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Albacore Apartments

After a well-earned career break for twelve months in beautiful Phuket, Clint and Josie Burgess moved back to Melbourne in 2010.

While in Phuket Josie taught English and Clint took a new direction and worked as a scuba diving instructor. Then they came across an opportunity too good to miss at the popular holiday destination at Merimbula, New South Wales.

“We had been holidaying in the Merimbula area for over ten years and had known the previous owners of Albacore Apartments for quite some time,” said Josie. “The former managers mentioned they had put their management rights on the market and, knowing they had a good head for business, we decided to take a look at Albacore Apartments as a possible business to buy and a way to move to the gorgeous seaside town of Merimbula.”

Josie had been interested in working in travel and tourism for quite some time and Clint enjoys handy work and they both enjoy a challenge, so Albacore ticked those boxes.

“After spending a few days at Albacore shadowing the previous managers we knew it was something we could do and decided to make an offer… the rest is history,” continued Josie. “We took over the management rights on 1 July 2011.”

Clint said, “We knew nothing about management rights before we came across this. The previous owners stayed around for two weeks to handover and when they left we had to come to the fore and stand on our own.

AN42-2-PRO-Albacore 4“We did all the preparation for management rights such as the training and necessary reading but until you are really here and on your own, you either sink or swim and we swam.”

There are five cleaning staff and one administration staff, Lauren, who relieves once a week allowing Josie and Clint a break away from their busy life.

Albacore Apartments is centrally located and is only a five minute flat walk to shops, restaurants and cafes. Directly opposite Merimbula Lake, Albacore Apartments is an easy stroll to Merimbula’s main beach. Just 100m along the path is the start of the Boardwalk where guests can take a stroll and soak up the sights and tranquillity of the beautiful Merimbula Lake and grab a coffee at the other end.

Merimbula is renowned for its many safe beaches for swimming and surfing, including Main Beach, Bar Beach, Short Point, Mitchies Jetty and Spencer Park Beach. Merimbula is very popular in summer. In winter the drawcards are the June jazz festival and then in November the whale watching season attracts visitors.

Guests don’t need to be a fan of the water to enjoy Merimbula as there’s plenty on offer for those who don’t like to get their feet wet, such as golfing at one of the nearby courses, lawn bowls, horse riding, roller coaster rides at Magic Mountain or Ten Pin Bowling at Top Fun. Animal lovers can get up close to some of Australia’s native animals at Potoroo Palace Wildlife Sanctuary. For those who prefer a close encounter with sea creatures they can visit Merimbula Wharf and Aquarium.

The Sapphire Coast offers abundant beauty where National Parks meet a pristine coastline. Bush walkers have a variety of walks available throughout Bournda National Park and South East Forest National Park.

AN42-2-PRO-Albacore 8Albacore Apartments offers 4½-star fully self-contained accommodation including a lift to all five levels of the 20 strata apartments. The generously proportioned, well designed one and two bedroom apartments, all have magnificent panoramic water views. The large open plan living areas extend to private balconies where guests can sit and watch the world go by, with sweeping views across Merimbula Lake.

“We’ve really enjoyed a lot of guests and many are coming back as repeat customers already. It is lovely to have a connection with them and catch up again when they return,” said a smiling Josie.

Clint continued, “We are very fortunate that our apartment owners have all been really helpful and obliging when we want to make major changes, such as, carpets or lounge suites or anything.”

Josie summed up with, “We live right on the water so we when you look out the window you think, ok, this is a pretty good spot to live!”

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