Bookable
A house in the hills
The land at Montecollum had been cleared for grazing and banana farming before Mal Cooper built a house here in 1980: a round central building with four wings and reflecting ponds, designed by the architect Edwin Kingsbury. In 1986 the King family took over the property and planted the first trees, and it opened to visitors with a small crystal shop; a café followed.
Shambhala Gardens
Major work on the gardens began in 2005, when Naren and Sono King bought the whole collection of a local nursery and asked its owner to help design and plant them. Subtropical plants and native flora now grow side by side, from succulents and heliconias to kangaroo paws and ferns. The eight-metre Kalachakra World Peace Stupa, blessed by the Gyuto Monks of Tibet when work began in December 2010, opened on 27 October 2012.
Giant crystals
In early 2016 Naren King and his daughter Manya travelled to Uruguay and Brazil in search of crystals. They brought back the amethyst-lined Enchanted Cave and the Crystal Guardians, a 5.5-metre pair of smoky quartz geodes from Uruguay. The Crystal Labyrinth, set with more than 10,000 pieces of rose quartz, followed in 2024.
