I’m a creature of habit. I like to do the same things every time I go somewhere. Eat the same food, at the same restaurant, stay in the same house, and visit the same beach. I know that’s not very exciting, but I don’t want to waste a holiday or a meal or an experience if I don’t know it’s going to be amazing. Then again, sometimes you take a risk and you can just tell it’s going to be good.

We had a retreat weekend with some close friends and family on the cards for April and it ended up being my job to find the accommodation. Now, I don’t mind this job at all, because I’m a control freak. But I do also feel the intense pressure of finding somewhere everyone loves. We had quite a few of us going, and a mixture of a family with a small child (us), a family with two teenagers (our dear friends Alison and Greg) and a mix of young married couples and singles. Finding somewhere big was essential. We’d also had a request for air conditioning because the last time we all went away together it was HOT and we all crammed together into the air conditioned granny flat of the house we’d booked. I didn’t want to be responsible for that again! I had to find somewhere with at least five bedrooms, a mixture of double and single beds, space to all hang out together, as well as room for us to all split off and have some space to ourselves. Close to the beach, not too expensive, enough room to cook for a huge group and privacy for the families. Impossible, right?

When I stumbled upon the Sundara Beach House in Gerringong, I knew I was onto a winner. As well as having six bedrooms, it had four bathrooms, air conditioning, two massive living areas, a huge kitchen, a spa and a pool. It ticked all of our boxes. As if that wasn’t enough, it was right across the road from the beach. I shared the website with our friends and after some brief consultation quickly booked it in. Just to put the icing on the cake, one of the six bedrooms was a stand alone pool house with a Queen bed, bathroom and it’s own kitchenette. Perfect for Alison and Greg with their teenage kids.

The owner, Melanie, was so lovely throughout the whole process. We knew we had a large group coming and that we would likely want to play guitars and sing in the evenings. The group we were travelling with was a very musical one and we wanted to make sure it wouldn’t bother the neighbours. We checked in with Melanie before booking, and then went ahead. In fact, Danny and I were so impressed with the customer service that we asked if we could make a video for them of the beach house as a gift. We do love to film beautiful things - and Sundara is incredibly beautiful.

We arrived nice and early to get the morning sun, and Danny filmed the house and flew his drone around while I entertained our four-year-old. This was made significantly easier by the surprise discovery of the cutest little cubby house in the backyard! It wasn’t even in the photos when we booked the house, and was such a lovely bonus to find once we got there.

Danny took incredibly beautiful photos of the house, as well as filming, but I like to think that I caught some of the things that really made the stay incredible. The moment when Josh saw the cubby and took off across the backyard, overjoyed that there was something just for him. The detail of a large hessian basket to put towels in when you head across to the beach (beach house owners, this is an amazing idea!) The ability to stand upstairs with the windows open and hear the waves crashing on the beach across the road.

Some of my favourite photos from the weekend are below, but you can see Danny’s professional ones here or on Stayz.

One of my favourite things was people gradually arriving and getting to show them around the house. The excitement every time was contagious! The layout of the house is incredibly well thought out, and made it really easy to fit everyone in and give them privacy and space. Right as you come in the front door there is a bedroom with a Queen sized bed and a bathroom right next to it. As well as serving as a convenient bathroom for us when we were downstairs, it doubled as an ensuite for the young married couple who slept in that room. It was far enough away from the living spaces that we were unlikely to keep them awake if they wanted to go to bed early (spoiler: they did not. We were awake chatting with them until 2am!) Further down the hallway was the enormous kitchen (with matching enormous fridge - a must when you are bringing all your own food for the weekend to cook for that many people) and the first living space and dining room. There was even a full laundry and a mud room to hang towels, store shoes and bags and to reduce the sand coming into the house.

The view of the pool and the pool house from the lounge is breathtakingly beautiful, and I think every single time someone new arrived we ended up out at the pool before we even went upstairs. The BBQ area is amazing, and provided a perfect add on to the inside dining space, giving us enough room to all sit down to dinner together - even if it took two tables to seat us all!

Upstairs, the careful planning of the architect is obvious again. Climbing the stairs in the centre of the house, you can go to the second storey, or continue right up to the landing, where you can sit on an armchair and read or have a coffee at the bench overlooking the ocean. At one point, the kids made this into a giant fort by covering it with blankets and hid up there for a while, very much enjoying that they could look down and see us in the living room.

Coming off the stairs on the second level is the giant living space, with a big corner couch, TV, and plenty of windows to look out at the ocean. From here, another bedroom with a Queen size bed comes directly off the living space, with a big window and ocean facing views. There is another bathroom with two more bedrooms on the pool-side of the house and each of these bedrooms has king sized beds that can be set up as two lots of twin beds. This was perfect for us as we had a few single girls and a few single guys travelling with us, and having only queen beds is always a bit awkward when travelling with a group. Following along from here is a small corridor, with storage built into the wall, leading to the master bedroom. The master bedroom (aka, the prize for the person who organises the holiday) is where Danny and I slept. The room was quite large and had a door leading out to a beautiful balcony overlooking the ocean. Even better, the bed king size and incredibly comfortable, which is always a huge relief for me. After a back injury a few years ago, staying away from home can often be a frustrating experience with very little sleep, but not this time (at least not due to the bed, just the good company!) The walk in wardrobe meant we weren’t tripping over our bags and the bathroom had a full bath, complete with wall-mounted TV. I think Josh felt like he was the king of the world having a bath while watching ABC Kids. The luxury!

It’s not the most amazing photo, taken on my phone at about 6am. But the stillness, the awareness and the peace of this moment is something I still remember very tangibly.

The weekend was phenomenal. We’d gone away for a retreat and that’s exactly what it was. We connected deeply with friends. Spent time running around the yard together with Josh, swimming in the pool, hanging out in the spa. The morning after staying up until 2am chatting with one group of friends, I’d promised to get up and watch the sunrise with some of the more sensible people who went to bed around 11. So with about 4 hours sleep, I got up, made a cup of tea, and walked across the road to sit in pure joy watching the sun come up with some of my favourite people in the world.

The shopping around Gerringong is incredible as well - it ties in so well with some of my passions: small business, handmade, collectives, and really good food. We wandered around the shops, buying a few small gifts and just generally loving the vibe of small-town coastal thriving.

I know that I’m reverting to my usual self: don’t take risks, book in the same place every time you go to the same town… but I would go back here again in a heartbeat. It has set the bar incredibly high for large group accommodation. As the oldest of eight kids, our family holidays can be very hard to organise. Finding somewhere we can travel together, with the growing numbers of in-laws and little cousins is amazing. I know we can book here with our whole family and still make it comfortable for everyone. Whether you are headed away with extended family with kids, or a couples weekend, or just travelling with friends like we did, I can’t recommend Sundara highly enough.

I can’t wait to go back!