High on the Tamborine Forest Skywalk.
From the rainforest to theme-park thrills, a week on the Gold Coast entertains Daniel Scott and his children.
The sharks are circling. Underwater, where objects appear both larger and closer, a pregnant bull shark bulges as if she has chomped through the entire reef tasting menu, and a dusky whaler appears like an Airbus A380. Through a filmy wobble of water, I see my two daughters, waving goodbye.
Well, you can only compete with a live Sesame Street show for so long. Soon enough, small children will inevitably favour Big Bird over their attention-seeking father, even if he is wearing scuba gear and surrounded by hungry sharks.
Anyway, they've indulged me long enough, watching with their grandmother from the underwater viewing area at Sea World's Shark Bay as I fumble my way into an acrylic cage for my 30-minute shark encounter.
Coming on the third day of our week-long Gold Coast holiday, the shark stunt is my most desperate attempt yet to amuse my daughters while their mother attends a meditation retreat nearby.
I plan to fly solo all week with my two children, aged three and one. Strangely, though, as soon as I announce this, I'm inundated with offers of help from my in-laws. Their grandmother offers to accompany us for the first few days and their grandfather wants to fill in for the last two days.
Would anybody bat an eyelid if I was a mother on my own, I wonder, as Gold Coast-based cousins materialise to provide further back-up. Don't they trust me?
Solo parent or not, the first priority for a holiday involving children is lodgings with cooking and laundry facilities and entertainment on-site.
In Currumbin Sands Apartments on the quieter, less-cluttered southern Gold Coast, we find the ideal place. With three bedrooms on two levels, our seaview unit has space to accommodate visiting relatives and a big bedroom with ensuite upstairs where I can sleep with the youngest beside me in a cot. Situated on Palm Beach (voted the cleanest on the Gold Coast many times) and beside Currumbin Creek, our apartment is a two-minute walk from hours of sand-based fun and safe estuary-swimming, with the added benefit of not having to cross busy roads.
Even better, among Currumbin Sands's tropical landscaped gardens are three pools, including a spa and a pool that's bathwater hot. These provide holiday magic as the girls splash about without getting cold, under a star-spangled sky.
Another boon is the bicycle and trailer I hire from a rental company called Get on Your Bike. Every afternoon I load the girls into the rickshaw-like contraption and set off on the Gold Coast's network of cycle paths. Our favourite route takes us south via the bridge over Currumbin Creek and behind kilometres of beach at Bilinga and Kirra, before we turn around at Coolangatta.
I'm not sure if the sight of us - a puffing chauffeur pulling two helmeted infants who look like Indian princesses from a bygone age - elicits sympathy or hilarity but everyone we pass smiles. Service, too, at our regular pit stops at beachfront cafes is unusually indulgent.
I plan a short nature-based activity every day. On our second morning we join Ian Black, of Geo-Nature Walks and Tours at Burleigh Head National Park. Established in 1947 to preserve a swathe of coastal bush from developers, the park is a refreshing gnarl of littoral rainforest, eucalypts, pandanus groves and giant basalt columns. As our cavalcade of pram and extended family progresses laboriously along the coastal path, Black remains admirably patient, explaining the coast's volcanic origins and pointing out the headland's resident brahminy kites.
By our third day, with everything going smoothly, we're ready for the razzle-dazzle of a Gold Coast theme park, choosing Sea World as the most age-appropriate. Our visit begins thrillingly at Dolphin Cove, where we witness the speed and grace of dolphins interacting with trainers. Then while I prepare for my derring-do among sharks, the kids meet the inhabitants of Ray Reef and board some gentler park rides accompanied by cousins.
After lunch, we take in the Fish Detectives Sea Lion Show, a tired spectacle that nonetheless delights the young audience and, finally, we visit the new $12 million penguin exhibit of medium-sized gentoo penguins and their much larger emperor cousins cavorting above and below the ice.
By day four it's time for a change of pace in the Gold Coast hinterland. It takes 30 minutes to leave behind Australia's sixth-biggest city and begin the steep, curling drive into the mountains on the Tamborine-Oxenford Road. Soon there's dense jade forest everywhere, waterfalls splashing down hillsides and coastal views from every bend.
We spend the morning at the Tamborine Rainforest Skywalk, with views of 12 hectares of rainforest from both above and within the canopy. The walk encompasses more than 200 species of trees, plants and vines, with some eucalypts and hoop pines rising 60 metres. The highlight is a high-tech cantilever jiggling 30 metres above Cedar Creek but the girls are generally so enchanted or busy chasing butterflies that they both complete the 1.5-kilometre walk without complaint.
Now ravenous, we find the perfect antidote at Liquid Amber Bistro & Grill, overlooking Mount Tamborine. As the girls' grandmother samples boutique German-style and Belgian beers from the adjacent Mount Tamborine Brewery, we devour a beautifully presented and reasonably priced lunch in which hand-crafted Witches Chase cheese features.
The next day, after a miraculously uneventful night with just the three of us, we're joined by the girls' grandfather at the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary for some encounters with native Australian animals. While the children are excited by meeting koalas, echidnas and wombats, it's riding the sanctuary's small train that proves to be the most memorable activity. With just 24 hours left until the reunion with their relaxed mother, our routine of day trips, swimming and cycle rides has achieved the unlikely: it's exhausted the children.
"We just want to stay in and watch Wiggles DVDs," protests my eldest that final rainy day. It is a reminder that when holidaying with young children on the Gold Coast, you can almost have too good a time.
Daniel Scott travelled courtesy of Gold Coast Tourism.
FAST FACTS
Getting there
Virgin Australia and Jetstar have daily Gold Coast services from Sydney and Melbourne from $69 one-way.
Staying and eating there
Currumbin Sands Apartments has luxurious one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments with kitchen and laundry facilities. A two-bedroom unit costs from $1057 a week; a three-bedroom unit costs from $1281 a week. At 955 Gold Coast Highway, Palm Beach. Phone 1800 353 799, see currumbinsands.com.au.
Liquid Amber Bistro and Grill, 165-185 Long Road, North Mount Tamborine. Phone (07) 5545 2032, see mtbeer.com.
Elephant Rock cafe, 776 Pacific Parade, Currumbin Beach. Phone (07) 5598 2133, see elephantrock.com.au.
The Beach Shack cafe, 818 Pacific Parade, Currumbin. Phone (07) 5598 2000, see thebeachshack.com.au.
Touring there
Geo-Nature Walks has a range of tours including a 70-minute Burleigh Heads history and nature walk, $25 for adults. Phone (07) 5607 0752. see geonaturewalksandtoursseqld.com.au.
Get on Your Bike rents bicycles at several locations; adult bikes with trailers from $140 a week. Phone 0400 300 327, see getonyourbike.com.au.
Sea World's shark encounter experiences ($90, over 14s only) are part of its "animal adventures" program, which also includes seal and dolphin interactions. General admission costs $79.99 adults; children (3-13) $49.99. See, seaworld.myfun.com.au.
Mount Tamborine Rainforest Skywalk is open daily, 9.30am-5pm, $18.50 adults, children (6-16) $9.50. See rainforestskywalk.com.au.
Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary is open daily, 8am-5pm. Online tickets cost $44.10 adults, children (4-14) $27.90. Phone 1300 886 511, see cws.org.au.
Other Gold Coast family attractions include Movie World (movieworld.myfun.com.au); Dreamworld's collection of Bengal and Sumatran tigers (dreamworld.com.au); and Wet'n'Wild Water World's water-based rides (wetnwild.myfun.com.au).
Also fun for kids are Tropical Fruit World (tropicalfruitworld.com.au), where there are orchard discovery walks and plantation safaris and the Paradise Country Aussie Farm tour (paradisecountry.myfun.com.au) where you can meet farm and native animals.
More information
See visitgoldcoast.com.
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