Enjoy a charming Seven Peaks Farm Stay in Beerwah Queensland. Photo / Seven Peaks Farm
Lifestyle and travel editor Jenni Mortimer checks into Seven Peaks Farm Stay in Beerwah, Queensland, for a charming three-night rural stay, a short drive from the iconic Australia Zoo.
When travelling with kids, there’s a charm to a hotel’s disposability - wake up, pack up, walk out, job done.
But when you’re settling in for a longer stay with the brood, you need to behave like a general in the army and set up a base camp for your tiny soldiers to rest after a hard day’s yakka.
Enter, Seven Peaks Farm Stay, a truly boutique accommodation experience with room to move, play, nest and watch the most epic Sunshine Coast sunset drift across - you guessed it - seven mountain peaks.
Arriving at Seven Peaks is charming in itself as you wind down rural roads for 10 minutes, following a day at Australia’s most famous zoo, and turn on to a long concrete driveway with a modern pitched-roof reception building ready to greet you.
Your hosts are the farm owners who warmly welcome you to their sprawling 14ha property set on pristine Australian bushland that looks out to the Glass House Mountains.
For accommodation options, there are six luxury cabins, one of which we stayed in, and a family farm cottage.
Our cabin was modern and came fully equipped with everything we needed for the stay, including an outdoor fireplace – stocked with marshmallows for toasting – an indoor fireplace, a barbecue, full personal laundry facilities, a roll-out child bed, king bed, and locally sourced produce for breakfasts across the three days.
But it was outside that this property really shone, with a walk around the farm allowing tiny – and full-sized – hands to pat farm animals, feed them and even harvest some of the herbs and vegetables from the farm garden that guests are welcome to sample.
While sheep and goats and ducks and chickens were on offer, my son took the biggest liking to one of the barn cats and tried to tempt it with some of those marshmallows (that grew lesser by the day despite the fire only being lit on night 3).
The attention to detail in this property took it from sweet, to downright charming, including a dinosaur duvet cover and pillow for my 5-year-old’s pull-out bed that he absolutely loved and a TV pre-logged into all the streaming services he could want when he needed some R&R.
But nothing was more spectacular than waking up to a bright orange sunrise as you sat on your deck, wrapped in an alpaca wool blanket and took the first sip of your morning coffee to the sound of the native Australian birds waking up.
As our visit neared the end I was genuinely sad to leave the accommodation, the brilliant hosts and that once-in-a-lifetime view.
We drove away vowing to come back soon as my son gave one last wave to his favourite barn cat.
Checklist
GETTING THERE
Fly from Auckland to Brisbane non-stop with Air NZ, Qantas, Jetstar and China Airlines in around three hours and 50 minutes. Seven Peaks Farm is a one-hour drive north of the airport.
Alternatively, Air New Zealand offers non-stop flights between Auckland and the Sunshine Coast (Maroochydore) seasonally between July and October. Seven Peaks Farm is a 40-minute drive from here.
From December 2024, a new Auckland-Sunshine Coast route will be operated by Jetstar, operating all year round rather than seasonally.
DETAILS
Jenni Mortimer is the New Zealand Herald’s lifestyle and travel editor - audience. Jenni started at the Herald in 2017 and previously worked as an education publication editor. She is mum to 5-year-old son whom she loves taking on adventures across the globe.