Bluebell Retreat, Lake Macquarie review: Designs on the perfect retreat

Set in the bush and with views across Lake Macquarie, this beautifully realised lodge both delights and frustrates Anna Anderson.

I'M FEELING robbed. A mandatory part of every holiday, since being consigned to the top bunk of our rented Viscount caravan circa 1970, is to cerebrally redesign our quarters. Swap the sofa to frame the view, move the doorway to catch the breeze, heighten the ceilings, lower the breakfast bar ... It's my way of settling into holiday digs but at Bluebell Retreat, I'm stymied. Everything is just as it should be. I can't improve the design or aesthetics so I'm forced to sink back on the sculptured sunbed and contemplate the lake view.

Later, snooping around our two-bedroom cottage, I find a compendium of clues. It was designed by lauded Queensland architect Gabriel Poole. It's the prototype for Stockland's Murrays Beach residential enclave (where only two houses are holiday rentals) and winner of the sustainability and HIA GreenSmart design award. It's so well-planned, I want to hitch the whole eco-happy structure onto a trailer and take it home.

The living area is open to a fabulous kitchen equipped with holiday-home rarities: quality appliances, sharp knives and a pantry stocked with neat rows of olive oil, barbecue sauce and Twinings teas.

Glass doors and insect screens on two sides open to decks overlooking a landscape of lawns dotted with gum trees and native grasses and the lake, 100 metres away.

There's a curious addition to a large alcove in the living room where two smartly upholstered daybeds face a computer station. It's a roller door and it's there to be used when a third bedroom or second living space is needed. Natty! The other bedrooms, both big, bright doubles, one with an en suite, the other next to a large luxury bathroom, are at either end of a hall with enough distance for privacy if you're holidaying with friends. Everything is top-notch, from the Bose sound system to the designer magazines and Molton Brown bathroom amenities. There's a pristine laundry and, in the garage, two kayaks and a trolley to wheel them down to the lake's edge.

We're in chill mode so eschew a paddle and, instead, cool off with a bottle of rose and some salty treats from the Strand's nut shop. We fire up the barbie and dine on the deck, watching the sun set over the lake.

Breakfast on the deck is followed by a walk around the impressive enclave. It makes me wish Sydney's suburbia had been designed by Poole with his lightweight structures hovering over the bush scrub. We take the lakeside track, which is shared with cyclists and walkers. Fine weather lures us for a drive through the Wallarah Peninsula to Caves Beach, five minutes away where Nippers is in full swing but there's plenty of beach and good waves to share. On the way home we duck in to Swansea but decide Murrays Beach is the prime spot on the peninsula.

We lunch late in the airy timber restaurant about 200 paces from our cottage and then spend some time looking through Stockland's sales office. Prices for house and land packages are tempting, especially when we clock our Monday morning commute from Murrays Beach to Sydney's Town Hall at 90 minutes (we left at 10am).