Salt On The Brain

Salt On The Brain

Sun Herald

Sunday October 21, 2007

Craig Tansley

Next month, The Sun-Herald presents an exclusive report on the best tourist spots in our state with the NSW Tourism Awards. Craig Tansley visited Kingscliff, a big winner last year, to find out what success meant to the area.

It's two days into my visit and I'm still trying to think of what this area reminds me of. Then it comes to me in a flash: a flash of shiny, white teeth. I'm walking to the beach on a picture-perfect day, the kind of day where the clouds line up early in formation then ship right out apologetically, and the 20th person this week to give me a cheery smile and a friendly hello makes me realise. Of course: The Truman Show.

Here, at Peppers Salt Resort & Spa, in this perfect slice of tropical beachside living on the far north coast of NSW, everything is ridiculously wonderful: it's 27 degrees with no chance of showers, the water temperature is 21degrees, the beach is very long and empty, with just a few couples power-walking and a family flying a big kite that keeps crashing into the sand. The vessel's obvious aerodynamic flaws can't wipe the smiles. The pine trees are perfectly spaced, the birds seem to chirp on cue and the beach this morning looks like a postcard, all white sand and blue ocean, I'm sure there's whales out there somewhere, smiling, of course.

But where The Truman Show dealt with a character trying desperately to get out of his too-perfect world, the success of Peppers Salt Resort & Spa is proof Aussies are desperately trying to get in.

I can see why; life seems ridiculously nice here. And that's from the biggest cynic. I grew up in this gorgeous part of NSW and I resisted progress - I resented it; I resented tourists. Coming from Byron Bay I soon learned I had no choice but to concede, but that made me treasure the nearby pockets of paradise all the more. The area they now call Salt was one of them.

My grandparents lived around here and I'd spend weekends fishing with my grandfather in the creek that runs through Kingscliff, a sleepy little hamlet totally lost in time.

Salt has changed that, granted, but I'm relieved that they've done a good job of it. And although there's been progress, it still feels like the same slice of Australia; it still seems to beat with the same heart, because not everything here is perfect, and that's what makes it so attractive.

The parks outside Pepper's might look impeccable, with perfectly spaced picnic tables and kids' swings, but my favourite day on this holiday is also the grittiest. A 25-knot early-summer northerly has blown through. It's the kind of day I used to hate as a kid. Now I'm realising these days are actually the ones to treasure; somehow they capture the magic of this area more than the flawless mornings.

There's not a soul on the beach. This kind of isolation, I've now discovered, is rare and indulgent; funny how I took it for granted as a teenager. I feel the sand squelch between my toes, the wind blows sand from the dunes, forming twisters in the sky and casuarinas shake and shudder like drunken dancers on the breeze. The water's still warm, but best just to touch with your toes, the surf looks too wild.

I walk the kilometre or so to Kingscliff and am relieved to see it hasn't changed much at all, although I can't recall ever being able to order lobster at a restaurant here as a kid. I take my time strolling back to Pepper's Salt & Spa waiting for the sun to set over a distant Mount Warning. I can only just make it out in the orange haze, through the palm trees and the pines.

It still feels like home. Thank goodness the innocence hasn't been lost. I'm taken right back to the days of my youth; it's just as innocent, only I didn't have Pepper's waiting for me back then, so I make the most of it.

I order an evening men's rejuvenation treatment with a facial and essential-oil back massage followed by a meal of poached Moreton Bay bug, cucumber and wakami salad, chilli oil and lime dressing, and sand crab risotto with West Australian scampi at Pepper's signature restaurant, Roughie's.

If not Roughie's I could have had some of the best seafood in the state at Fins, just across the road in Salt Village, or Thai, or Italian.

The thing I like most about Pepper's Salt Resort & Spa is where it sits, exactly halfway between the Gold Coast and Byron Bay. It feels a little like both, but just the best bits: the beaches and that unmistakable laid-back North Coast style. There are no crowds or traffic jams and you don't have to jockey for position on the beach.

It seems a good place to recharge, but it's also the hub to a thousand activities if you feel charged already. You can kayak on nearby rivers, learn to surf on the beach, visit wineries, fish, dive or climb mountains.

But I'm happy to do not much at all. One morning at six, I spot a pod of dolphins so I swim out to them but miss them completely. As I swim back to shore a fin shoots past me, then a dolphin jumps right out of the sea beside me.

There's always been a magic about this area that progress can't, I think, destroy. These days, as I sidestep tourists on pay-for-use European beaches and get robbed at gunpoint in Brazil, I've come to appreciate that paradise could well have been under my nose all along.

The writer was a guest of Peppers Salt Resort & Spa.

TRIP NOTES

? Peppers Salt Resort & Spa is offering bed and breakfast packages until December 15, 2007. Prices start from $130 per person, twin share (minimum two-night stay) and include hot breakfast and accommodation in a one-bedroom suite. See www.peppers.com.au/Salt or phone 1300 729 802.