Down under – Wolgan Valley Resort / Sydney / Australia

Australia – Contributed by James Sartor

Lets go back to nature, the holistic experience.

Wolgan Valley Resort probably Australia’s most environmentally tourist destination, is set amidst the great scenery of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area in Sydney.

The resort is built around a fully restored homestead and nestles within its own private conservation and nature reserve. And a very unique special white Wallaroo. Etihad will bring you to Sydney.

I got the invitation to join a press trip to Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa in the Blue Mountains Sydney.

It didn’t take me long to decide to start packing. Wave the word resort and spa in front of me, I thought about a luxury experience.

Wolgan Valley is a resort nestled between two National Parks and is Australia’s only conservation based luxury resort. Usually the check in includes all meals and many activities. So provided you spend and eat wisely it’s not too bad at all considering. And you get the run of the property as only guests are allowed on the premises and there are wildlife tours, horse riding, stargazing, walks, painting & photography tours, cooking master classes and mountain bike tours and if you would like to have the real experience they can arrange for you to camp there. The size of the land is enormous – about 4,000 acres which for those familiar with Sydney, measures from Circular Quay to the Airport. The resort itself only takes up 2% of that land and it is the only resort that is connected to National Park. We arrive after a scenic drive down we pull up to the “homestead” which is the main lobby and dining area and walk inside. Inside is a stunning lobby which is unlike most 5 star lobbies.

Sliced log pieces decorate the wall, oil cans are made into lamps, many of the touches are recycled: the front door handles are made from carriage wheels that have been straightened out, there’s a clock that is made from a giant felled sequoia tree that was found on their property, there’s a lamp that has been made with a recycled drizabone and the staff are dressed in RM Williams. Interestingly, many weren’t trained hospitality staff, they were more recruited from regular sales jobs because of their attitude
We get a little tour before going downstairs to their country kitchen for lunch. It has a more casual atmosphere here. The “Environmental” manager greets us and gives us a quick outline of his work restoring the Wolgan Valley homestead. We’re then invited to our lunch and the menu is divided into light bites versus heartier bites and as the package is all inclusive. Food is sourced locally and they try to source it within 100 miles as much as possible utilising the produce from Orange, Mudgee, Blue Mountains, Windsor, the Hawkesbury River as well as the Hunter Valley.

The food was great, I took antipasto. The selection is well presented. It’s nice enough, especially the mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes, it’s accompanied with a bread roll.
The ash coated goat’s cheese and cheddar are particularly wonderful. There is also some absolutely gorgeous country style pork and pistachio terrine.

We enjoyed it very much.

Keep goin.

The flight was nice as well.