KEY POINTS:
We drove towards the Queensland rainforest through a haze of smoke. Smouldering stumps and hot rocks lay on the side of the road and the valley below us was sheathed in white.
Then a kookaburra swooped in front of the car and snapped up a lizard from the
black and brown grass. The animals were still going about their business, so this was a controlled burnoff to prevent an outbreak of bushfires.
Visiting the O'Reilly's treetop walk in the Lamington National Park inland from the Gold Coast is as much about the 90-minute journey there as about the destination.
Like most of eastern Australia, Queensland is gripped by a drought that began in 2001, and pastures are brown and burnoffs like the one we drove through are routine.
Yet 20 minutes after zigzagging up the side of the valley wall we enter a tunnel of green. The road narrows and winds between century-old trees that rise from hard against the road.
We're about 1000m above the sands of the coast, and are driving a route first carved by Bernard O'Reilly in the early 20th century.
Travellers began making their way up here to stay in slab huts from 1914, and in 1926 O'Reilly's first guesthouse opened. It took tourists two days by train, coach and horseback from Brisbane to reach his rainforest sanctuary, but that didn't deter the growth in its popularity.
Last year O'Reilly's celebrated its 80th anniversary. It is now a comprehensive accommodation and conference centre.
But you don't have to stay here, or spend much, to enjoy the natural attractions. A bag of birdseed from the gift shop will have the children giggling as crimson rosellas and king parrots land on their heads, arms and hands to gently peck the food.
The treetop walk is a suspension bridge that swings gently through the upper canopy to give a bird's-eye view of the rainforest.
The fearless can climb an enclosed ladder up the side of a tree to two viewing platforms, the highest 30m above ground.
If you want to stay longer there are 160km of tracks to explore, either on guided walks or at your leisure.
The Gold Coast may be named after its beaches, but tourism operators are aware of visitors' fascination with their bush and wildlife and incorporate elements of it into most attractions.
A sail on a tall ship up the Broadwater is more than that - included is lunch at the nature reserve of South Stradbroke Island and, if you feel like it, a 4WD tour.
Guide Stuart Comans led us from the ship - named the Sir Henry Morgan after the famous privateer - to a vehicle parked out the back of the McLaren's Landing Homestead.
On the way we walked through an outdoor restaurant where one of the few golden swamp wallabies in existence was munching on salad leftovers from the kitchen.
The kids made a beeline for it, and it allowed them to get close enough to take cabbage leaves from their hands.
Bumping over the dirt road that winds between gumtrees and ferns across the 3km-wide island, Comans explained why it wasn't a good idea to go wandering through the bush barefoot.
"We've got red-belly black snakes, king browns, which are one of the most deadly in the world, carpet pythons - and a bloke standing there with a wineglass".
A chap staying at the homestead clearly hadn't been on a tour with Comans and was wandering nonchalantly through the undergrowth, glass of Aussie red in hand.
"Better than wandering around without a glass of wine, I suppose," said Comans, and bumped on.
He told us how Aborigines had lived on the island for thousands of years, digging for pipi and training dolphins to herd schools of fish so close inshore that they could be plucked out of the sea.
It was made a nature reserve 12 years ago and access and development is restricted to limited tourist ventures like this one.
We drive for a way up the ocean beach on the other side, then stop to watch the pied oyster-catchers scuttling along the sand.
Comans says he occasionally surprises bunches of nudists who think they have the beach to themselves - but there were none in view today.
Back at the restaurant, more of the Tall Ship Cruises crew are preparing a delicious barbecue lunch.
The setting has a Balinese feel, with heavy wooden tables and thatched bures surrounded by tall palms and gums.
The golden wallaby has been joined by another, and kookaburras wait overhead for meat scraps.
Comans, a man of many talents, entertains us from the stage with a selection of easy-listening classics. Later, he tells us he plays Robin in a Bee Gees cover band.
In places like this you can observe wildlife from a distance.
To get close enough to touch, head for Currumbin Sanctuary, about 15 minutes south of Surfers Paradise. It's one of the few attractions that opens at the child-friendly time of 8am - with most you have to kill time until 10am - and rewards its early visitors with the chance to feed the colourful lorikeets that live wild in its trees.
Like the birds at O'Reilly's, they don't hesitate to land on your head, shoulders, arms and hands to sip the watery, porridge-like cereal from trays given to you to hold.
Alex Griffiths founded Currumbin 60 years ago with these birds, and since then the sanctuary has become home to more than 1400 birds, reptiles and mammals. With its "get closer" motto, it brings people into direct contact with Australian fauna, rehabilitates sick and injured wildlife and is an education centre for conservation.
Among its residents are dingoes, wombats, Tasmanian devils, crocodiles and snakes.
Encounters with animals and birds are held throughout the day, but you can wander freely among many of them at any time.
Jed and Laura loved being able to pat members of a large family of kangaroos, and see joeys up close in the mothers' pouches.
The males lazed in hollows they had dug in the ground and we were able to identify the leader by his size and the white stripes that run from the base of each ear down the side of his face.
From rocks at the side of pathways, Lizards watch you pass, and you can almost reach out and touch the koalas curled up in the forks of trees.
It was worth the investment of $10 for a photo of the children with a koala called Jordan. They can still remember how soft his fur was and the firm but not painful feeling of his claws curled around their shoulders as if they were branches.
Another opportunity to do this came at Dreamworld, the most varied theme park on the Gold Coast. It has an Australian Wildlife Experience section in which you can feed and hold a range of animals, including kangaroos and koalas.
Little Misty the koala snuggled into Jed as as if he were the most comfortable gum tree on offer. We stroked Tom the wombat's wiry hair, and Wilma the snake wound her silky scales around my wrists.
A baby crocodile had her mouth sealed shut with rubber bands while you held her, but you could still see her teeth jutting over her gums. She showed off her species' lightning speed when she jerked her snout and nicked my finger.
Exotic wildlife is on display at Dreamworld's Tiger Island, where gold and white Bengal tigers interact with their keepers in twice-daily shows.
At 7 and 9, Laura and Jed were too young to meet the tigers in an up-close encounter ("We wouldn't want the tigers to think they were breakfast," said the PR rep), but this can be arranged for older children and adults.
Swimming with sharks, dolphins or seals can be arranged at Sea World, but our guys got a kick out of just seeing these animals up close through glass-sided tanks.
The two polar bears seemed incongruously big on their rocks, but in the water they glided like seals. One entertained us with a polar bear flip. bear-paddling with its broad paws towards the glass wall, then pushing off it and shooting backwards to start again.
The kids were delighted with the dolphin show, gasping as these huge animals leapt in unison from the water, or allowed their trainers to ride them as they scooted through it.
Sea World began in the late 1950s as a waterski show, and although it has retained this element, its wildlife is now its main attraction and the focus of education programmes.
The Sea World Research and Rescue Foundation funds marine research and has a team on call to rescue injured or stranded marine animals along the Gold Coast.
Efforts like this are a subtle reminder that for all its brash, built-up appearance, the Gold Coast still has an intrinsic relationship with the natural world on which it is built, and with the Outback history it shares with Australia in general.
A good place to get a sense of this is the Australian Outback Spectacular, a nightly show held at a 1000-seat indoor arena between Movie World and Wet'n'Wild.
The story of the settlers' survival in the Outback is told through masterful displays of horsemanship - at speed and in formation. Sheep, cattle and camels also make an appearance.
The Man From Snowy River is read in its entirety. You get the feeling - particularly after seeing it engraved on a memorial to its writer, Banjo Paterson, in a shopping mall the next day - that this poem about equestrian mastery in the unforgiving bush symbolises a central facet of Australian identity. It has heavy doses of jingoism but is very slickly done.
All that goes over the head of 7-year-old Laura, who just loved the horses galloping around the arena and stepping in unison.
Although she could only watch from the stands, this was one of her favourite events during our Gold Coast visit.
Jed enjoyed the steak dinner, one of three courses delivered around the auditorium with slick efficiency during the show.
Wine and beer is topped up frequently, so sort out your transport before you go - buses will pick you up from your apartment or hotel.
Even down by the beach, Australian wildlife is never far away. Trees manage to grow tall despite the heat and the drought, providing homes for birds.
Wander back to your hotel at dusk and you'll be accompanied by the fussy squawks of thousands of parrots and lorikeets.
CHECKLIST OLD COAST
Getting there
Freedom Air flies six times a week from Auckland to the Gold Coast and regularly from other New Zealand airports (freedomair.co.nz).
Flight Centre has return airfares on Freedom Air to the Gold Coast from Auckland starting from $436 (excluding New Zealand airport charges) subject to availability and conditions.
Accommodation
Mantra Broadbeach on the Park, in the heart of Broadbeach, a five-minute walk to the beach, starts from $202 a night for a two-bedroomed apartment. See mantraresorts.com.au
Activities
Tall Ship Cruises. A family pass for a day trip to South Stradbroke Island costs A$269; 4-wheel drive tour $15 each. See tallship.com.au.
Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary: adults A$29.50, children (4 to 13)A$19.50, under 3 free. See cws.org.au.
Australian Outback Spectacular. Adults A$89, children (4-13) $A59, under 3 free. See outbackspectacular.com.au.
O'Reilly's. Bird-feeding and the Treetops Walk is free. Accommodation from A$145 to A$650 a room for one night. See oreillys.com.au.
Further Information
Flight Centre phone 0800 FLIGHTS (0800 35 4448) or visit flightcentre.co.nz .
Gold Coast: visit VeryGC.com.
* The Sarney-Bradley family travelled courtesy of Flight Centre and Freedom Air.
