Byron Bay’s Raes on Wategos is the belle of the beach
First opened in 1987, this Byron Bay beauty still exudes glamour.
In penthouse No 1, atop the white and blue confection that is Raes on Wategos at Byron Bay, The Girl from Ipanema — “swings so cool and sways so gently” — is playing as I plonk down my travelling kit and drift to the views of beach, headland and bulky greenery from three private terraces. Framed amid a cluster of palm fronds, almost as if posed, Byron Bay Lighthouse appears like a faraway cameo. Somewhere downstairs, I hear Spanish being spoken, and then realise it is two members of a youthful crew drawn mostly from South America, France and Italy. Later I will learn some of their names and listen to stories about working in Australia, their unrivalled idea of “paradise”.
Astrud Gilberto is still crooning as I prepare to head across the lawn to Wategos Beach. It’s not a legendary Brazilian shore but somehow so much better. The leggy pandanus trees look ready to up roots and dance a jig; there’s the distinct possibility of dolphins. Surfers are out, families are picnicking, young women do yoga on the grass (this is Byron Bay, after all). I feel as if I’ve landed somewhere much more distant than an hour’s flight from Sydney to Ballina. A ristretto served from a repurposed 1970s Kombi van at the edge of the Raes driveway perks me up for the afternoon.
Raes must have indeed seemed otherworldly when it opened in 1987 in a white Spanish Mission-style building standing high, all voluptuous curves and turrets, with nautical prows and scalloped archways, and a Miami-meets-Morocco feel. This was definitely not a typical motel of the era. No chenille bedspreads and breakfast servery hatches, discs of Lux soap and last orders of steak and chips by 7pm.
It’s my first stay here and I have no real idea of the style prior to a recent makeover by interior designer Tamsin Johnson but it’s the rounded lines of the building and its spiral layout that creates and determines the flow. The seven guestrooms are in creams and pastels and feature marble-tiled floors, cane and rattan-weave furniture, Sicilian ceramics, raw cottons, artwork and original pieces by local creatives, stacked coffee-table books, and white plastered benches and built-in windowside seating topped with striped cushions.
The dining table in No 1 is an unwieldy piece layered with stone surfaces in an irregular pattern and I imagine a more cosmopolitan version of myself living here amid this spread from an international design magazine, languishing in a four-poster, singing along with Astrud and dressing in pale linen.
No two accommodation styles are the same but all are pictured, with floorplans, on the website and, unless you need oceans of space, No 3, with its cushioned lounge set in a 180-degree arc, is a perfect fit for cosy couples. No 4 is over two levels and adjacent to the resort’s blue-tiled freeform pool.
Regulars have their favourites, apparently, and book ages ahead. None is small but the two penthouses cover an extraordinary acreage. Mine has a recessed tub in a columned nook; above this altar to bathing gleams a round window with coloured glass petals. It’s a touch of old Hollywood brought firmly back to Australia by cargoes of Aesop botanical toiletries and such minibar items as “gluten-free and vegan organic and activated nuts long-soaked with probiotic kombucha”. Or you could just have a pre-bottled Negroni and a lie-down.
New to the overall mix is Raes Cellar Bar beside what was once the carpark and now a front courtyard with casual seating and umbrellas. The holiday mood begins here with registration forms, chilled hand towels spritzed with Santa Maria Novella rosewater, and a frothed juice of, say, a pineapple and green apple blend. If you’ve flown into nearby Ballina, you’ll have had a complimentary airport transfer, possibly with Brian from Buenos Aires at the wheel. He tells me about his Irish ancestry and how his full name of Brian Patrick Cavanagh apparently caused no end of hilarity when he toured the shamrock isle with an Argentinian rugby team.
The newest and most pampering feature is the addition of Florence’s Santa Maria Novella products and associated treatments in the petite Arabesque-inspired spa. There are mosaic-tiled walls, alcove rooms and a Vichy salon with curved maple bed; it feels like a hammam and smells of olives and lemons. Former NSW central coast resident Karen is a splendid therapist who talks me through the elements of my massage with the soothing voice of a hypnotist; the warmth of a melted Santa Maria Novella candle, applied during a back massage, spreads across my skin in silken ripples.
And then, on the related topic of indulgence, there’s the food. Executive chef Jason Saxby, ex Pilu at Freshwater, Sydney, oversees Raes Dining Room, an uncluttered space with scrubbed timber floors and wide-opening windows. The menu has an Italian twist and a focus on the best parish produce, from finger limes and burrata, pippies and free-range pork, to heirloom vegetables and hinterland herbs. You’d go a long way (probably Sicily) to find a comparably delicious tagliolini with seafood, chilli, bottarga and tomato crumbs. The menus come in seasonal guises, and there’s a $95-a-head six-course tasting option on which the dessert, if the gods are smiling and the Wategos waves are aligned, will be mandarin, vanilla mascarpone, citrus and lemon myrtle meringue. More lying down could well be required thereafter.
Susan Kurosawa was a guest of Raes
on Wategos.
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IN THE KNOW
Raes Dining Room seats 50 and gets heavily booked so reservations are essential; open to non-guests. All accommodation rates include Ballina airport transfers, shuttle service to Byron Bay and breakfast. Check website for seasonal details. Santa Maria Novella products can be purchased at the spa
or online.
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MORE TO THE STORY
Accommodation operators in Australia come and go and the chain of ownership is often veiled. Raes was sold in 2014 to Antony Catalano, CEO of (the then) Fairfax Media’s Domain Group, but there was no new signage or apparent operational disruptions. Its 25th birthday party in November celebrated a quarter-century of seaside success since Brisbane entrepreneur Vincent Rae, who now lives in Paris, threw open the doors, with his name on the blue and white sign, and redefined Byron’s design credentials.
Coastal and island resorts in NSW that can boast much longer and uninterrupted tenure include Kims Beachside Retreat (pictured) at Toowoon Bay on the NSW central coast, where a tented camp was set up in 1886; basic timber cabins soon followed. The McKimmin brothers purchased the site in the 1920s, calling it Kims Camp as an abbreviation of their family name. The present owners, the Strachans, have been hands-on since 1954, with family member Diana Kershaw and husband Peter now at the management helm.
Pinetrees Lodge, on Lord Howe Island off the NSW coast, traces its one-family ownership back to 1848, with guests arriving in the 1880s, and today is run by the dynasty’s sixth generation. It’s worth dipping into the full story on the Pinetrees website, which cites the price of the pine-dotted parcel of land in those pioneer days as two tons of potatoes.
Jonah’s at Whale Beach near Sydney’s Pittwater has been attracting the great and gilded since 1929, when it began life as a roadhouse for adventurous motorists. A celebratory (and celebrity-stocked) 90th birthday party in January last year suggested interest is still strong; its 11 coastal-chic guestrooms are booked way in advance. Guests can peer at framed photos of famous guests, including rock royalty of all stripes and the glam likes of Vivien Leigh and Larry Olivier enjoying a spot of the Palm Beach peninsula sunshine.
There are other boutique seaside charmers with long lineage across Australia, plus pubs that date back almost to the NSW colony’s founding. They are but youngsters when compared to venerable ryokan inns in Japan, the oldest of which, Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan in Yamanashi prefecture, is a hot springs hotel that has been operating continuously, through 52 generations of the same family, since 705 AD. In 2011, it was cited by Guinness World Records as the oldest hotel in the world. Here’s to the next 1300 years.