Whale of a view as ferries pass by

Not too many Sydneysiders get to watch fairy penguins, as well as the occasional dolphin or whale from their bedrooms.

Heidi Kunkel at her home in Manly Picture: Nikki Short

Not too many Sydneysiders get to watch fairy penguins, as well as the occasional dolphin or whale from their bedrooms or living rooms.

But for Heidi Kunkel, boss of Hilton Australasia’s 27 hotels, admiring penguins, dolphins, the odd whale as well as passing ferries and kayakers from the comfort of her luxury apartment is a matter of course.

But what about wetting a line from her waterfront home in Sydney’s Manly, as friends have suggested given its proximity to the ocean?

“A lot of people say I could drop a line from my balcony, but I am a vegetarian so that is not going to happen,” she laughs.

A decorative item in the home of Heidi Kunkel Picture: Nikki Short

Kunkel snapped up her Manly apartment, with views to Dobroyd Head, before it even hit the market five years ago when she was working in Singapore, and has only recently moved in after a three-month overhaul.

The first-floor apartment, one of 12 units in the block built in 1960, needed a refresh so Kunkel installed a new caesarstone-topped white kitchen and stone-tiled bathroom and laundry. She also eschewed any notion of a formal dining room converting the existing eating area into a study or third bedroom with a shuttered window link through to the main lounge room.

The apartment was freshly painted, the timber floors polished and new blinds and fans were installed. The whole idea was to lighten it up.

Come night time Kunkel’s waterfront apartment is even more impressive: she can hear ferries passing by her ­windows on their return voyage to Sydney’s Circular Quay as well as some of the 60 breeding pairs of fairy penguins that tend to congregate around nearby Manly Wharf.

“When the lights are out at night you feel you can touch the ferries as they pass by.”

Kunkel likes Manly given its proximity to family members including her mother and she catches the ferry, a mere 10 minutes’ walk away to Hilton’s headquarters in the city, rather than taking on the onerous drive over the traffic-clogged Spit Bridge.

Kunkel likes to entertain guests with a large cheese platter and a bottle of prosecco and she says they usually congregate in the kitchen or on the large balcony, a stone’s throw from the oceanfront swimming pool and the lapping ocean.

The swimming pool, a stone’s throw from the lapping ocean Picture: Nikki Short

Or there’s a communal waterfront table for lunch and dinner parties right on the waterfront where she plans to host a Christmas family lunch.

Conscious of her busy job, Kunkel, who grew up on Sydney’s northern beaches, employed a full-time project manager to oversee the entire renovation adding that there was no way she could work, travel, and exercise as well as manage a major home renovation simultaneously.

Kunkel, who is in charge of Hilton Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Noumea, French Polynesia and Fiji, says when it’s high tide the apartment is particularly appealing because first you see the swimming pool and then the ocean. “There’s water everywhere. It’s paradise for an ocean lover like me, it’s very tranquil and peaceful.”

Kunkel, who is very much into lifestyle and eating and exercising properly, has a point. After her Singapore posting she was in Paris for two years as Club Mediterranean’s chief executive for Europe and Africa, which includes markets such as Russia and Germany.

Kunkel, who oversees 27 Hilton hotels in Australasia, says she has another 20 hotel properties either signed or in the development pipeline.

So what does she love most about the location?

“You can go to barre classes in the morning and go to the beach in the afternoon. What I love is to wake up and go down to the beach.”