New South Wales: Livin' like Olivia

The Gaia Retreat and Spa is just 20 minutes from Byron Bay. Photo / Supplied

When you're a chef living amongst exotic macadamia nut farms in Australia, it would be rude not to come up with some pretty cool recipes.

I was delighted to discover head chef Todd Cameron at Gaia Retreat and Spa is not a rude man and I have therefore come home ready to experiment on my friends and family with nutty concoctions that will be envied far and wide.

Gaia Retreat, about 20 minutes from Byron Bay near a tiny dot on the map called Bangalow, is co-owned by Oliva Newton-John. She bought the property about four years ago with a few friends and together they transformed it from a run-down chalet resort into a high-end retreat, far from the madding crowd.

Sadly she wasn't there doing a rendition of Hopelessly Devoted To You or relaxing on one of the day beds when I visited, but her business partner Gregg Cave was. Firstly, I had to ask about the latest rumours about Olivia's ex being seen alive. Rubbish, said Gregg. Besides, she's happily married and has moved on. Right, got that out of the way. Now for the main course.

Brick pathways wind through the 10-hectare property, past the stylishly decorated chalets and lead to the main hut, Kukura House. Designed like a Fijian bure, its high ceilings create a wide-open space.

Cosy lounge furniture, bookshelves and a small gift shop greet arriving guests and at the far end is the restaurant, which opens on to a huge deck for outdoor dining, relaxing with a good book or indulging in a glass of wine (but only at dinner time).

Gaia has a reputation as the place to come if you're want to get away to a spa retreat, detox and get some advice on how to live and eat healthily. I met three elderly sisters who had come together to celebrate a special birthday with lunch and a spa treatment - and watched as one of them sneakily paid while the others were still slathered in oils.

An group of blokes from Melbourne, sans wives, were eating their organic lunch and looking over the spa treatment menu. I tried to hide my surprise when they all pulled up chairs for Todd's macadamia nut lesson. They'd been out golfing earlier that morning and were clearly ready to get in touch with their feminine sides.

Gaia's organic cuisine is designed to be healthy, nutritious and "very delicious", as Todd is fond of saying. They grow their own herbs and many of the vegetables that arrive on your plate, while the rest are sourced from local growers and suppliers.

Meals alternate through seafood, chicken and vegetarian, and each Saturday, guests can meet the chef and learn how to whip up some of his creations.

Today I'm about to learn how to make macadamia nut satay sauce and macadamia nut French cream sauce (the healthy version). Using a measuring system of "accurate approximates" - which flummoxes some of our pupils from the outset - Todd starts the demo encouraging us to not stifle our culinary genius by rigidly following a recipe.

He talks in a soft, dreamy voice about the virtues of palm sugar over refined sugar and the huge variety of sea salts around these days - all of which contain iodine and give various "lifts" to food. He says "very delicious" a lot. But with good reason.

Megan Singleton was assisted by Qantas and Tourism Australia. You can find more of her musings at bloggeratlarge.com.