Beyond the golden rim - By KATE MONAHAN Waikato Times 28 June 2006

Beyond the golden beaches and high-rise buildings, 45 minutes' drive from the Gold Coast, eucalyptus trees and rainforest blanket the mountains.

It's a relaxing antidote to the buzz of Broadbeach, Surfers Paradise.

Flying from Hamilton to Coolangatta Airport, within 15 minutes our feet are in the sand and surf. However, our destination this time is not the ocean, but the green hinterland.

There are three national parks within easy drive of the coast – world heritage-listed Lamington National Park, O'Reilly's National Park, and Tamborine National Park. They have a wildlife diversity rivalling the Amazon jungle and are a Mecca for bush walks and relaxation.

The area has boutique wineries, small village streets full of crafts and cafes, and award-winning restaurants surrounded by greenery and vibrantly coloured birds.

We are staying at Ruffles Lodge, a luxury eco-lodge which caters to eight guests at a time, in a garden villa. It is a private chalet made out of 100-year-old hoop pine.

From the veranda, the view soars out across the eucalypt forest to the city on the skyline. There is a complimentary bottle of champagne in the fridge and port and chocolates are placed in our room after dinner.

It's heaven.

As luck would have it, boyfriend Grant and I are the only guests here for the next two days, so the heated pool, spa, and chef are for us alone.

We dine on tender roast duck, looking across darkness to the sparkling lights on the beach.

Hosts John and Jan Nicholls, who ran a charter boat business before opening the lodge three years ago, have just had their five-star rating reconfirmed by AAA Tourism.

In the morning, birds wake us. We venture on to the veranda to drink our coffee. A kookaburra is literally sitting in the old gum tree. A pied butcherbird hops cheekily along the ledge, close enough to touch.

Today we are venturing into the heart of the hinterland on an all-day 4WD safari.

As we drive into the winding hills of Mt Tamborine, a flock of pink and white galahs soars upwards.

"Watch out for wild 'roos and wallabies," says Darran Wallace, owner of Southern Cross 4WD Tours, cocking his head out the window. The Oka bus bounces up a steep dirt track as we scan the tussock for bush wallabies.

"There are over 600 varieties of eucalyptus. Koalas only eat 40 of those, but prefer two – the spotted gum and the grey gum," says Darran, who sports a brimmed hat and long shorts like Crocodile Dundee.

We crane eyes upwards, looking for koalas dozing in the branches.

They prove difficult to spot, and dark bulbous termite nests on several trees – roughly the same size and shape – can be easily mistaken for koalas. "We call them Japanese koalas," Darran laughs, affectionately renamed for the group of keen Japanese tourists he had on one trip.

"They were hanging out the window, shouting 'koala', taking photos. I didn't have the heart to tell them," he chuckles.

Later in the day, one of our party spots a baby koala high in a gum tree. We step out to take photos, but she is quickly gone, high in the top branches, camera-shy and camouflaged in the leaves.

Mt Tamborine was created from a volcanic explosion 23 million years ago, explains Darran, and the area – 12km long and 4km wide, rising to 600m in altitude – is named after the local aboriginal term for festival rather than the musical instrument.

We stop for a walk through Jolah National Park, one of nine on Tamborine. Strangler vines hang from trees, the air is cool, fig trees with giant roots spread like curtains, and palms and ferns grow beneath.

Like Darran's over-imaginative Japanese tourists, I imagine animals where there are none. Every rustle or stick along the path becomes a deadly snake.

It doesn't help when Darran tells us 23 of the 25 most venomous snakes in the world are found in Australia, including, in these parts, the taipan and the aggressive eastern brown snake.

"He can jump twice his own body length, so if I'm one metre away, he can jump three metres to go you," says Darran.

Although, as it turns out humans are more often the aggressor.

"Seventy-five per cent of people who get bitten are holding a stick or spade to kill them," he says. "They have a 100 per cent strike rate, and if your spade is 1.5m long, then who is the idiot?"

He did get a scare once, almost treading on a (harmless) 3m-long carpet python on the path. He points out the spot beside a log where he saw it, and we all look at the leaf litter with new curiosity. We almost want to see something, but no luck.

The afternoon involves going up into the trees, walking on a boardwalk 20-30m above ground at O'Reilly's in Lamington National Park. The views are amazing, treading across the swing bridges and climbing further up into the rainforest canopy look-outs. If you are not one for heights, stay on the bridges.

Coming back down to earth, with bird feed in hand supplied by Darran, we are inundated by hungry rainbow lorikeets, perching on heads and arms. It's a picture-perfect moment, although the scratches on our arms last a bit longer.

We end the day with a drive down Duck Creek Rd, an unsealed road winding down from O'Reilly's, only possible by 4WD. The rainforest terrain changes dramatically, from dense trees and vines, to dry tussock and eucalypt forest.

For more adventurous sorts, Lamington National Park has more than 160km of tracks, taking between one and eight hours to walk. On another day we did some walking on the Binna Burra section, peaceful and cool in May.

At Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, just 10 minutes from the airport, kangaroos lounge on the grass. You can pose with koalas, gaze in awe at a giant saltwater crocodile, and see some great animal shows.

The free-flight bird spectacular show is worth checking out, with magnificent wedge-tail eagles, black kites and various kinds of owl swooping over the audience, grabbing food thrown by their trainers with amazing precision (hold on to your toddlers).

Another side of the Gold Coast's bounty is food and wine. There are lots of macadamia nut plantations around, and one shop on the Gallery Walk – a touristy street on Mt Tamborine of boutiques, galleries, and cafes – sells delicious wasabi-coated nuts, as well as the usual chocolate. Mt Tamborine has dozens of wineries and Gallery Walk has wine-tasting (try the chocolate port).

The winery at Cedar Creek Estate becomes our favourite. We have lunch overlooking a duck-filled lake during a rainstorm. Its verdelho (a sweet white) and rose are distinctive and delicious, and we get some bottles to take home.

Songbirds in the Forest is a great dining spot on Mt Tamborine, set among leafy trees under ruby-red awnings. The award-winning restaurant is popular with Gold Coast movers and shakers.

To get a bird's eye perspective of the hinterland, going up on a morning hot air balloon ride reveals the contrast between city and mountains. On one side, are the beaches and network of waterways and golf courses, on the other are forest and rolling ridges. Balloon Down Under gently takes us up to 3000ft, where the beachside skyscrapers become insignificant next to the blue ocean and the green mountains.