I’m lying on the lawn listening to a series of crystal bowls being played by a striking Brazilian woman. It’s 7.30am at Sun Ranch, a hotly anticipated new eco-lodge set on 22 hectares of former farmland in thehinterland, and I’m experiencing the coastal ranch’s “lucky star ritual”, which also includes a cacao ceremony and breath-work class.
After founding and running the fashion brand One Teaspoon for 20 years, Sunshine Coast-born Blakey sold the label in 2021 and turned her hand to hospitality .Blakey and Julia Ashwood, a Byron-born former marketing manager, travel writer and the co-owner of the nearby Eltham Hotel, have headed the creative direction of the property.
“We’re both avid travellers and wanted touches of the places and styles we loved, but not too much,” says Blakey of herself and Ashwood. “If anything started to feel too ranchy, or too heritage, we’d pull it back.”Up in our off-grid self-contained “barn” – one of six newly built two-bedroom cabins on the ridge that hugs the property – the approach is more subdued.