone providing a respite home for others, seems completely out of reach. We can barely afford a studio unit in the cheapest region of Melbourne.
Despite this, there is a spark of hope in my spirit, that makes no sense in the natural, that the most beautiful home awaits us.
New Teas
We have an excess of three obscure types of green tea and one oolong. Their obscurity is making them difficult to sell, and they aren't getting any fresher sitting on the shelf. I need to move them.
I grab some ingredients from the shelf that catch my attention - schisandra berries, jasmine, lemon myrtle, rose, and hibiscus and start playing with mixes.
I'm thinking of creating a fruity green tea, so I blend the schisandra berries with green tea, hibiscus for that fruity flavour, and rose for fun. The result is unexpectedly sophisticated and subtle. Not fruity at all. I love it. I call it Rose Moscato.
The other ingredients fall together nicely and result in a very different, but equally subtle and sophisticated blend: jasmine, lemon myrtle, and oolong tea. Midnight Blossom is born.
The Conversation
On Sunday 4th August, 2013, my husband Alexei is chatting with a friend, Damien, after church. Damien is the deputy principal at the school, Heatheron Christian College, where our son, Peter, attends. Damien's youngest son is Peter's best friend.
I notice the conversation and walk up to the pair, only to hear the concluding words come out of Alexei's mouth "Well, keep me in the loop, we might move to Queensland with you".
Time stops.
Have you ever had a moment in your life, where circumstances seem completely stuck, and there is no way forward, then a small piece of information is added to the picture, and everything changes?
This was it.
Our friend Damien had been offered the position of principal at a new school being built in Agnes Water, Queensland. It was set to open in 2015.
Agnes Water.
I can't get the name of this town out of my head.
We do have one prior connection to Agnes Water. A café named Bustards in Agnes Water has been using Tielka tea for some time. My only reference is that Agnes Water must be very, very far away, as the postage costs were always quite high. I am also frequently told by the owner that it gets busy during holiday season, so it must be a tourist town.
That evening I check out the real estate in Agnes Water. I have a look at the town. It is delightful. A postcard on the Barrier Reef. It looks like the perfect location for a respite home.
A quick look over the real estate reveals incredibly affordable house pricing. An even quicker calculation in my head tells me we can sell our apartment in Melbourne, clear the business debt, and buy a house. Our own home.
The Visit
Three weeks later, after fulfilling Tielka's biggest order to date to around 50 bookstores across Australia (it almost killed me), we visit Agnes Water for the first time.
The cumulative stress from the previous years, leading up to that big order, has taken its toll. I sit in the passenger seat of the rental car driving up the Bruce Hwy from Brisbane to Agnes Water, using what little energy I have left to relax each muscle in my body, as they tense up again and again. The closer we get to Agnes Water, the less the tension consumes me.
Agnes Water is perfect.
The real estate agent shows us the available houses in the area. Alexei is not pleased to hear I have arranged the excursion, expecting a Melbourne-esque high-pressure agent to put the hard sell on us. PRD agent Tim Lawry shows us around, and as the saying goes "if he were any more laid back, he'd be horizontal".
Tim drives us around town in his old ute to various homes and then brings us to Blue Haven.
I gasp when I see Blue Haven. I'm not even able to keep a poker face. The house is as pretty as a picture. A blue, high-set Queenslander, surrounded by palm trees. Attached to the side of the house is a large boat shed, perfect for a Tielka warehouse. It's hard to imagine the operations of one business from running one location.
That spark in my spirit nudges me that this was the most beautiful home that was awaiting us, the one that made no sense in the natural, but existed only in hope.
The Purchase
On my birthday the following month, Alexei hands me a birthday card with a gift. It's the purchase of Blue Haven.
In late November, after a flurry of challenges with our home purchase, the house miraculously settles. Blue Haven now belongs to us.
The Move
On 30th December 2013, we arrive at Blue Haven after four days on the road from Melbourne. Peter is 7. Paul is 2.
Our life in Agnes Water begins with Tielka in tow.
More to come...