Issue 21 2012.pdf - New Zealand Corporate Traveller Magazine

luxury escapes
Berkeley River:
Magnifi cence at the ends of the earth
76 nzcorporatetraveller ISSUE 21
THE BERKELEY RIVER, Australia’s newest luxury resort – and likely to remain one of its
most remote – is due to open in April.
The Berkeley River offers a true Outback experience – in air-conditioned luxury – some
150km NNW of Wyndham, and about as far north as you can go, on Western Australia’s
Kimberley Coast. You can’t drive there – there are no roads.
Set on the edge of a glorious landscape half as old as time, Berkeley River’s 20 airconditioned
chalets and central lodge (designed to complement the environment), look
out over the Timor Sea from atop a 100-metre sand dune.
The resort has indoor and outdoor dining – calling upon a well stocked cellar and a
seasonal 5-star menu that includes freshly caught fi sh and produce pulled straight from
the garden. Each chalet comes with a king bed, a balcony with day loungers, and an openair
shower and bath. This emphasis on the al fresco tells you about the climate but opens
the question of why would anyone shower when they have the option of lying back in the
bath, cocooned in the warmth of an Outback night, gazing up into a sky that is strewn
horizon to horizon with stars of almost impossible brilliance?
From this luxurious nest, the pampered visitor can take river cruises and wonder at the
wildlife; go heli-fi shing or explore in the comfort of the Bell 407 chopper – picnicking,
fi nding dramatic waterfalls, reliving history on the land or at the Kalumburu Museum,
being awed by 40,000-year-old rock paintings – maybe the oldest of all human art and an
eerie link to an unbelievably distant past.