Privates Hunter Valley Wellness-Retreat mit finnischer Sauna & Holz-Whirlpool

We host one couple at a time

Pepperbark is one cabin on one acre, fully fenced, on our family's working farm above the village of Vacy. Two gates between the road and the cabin, each marked with a sign and a small light to find the latch in the dark. Beyond the second gate, the property is yours. 

Made (basically) on site

The cabin was built in our shed, towed two hundred metres across the paddock, then tweaked into position. Same story with the handmade sauna.

Almost every surface in the cabin was crafted by hand

The custom timber-framed double-glazed blackbutt windows and door, the spotted gum joinery throughout (vanity, barn door, bookshelf with hidden projector screen, kitchen cabinetry, headboard), the river red gum kitchen table at the servery window, the hand-poured concrete benchtop, and the sauna itself.

The bedside view

Looking out the bedside window, you can see across the wellness patio to the sauna's full glass door — and through it, the fire glowing in the Harvia stove. A sightline built on purpose.

The interior

Inside: blackbutt floors, a raked V-groove ceiling in Dulux Natural White, an Ecosa Cool Comfort king mattress dressed in Canningvale soft-wash sheets, a Linen House quilt, wool and latex pillows. ABI Interiors gunmetal fittings in the bathroom. A spotted gum vanity with a hidden side shelf. An Ecoflo Alectura Premium composting toilet (we promise you'll love it more than a regular loo!). Savant Apothecary body products in refillable 500ml glass dispensers.

The wellness ritual

Outside, across flagstone stepping stones and a timber plank bridge over a dry creek bed, a travertine wellness patio set thirty degrees off the cabin: a 2-metre Stoked wood-fired hot tub, a handmade Finnish sauna with Harvia stove and olivine diabase stones, an outdoor copper-piped rainfall shower on a flat rock under open sky. The ritual is heat, cold, rest and repeat - we provide instructions in our guest Welcome Book so you can settle into it without guessing.

The functionality

The cabin runs on solar. Hot water is instant gas. Town water filtered at every tap. Double-glazed timber-framed windows, full insulation, blackout blinds. The whole place quiet enough to hear yourself think. Wifi runs via Starlink, switchable off if you'd rather not have it on.

More than a paddock

Pepperbark sits amongst hundred-year-old ironbark trees, in a landscaped garden of more than 1,500 mostly-native plants. Kangaroos graze on the next paddock, drawn in by the irrigation from our dry creek system. King parrots sometimes rest on branches outside the bedroom window. The young garden promises habitat for wildlife, birds, and butterflies.

Rural, not remote

Twenty-five minutes to Morpeth, an hour to Newcastle beaches, an hour to Barrington Tops, two hours from Sydney.