MORE THAN JUST A ROOM WITH A VIEW
A room with a view, and you, and no one to give advice: that sounds a paradise few could fail to choose.
But I?ve found something even better than Noel Coward?s paradise ? a spacious private villa with 180 degree views of the ocean, islands and mountains.
Head inland from the Strawberry Farm at Pimpama less than an hour south of Brisbane, with its kids and lambs and piglets to feed and fresh berries to pick, to Willow Vale. Climb up the back roads through some expensive nouveau riche developments which bring your heart into your mouth, and just when you think you?ve come to the end of civilization as we know it, you will find Ruffles Lodge, where Jan and John Nicholls have built the place of their drams ? and yours.
Perched on a ridge in the Gold Coast hinterland, the lodge is close enough for painless visits to the beaches and golf courses (16 private and public courses within 30 minutes? drive), with the advantage of coming home to luminous peace and tranquility.
At night, the Glitter Strip lights up like your own special light-without-sound display, as you gaze down on it all from the pool, the dining room or your own large veranda. During the day, you can see, but thankfully not hear, the Tower of Terror and the rollercoaster at Dreamworld, as well as the Coomera River, and the vehicles snaking along the highway.
Luxury getaway resorts tend to be two-a-penny these days (make that two-a-thousand bucks), and once you?ve ooh-aahed over the d?cor, checked the hi-fi system and made sure the cable TVworks, they?re pretty much the same. Rooms are beautifully furnished, of course, always super-comfortable, with king-size beds and plenty of pillows. They differ only in detail.
That?s why I go straight to the bathroom, to check the floor space, the siting of the lavatory, the towels and the bath v shower situation.
Ruffles scores six stars in this category.
The bathroom, situated behind the bedroom area, takes up the whole width of the building, with a three-person rainwater shower, a long, deep narrow bath with toe operated taps, two hand basins, big fluffy bath towels, heaps of cupboards, an industrial-strength hair-dryer and, if you open one of the doors, a view from the loo straight over the Gold Coast, so that you can express your opinion of it in a definitive way.
Each of the three villas has a built-in opium couch, as these padded alcoves are known in Thailand, with its own separate reading lights. Radios are tuned to ABC FM, with an eclectic supply of CDs for the hi-fi.
We spent the first day just playing around, my friend working on his tan by the side of the pool and pretending he knew how to work the wood-fired oven in the adjoining pavilion ? although, as not even Jan and John, have worked it out yet, he didn?t fool anyone.
After that, he mucked about on the Par 3 golf hole, chipping, putting and bunkering with the best of them while I looked on and jeered.
That?s when I wasn?t ensconced in the garden gazebo (or cubby house, as we immediately christened it) where I fell asleep on the bi sofa with a good book, a bar fridge full of free solft drinks and the best toy of all, a classy macadamia nut-cracker with an endless supply of nuts.
And so the day wore on, with gentle walks through the 1km bush track, a three-course dinner with our hosts (the rhubarb crumble was so good I insisted on having it for breakfast the next morning), and lying by the pool sipping port and watching the moon trying to outshine the Milky Way.
The villas face east, but the heavy curtains cut out the worst of the sunrise.
I was awake in time to draw them back on a fury of pink and orange, but I soon retired under the line-dried white sheets again. (That?s another big bonus of Ruffles ? commercial laundries aren?t allowed near the bed linen.)
After a long, leisurely breakfast (the fresh fruit juices are squeezed to your taste), we thought we ought to make a token visit to the coast, so we picked strawberries at the Strawberry Farm, had a swim and ate fish and chips at Burleigh Heads, and ended up at Palazzo Versace at Main Beach, looking as posh as we could manage, where $14 for a lime daiquiri is worth it just for the opulence of the surroundings and the joy of breaking down the deferential manners of the bar staff. More post, this time in the shops at the marina and at one of the coffee shops overlooking the water, then to Peter?s Fish Market for ocean-fresh prawns, which we took home with a loaf of bread and some good dry white from Tedder Ave, to make prawn sandwiches on our veranda, followed by the hand-picked strawberries and some decent plunger coffee.
Oh yes, I could spend a lot of time at Ruffles ? it?s far enough from the Gold Coast to be a real escape, but close enough if you really must mix with the rich and famous on the beach.
