Lady Heaven, 45 Minutes From Launceston

Campbell Town is a 45-minute drive from Launceston and it’s basically Lady Present Heaven. Buy for your friend, sister, mum – or yourself.

It’s easy to drive past this cottage and miss it, because of all the attention-grabbing Campbell Town antiques, vintage and retro shops (also great for presents).

However, this is a gift Tardis. Once inside you will find room after room of amazing gifts, sourced from Tasmania and Europe.

Coco Blue can ship, but you might just walk out with a big carrier bag for your suitcase.

Coffee and $20 Gift Vouchers

The first thing you notice about Coco Blue is that an entire front room has been devoted to Julius Meinl coffee and sourdough bread from cult Tasmanian bakery, Bread + Butter.

They clearly have a lot of space. But wait there’s more.

On a budget? Choose from body exfoliant mitts and table napkins with lemon illustrations, or a $20 gift voucher. It looks wow-factor pricey in here, but look carefully and you’ll find Christmas stocking fillers or workmate gifts.

Bathroom to Bedroom

This historic house had its own bedrooms and bathrooms once upon a time and it now houses presents which are room-matched.

The design is either cool, clean and modern or old-fashioned charm.

Pyjamas and blazers, in one room – vegetable scrubbing brushes and merino wool cardigans for children in another.

Scented Shopping

Coco Blue smells great. The Noss Cucumber, Matcha and Basil candles fragrance floats above the wooden floorboards. The place immediately makes you want to go back to your Launceston Air BnB and light a candle, or plan a picnic in the Tasmanian bush.

Fieldbar will help you stow the wine. Quirky, striped ceramics are good to take home in hand luggage.

Gardeners’ Paradise

This place is so vast you may want to stock up for the rest of the year, especially if you know a keen gardener.

Along with lovely gardening hand soap, there are some good books (Flowers By Design, Big Garden Design), straw baskets for picked fruit, soft gardening gloves, herb-scented fragrance and outdoor dining suggestions; thanks to the watering cans and big straw sunhats in here, you can actually go the full Beatrix Potter.

You won’t actually have to shop around for packaging.

Lovely old-fashioned ribbons and wrapping paper good enough to frame hangs on the walls; we also found lipstick and leather cross-body bags, leopardskin skirts and shirts; big, roomy cotton frocks; lace-up white sneakers to go under the frocks and the odd Chanel homage jacket.

New Zealand to Tasmania

Auckland has become a happy hunting ground for lady shopaholics recently. You can find gifts here that are not on sale anywhere else, like George & Edi candles from New Zealand. Choose from Fig, Havana, No. 14, In Bloom, Peony and Ebony.

Take a small person into a room set aside for children’s floral print shoes, tiny Breton tops, sweet sunhats, sunglasses, furry teddies and floppy ducks.

Big Presents

Coco Blue also sells glorious lamps with shades for a big present (maybe for yourself). Along with kitchen staples like chopping boards and mugs, lovely French provincial tea-towels and table cloths – you can also shop for your deck, with striped beach house cushions.

There are picture frames to display all those photographs of Tasmania you’re going to take; soap dishes far too nice to put soap on – and a whole room of ‘extreme housewarming presents.’

Thick blue glassware for the table and keepsake, future heirloom china gift boxes with gold dragonflies? Check. Marimekko table napkins and candles for the dining room table? Absolutely.

Lanterns (more candles) for barbecues and Tasmanian art on the walls, complete the picture of a fantasy cottage, filled with everything you or a friend ever wanted.

For Notebook Addicts

The notebook addicts’ section at Coco Blue is satisfyingly full of journals you won’t have seen anywhere else. Add a pen in a box and there’s a Christmas present that might
convert the most digitally obsessed teenage blogger. Bespoke Letterpress is here too.

Waverley Mills and More

Tasmania’s most famous brands are represented. Pure wool blankets from Waverley Mills. There’s also a strong British vintage streak here; William Morris is present and correct. There’s also a lot of France and French style in such a distant Tasmanian shop; Fragonard, anyone?

It’s hard to think of the last time we went into any place, anywhere in Tasmania, so stuffed with charm and goodness.

People discover Coco Blue driving from Launceston to Hobart or vice-versa. We would actually suggest a whole Saturday of present shopping, starting in Launceston then nipping 45 minutes down the road. You can either go back to Launceston for lunch (City of Gastronomy, natch) or dine here. You can pick up scallop pies at Banjo’s bakery in Campbell Town in a bag and have a mini-picnic here too. Campbell Town is historic and beautiful.