Views to drool over

Kelsey Munro takes a break on the South Coast with all her best friends.

My first hint of what to expect from Penguin Head Retreat comes via an excited text message from friends who arrive early. "Holy s---!" it reads. "Make sure you get here before sunset!" We're sitting in unyielding Illawarra Friday traffic and I don't like our chances.

But the traffic gods are smiling on us: 90 minutes later we crawl up Penguin Head Road just as the sun drops below the horizon. It's so named because of the penguins that can be spotted off the headland. If you're lucky, it's also a good vantage point for spotting whales (between late May and November) and dolphins.

The street frontage - double garage, brick wall - isn't pretty and gives little clue to what waits inside. That's past the Marlin Bar, a thatch-roof bungalow housing the barbecue in the tropical, concrete front yard and the colourful stained-glass marlin window that divides that courtyard from the covered "garden room" with huge spa. As soon as we push through the front door and walk out into the living room, we see what our friends are talking about.

It's the view. There's a perfect green strip of lawn, a glass fence and a spectacular panorama of ocean and sky. The view stretches 180 degrees from the south corner of Culburra Beach, sweeps out to the ocean and horizon then up the coast past the Shoalhaven River mouth. Waves break on a small reef off the tip of the headland. There's a deck below the lawn that juts out of the cliff face over flat rocks below. The sky is tinged orange-gold from the sunset. A welcome goes up from our friends, who are sitting around the outside table with cold beers. They're about to fire up the (second) barbecue. The dogs tear around the yard, excited. Yes, life is sweet.

Even better news for us is the "parents' retreat" upstairs, which is our bedroom (even though we don't technically qualify). It has its own sitting room with television, DVD and well-stocked bookshelf, a walk-in wardrobe and a superbly comfortable bed with quality linen. Taking full advantage of the oceanside position, its bathroom has a long span of windows and a vast spa bath. Sitting in it, gazing out at the ocean, it's as though we're high up on the expensive deck of a cruise ship. Decadent.

The house has a homey feeling because the owners have made their books and board games available to holiday renters. They are also welcoming of our beloved dogs, providing leads, beds, bowls, address tags to put on the dogs' collars for the weekend and a box of toys (through which our friends' young labrador, Jones, cuts a trail of destruction). Both of the house's yards are securely fenced.

The house has two bathrooms and four bedrooms: two doubles, a room with two singles and a room with four bunks, so it's really better suited to two families with children than it is to our impromptu group of five couples and two dogs. Not that anyone minds.