The Goss

He may be easy on the eye, girls, but beware - if you work out with rising celebrity personal trainer Andrew Papadopoulos, he won't go easy on your body.

This bloke's idea of a stroll is your average athlete's marathon. Last year, a 100-kilometre run merely left him feeling restless. When he broke both feet in a 24-hour obstacle race, he considered it a hiccup in his training schedule. The star of ESPN show Search4Hurt likes to push himself to his limits – and then find some more limits. By his own admission, he is "insane".

The only challenge he's ever turned down is being Ten's The Bachelor. "I said no to that because I'm just not ready to get married," says Pap (his preferred moniker because a man this active has no time for an unwieldy name). "I'm 25 and not in that space."

Besides, it's hard to imagine him sitting still long enough to flirt. Early this Tuesday morning, Pap will be kicking off his new role as nutrition supplement IsoWhey Sport ambassador by putting fit celebs through their paces at Paddington's Flow Athletic gym. And we suspect even the most hardcore invitees – who include chef/trainer Hayden Quinn, ex-elite gymnast Lauren Hannaford and Laura Dundovic's trainer Caitlin Patterson - could crumble.

Pap will be leading from the front. "I'm in training for the Big Red Run through the Simpson Desert," he told S. The June race, Australia's only 250-kilometre multi-day marathon, involves three states (NT, QLD and WA) and vast stretches of merciless terrain. "That kind of challenge makes you feel unstoppable," Pap says. "I was going to repeat last year's 100-kilometre marathon but I was keen to go harder."

Search4Hurt featured Pap and a team of athletes led by the show's creator Matt Murphy seeking out the most gruelling sports and hurling themselves full-throttle into them. Challenges included a "Hurt Camp" consisting of a 21-kilometre row, 100-kilometre cycle ride, and 42-kilometre run - with 100 box-jump burpees (a unique torture combining push-ups with leaping onto a box) in between each. It was in the last Search4Hurt event, the obstacle race, that Pap fractured his feet. "I had the wrong footwear on," he muses. "I was out of action for six weeks – it was horrible."

Pap's army background inspired him to start Battle Fit Australia, his Central Coast personal training business. "It's a continuation and sharing of my army ethics: discipline, respect, camaraderie," he says. "Battle Fit is very social; a tight-knit group, almost family-based." But don't expect The Brady Bunch. "If you make a mistake, everyone suffers the consequences," Pap says. "It's always something sadistic, like burpees."

Does such a man ever have a holiday? "Oh yes," says Pap, and tells S how he loves to head for paradise spots, like Bali and the Maldives. "I take a like-minded group of people through high-energy activities. You know, heli-boarding, Bungee jumping." Turns out he's a trainer on Active Escape trips- and that's the closest Pap will ever get to lounging on a beach.

He's happy to let S know he's single – but once you've caught him you'll need stamina to keep up. Plus an appetite for pain that makes Fifty Shades of Grey look like a gentle tickle.

A pretty phoenix rises for Manfredi and pals

This talented crew has good reason to smile. After 2½ years of painstaking work, they're ready to show the world their unique collaboration.

The dream team and their boss, ad mogul John Singleton, were devastated when their Central Coast luxury retreat Pretty Beach House burned down in 2012, taking with it irreplaceable Australian art and a beautiful building. Since then, they've been recreating their piece of paradise on the Bouddi Peninsula – and it's poised to open in two weeks' time.

The team of Singleton, interior designer Michelle Leslie, proprietors Karina and Brian Barry, chef Stefano Manfredi and restaurateur Julie Manfredi Hughes, gave S an exclusive glimpse of their new baby – and it's beautiful.

Leslie, who has found her groove in this career after modelling and that harrowing 2005 spell in Bali's Kerobokan jail, couldn't hide her excitement as she talked us through the look she's carefully put together. "We wanted to keep the integrity of the building, so I tried to find as many artisans as possible who can make things by hand," she says. They even bought a bridge, for  "It was a decommissioned bridge in Queensland that was built in 1893. We've used the beautiful posts. No power tools were used, it was all carved by hand."

A blacksmith who lives off the grid in the Blue Mountains made brass fixtures and local sandstone was carved by a local stonemason. Mud brick walls were lovingly built by hand. However, as you'd expect from a guesthouse that's entertained throngs of celebrities, the earthiness is all wrapped up in uber-luxury.

Says Julie Manfredi-Hughes: "We have fine French porcelain and Sheffield cutlery, and the linen is from an eighth generation Italian company, handmade on 450-year-old looms."

Perhaps happiest of the whole team is Singleton himself, who was devastated by the loss of his favourite spot on the planet.

"I've been spending time in the area since I was five years old," he told S. "Those two weeks I spent on my annual holiday there as a kid were the best two weeks of my year. Pretty Beach House is part of my legacy to somewhere I love, and it celebrates the magnificence of the place."

Jessica Grace Smith joins a beautiful cause

You wouldn't catch Home and Away's tough tomboy Denny Miller wearing pretty beads and bangles, but Jessica Grace Smith is a little more girlie than her on-screen character. And more importantly, these are baubles for a cause.

Smith is the newest ambassador for the organisation So They Can, which works to educate and empower impoverished African communities. The jewellery is handmade by women in Kenya as part of the not-for-profit's Sew Women Can project. Single mums are trained to make jewellery and handicrafts, then encouraged to use the new skills to generate their own income and start businesses.

Smith says the charity attracted her due to its focus on women and children. "They're the most vulnerable people. And by educating children, you're helping the whole community."

Adds the Kiwi-born actress: "So They Can also has strong links to New Zealand, so it connects me to home." Among her fellow ambassadors are New Zealand music luminaries Kimbra and Neil Finn. Patriotic Smith also admires the work of former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, who is doing much to help Africa in her current role as head of the United Nations Development Program.

Emma Balfour and Odessa Young front Strand campaign

Up-and-coming actress Odessa Young's surname took on extra relevance when she joined '90s supermodel Emma Balfour in a generations-themed shoot for the Strand Arcade's new A/W15 campaign.

This exclusive sneak peek at the new campaign shows the two women illustrating the historical shopping arcade's appeal to all ages – Young, 16, portraying contemporary, youthful fashion hunters and Balfour, 44, representing a more classic generation – although she's a mere infant compared to the 124-year-old retail temple.

Both women have more substance than you'd normally expect to find in the fashion world. Young, who recently completed filming the gritty lead role opposite Richard Roxburgh in the Sue Brooks movie Looking For Grace, is still completing her studies at a Sydney performing-arts high school. She told S she enjoys spending her spare time "pointlessly arguing with misogynists and racists on social media and trying to make people go vegan". Meanwhile, Balfour, who lives in Bondi with her husband and two children, eschews the blinging world she once prowled elegantly with Kate Moss and the rest of the '90s glamazons. She's known locally for her eco-friendly, pared-down lifestyle and blew the whistle on the destructive heroin culture that surrounded her in her early career. Generations, she believes, should share wisdom. "My kids have taught me to be patient and to work harder to make the world livable for them in the future," she says. "And my parents have taught me to be more robust and grown-up than I ever thought possible."

The pair will feature on separate covers of the Strand Arcade's 1891 magazine, curated by US-based Australian expat editor Laura Brown.

Smith also loves being a walking billboard for the beads. "I wear them as much as I can. They're beautiful. And they appeal to the audience I connect with – young girls. I'm planning on featuring the pieces in an Instagram competition to help push sales and raise more funds."

Despite a demanding schedule of 16-hour filming days on Home and Away, Smith hopes to travel to Africa this year to see firsthand the difference So They Can is making.

Meanwhile, she's enjoying the hard work in the soapie gig. "As an actor you often seem to be looking ahead to something," she says. "But I just want to enjoy this job for now and really make the most of the experience. I've been on air for a year as Denny and she's getting great storylines."

Smith's built strong friendships on set, too. Recently engaged Tai Hara (AKA Andy Barrett) is a good mate and Smith is planning a trip with him and singer fiancee Fely Irvine – as well as her own beau, Underbelly actor and fellow Kiwi Benedict Wall. The pair have been together for 4½ years. If Wall is planning to pop the question like their pal, he knows where to shop for the jewellery: Kenya.