Calabash Bay Lodge

Berowra Waters, NSW calabashbaylodge.com

In the days of horse and cart, Sydney hotelier John Fretus put the wrong one before the other when he shipped tonnes of sandstone to a breathtaking corner of the Hawkesbury River and built a pub. Then, just as he finished, officials scrapped a road that was planned to the hotel’s otherwise inaccessible door. Uh-oh. A bit over a century later, metres from where Fretus got it so wrong, Calabash Bay Lodge gets it spectacularly right. This light, bright, crisply furnished four-bedroom, threebathroom home sits on the water’s edge, packed with all you’ll need for a cruisy stay, from kayaks to a downy day bed with sweeping views of the river. Guest relations manager Manuel Affarian picks you up in a runabout that’s yours for the stay and, with a quick switch of hats, becomes a gifted cook you can hire to whip up dinner while you sip Champagne on the deck (above). The forlorn skeleton of John Fretus’s folly is a 10-minute hike from the house. Clamber up the rocks and, like

Back to the Future’s Emmett “Doc” Brown, whisper to Fretus’s ghost: “Where we’ve been you don’t need roads.”

Romance factor Dining Take all the food you’ll need (or have Manuel provision for you) but for a treat, the hatted Berowra Waters Inn is a five-minute putt up the river. Moor your boat out the front, behold the dégustation menu and say goodbye to the afternoon. A more informal seven courses is on offer at local favourite Peats Bite, a 25-minute trip down the river. They’ll pick you up for a fee. You’ll love this... Arriving by seaplane gives the weekend a dashing (and proposal-worthy) edge.