AUSTRALIAN HOUSE & GARDEN^ | 109
C
hristmas Day this year will be a quiet country
affair for television personality Neale Whitaker
and his partner David Novak-Piper. “The day
will almost certainly start with a good walk along
the beach or, if we’re feeling energetic, a hike,”
says Neale. “That will be followed by a long, late and
exceptionally lazy lunch with friends.”
And when they sit down to lunch, they’ll no doubt drink
in the beauty of their backdrop: a lush valley near the village
of Berry, on the NSW South Coast, where Neale and David
relocated from Sydney 15 months ago. After 10 years of
holidaying in rental properties in this blessed location – two
hours’ drive south of Sydney and a mere 10 minutes from
famed Seven Mile Beach – the couple took the plunge and
bought a farmhouse of their own last year. While they
retained a city bolthole, this is now their main home. >