Sebel Deep Blue Warrnambool review: Shore leave

Nicole Bittar ventures along the shipwreck coast.

The long and winding road assumes renewed significance on our maiden voyage past the seaside idyll of Lorne. We are on our Twelve (make that eight) Apostles odyssey, en route to Warrnambool, passing by undulating turquoise water, white seaspray and craggy cliff faces.

We pull into the two-year-old Sebel Deep Blue, on the tree-lined Warrnambool foreshore, with anticipation. The decor in the lobby is nouveau French provincial, light-filled spaces, stone-hued tiled floors, pale sandy stripes and ivory wood-turned furniture. White linen-dressed tables, leather and fabric gilt-framed banquettes and recessed shelving in the contemporary restaurant, comfortable couches, a chrome Romanesque fireplace and artful floral arrangements are where the Sebel Deep Blue puts its best face forward. First impressions are promising.

The upstairs gym, with state-of-the-art equipment and flatscreen TV, and the boutique day spa, with mineral-rich, geothermal pool, are first-rate.

Sebel Deep Blue's jewel in the crown is its heated indoor pool. White deck chairs and bright blue and white striped towels in a white wooden, steepled enclosure with louvred windows and wood-look terracotta wall tiles evoke bathing box Brighton of a bygone era.

In our king-bed suite, a galley kitchen features soft-grey wood veneer and ivory CaesarStone kitchen with chrome dish drawer and multi-purpose convection/microwave oven, electric hotplate, small fridge and freestanding air-conditioning unit (frankly, an eyesore).

Three wall-mounted hydronic heaters, two in the living room, the other in the semi-exposed bedroom, are effective on chilly September nights.

The spa bathroom, with soft-grey matt flooring and high-gloss porcelain wall tiles, features an oversized porcelain basin. Organic wooden shelving softens the chrome tapware and CaesarStone vanity. A glass-screened shower leaks a little but not enough to dampen our enthusiasm.

A Japanese-style wood-panelled bedhead, bedside tables and writer's desk and comfortable bed in white linen and jade bedspread represent an oasis, of sorts. In the living room there's a rollaway bed next to an upholstered two-seater sofa. A wall-hung flatscreen TV receives a workout from our tech-savvy six-year-old. There's an Italianate dining table for two in faux marble, dark-wood furniture, chrome floor lamp, ceiling fan and a turned-wood chair with fabric-covered ottoman.