A whale of a time
Merivale's first foray into the resort world, The Whale in Narooma, makes a very big splash.
The Whale, Merivale's new resort in Narooma on the New South Wales south coast, might be the perfect hotel. Okay fine, it's not. There are flaws. We'll get to that. But bloody hell, it skates very close to it.
I regularly stay in excellent hotels all over as part of my work. It's rare I find myself in one that keeps me so firmly cushioned in its world that I can drop all my external, earthly concerns and submit fully to relaxation and leisure. Most have at least one significant blip somewhere, one bit of irritating design or lacklustre service that breaks the fourth wall and jostles you out of the fantasy. The Whale lures you into its sea-song from the moment you arrive, and the whole experience stays perfectly in tune until the second you leave.
What makes this doubly remarkable is that Justin Hemmes and the Merivale team didn't start from scratch. The current Whale is built from the bones of The Whale Motor Inn and Restaurant, circa 1970. It was, as I understand it, a perfectly serviceable country motel, tucked discreetly onto a hilltop with opal-blue views over Wagonga Inlet and out to sea.[[Home, along with the waters around neighbouring towns Merimbula, Tathra and Pambula, to the best oysters on planet earth. Non-negotiable fact.]] Old photos online show a turquoise swimming pool, grey-carpeted guest rooms that took their design cues from the RTA, and a deep reverence for the 1970s' defining shade: mission brown, a colour no one has intentionally deployed since.
Hemmes, along with his sister Bettina, design director Nasim Köerting and their in-house design studio could see past all that. The bones were good. The layout was fine. Retro breezeblocks are always worth preserving, I think we can all agree. So they kept those bits and refurbished the place with the kind of flair and flow you rarely see in Australia.
