Home by the sea
With New Zealand in winter's grip, Amanda Sachtleben escaped to Australia’s sunshine state
Wednesday, December 14 2011 || Travel || BY Amanda Sachtleben
As one of the few Kiwis who has never visited the Gold Coast, I couldn’t have asked for a better guide than Liz. But instead of listening to her point out local attractions over a tour bus sound system, I was staring at the Harley Davidson American Eagle on the back of her motorbike helmet, catching snippets of information over the roar of the engine and the whistle of the wind.
Liz is one of the on call owner riders for Wildfire Harley Davidson Tours, run by the aptly named Mac Swift. Who better to make me feel at home than Liz, a Cantabrian who came to the Gold Coast in 1997, spent two years travelling Australia and has been riding Harleys for more than 20 years. The Harley tour is a great way to cruise the streets of Surfers Paradise in style, as long as you don’t mind becoming a tourist attraction yourself as people point and stare at your bikie crew motoring past.
Liz dropped me and my fellow travellers — a New Zealand bunch checking out the Queensland hotel and conference scene for their events companies — at an eatery on the shorefront of arguably the best beach on the Gold Coast, Oskars on Burleigh. Lunching on the deck offered a postcard view along the coast and the food and drink was an indulgent if pricy accompaniment.
If the view from Oskars was good, I hadn’t seen anything that compared with the grand, 360 degree panorama from the observation deck of the Skypoint tower in central Surfers. We were transported there in style — and ogled again by curious locals — in a 20-seat stretched Hummer limousine the length of a decent-sized truck. All strobe lighting and hip kid music videos inside, we even got a burst of dry ice to mark our exit. The Skypoint elevator ride is an eye opener, with a screen on the ceiling showing your speedy ascent up the shaft. The tower stands at 322m (twice the height of Sydney’s Harbour Bridge) and has 80 levels. But Auckland’s Skytower at 328m still takes the prize for the tallest freestanding tower in the region. Sorry Aussies, we win again.
Our accommodation for the night was the QT Hotel, the highlight of which is the unique, street market style Bazaar restaurant. General manager Matt Lawton reckons the plan is to have so much variety at the buffet (A$65 per person) that you can’t help but come back. Turns out he was right — the displays of house-baked breads, vegetables, seafood, meats and quirky knick knacks tempt you to return.
No trip to Queensland would be complete without heading north to tropical Cairns, best known for its proximity to the Great Barrier Reef, the Daintree rainforest and river and coastal towns.
The flight from Brisbane is a little over two hours and from Cairns Airport it’s a pretty drive up the Captain Cook highway to Palm Cove and Port Douglas.
We stopped in at the colonial style Palm Cove Reef House Resort and Spa, built in the 1950s by a Cairns bookmaker as a family home. It was taken over a couple of decades later by Brigadier David Thomson — who went on to become the federal science and technology minister — and wife Judy, and the couple used it to host VIP guests. New managers Rydges have kept some of the brigadier’s quaint traditions like lighting candles at twilight and inviting punters to complimentary punch in the Honour bar, run using an honesty system.
If you’re going to pop over the road for a swim, the beach is patrolled by surf lifesavers, but you’ll have to watch out for stinging jellyfish and crocs.
It’s another 20 minutes drive to Port Douglas where the next day we were treated to breakfast with a bunch of feathered friends. They kindly shared their space with us under the canopy at Port Douglas’ 21-year-old Wildlife Habitat. It’s a two hectare park home to about 60 bird species, cute wallabies and koalas, pushy emus, sleeping crocodiles, a curious python happy to pose for a photo and tree kangaroos who shuffle backwards along branches as if moonwalking. At A$32 per adult, you can breakfast with the birds or have lunch with the lorikeets for another $15. And if you don’t have the three or so hours it takes to wander the boardwalks you can re-enter the park for up to two days.
Locals dismiss Cairns as a second rate tourist option but you can’t help feeling relaxed there, wandering along the esplanade to a colourful Saturday market and busy public pool right by the ocean. For night owls there are plenty of decent restaurants and bars to walk to around the city.
It was a shock to be plunged into icy temperatures back in New Zealand the next day, but soaking up the rays did a world of good. Sadly, the tan was lacking.
Things to do in Queensland
Skypoint
The highest point above the Gold Coast, with a seriously elevated lounge bar.
skypoint.com.au
Wildfire Harley Davidson Tours
Takes groups of up to 200 on regional tours from one hour to three days, has vintage cars and the ‘limo bike’ – a pimped out vintage car/Harley hybrid.
wildfiretours.com
Reef House Resort and Spa
Houses 69 rooms and suites, a restaurant and day spa. The lengthy strand and buses to tourist attractions are right over the road.
reefhouse.com.au
Wildlife Habitat
Open every day except Christmas. Offers guided tours of the wetlands, grasslands and rainforest habitats and Wildlife Care programme.
wildlifehabitat.com.au
