Alison Cotes, Sunday Mail - Worm Caves a Glowing Attraction

..."where Alison Shaw and her associate from Ripple Massage arrived right on time and gave us the best massages we've had in a long time.

This sent me off into a wonder world of total relaxation. The products which Alison brings for clients to choose from are good enough to eat, and if you opt for the 90 minute package ($120) you get a clay face mask, facial and tub of body lotion...."

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A popular rhyme goes:" I wish I were a glow worm for a glow worms never glum:for how could you be grumpy, when the sun shines out your bum?"

Maybe not accurate, but it had the kids in stitches when they visited the artificial, but quite convincing, glow worm caves at Cedar Creek Estate, North Tamborine. The half hour underground tour was quite enough for them, however, and more than enough for one poor claustrophobic soul who started shaking and had to be let out after only two minutes in the dark with just 20 torches for company. The rest of us loved it, walking along the narrow tunnel to see and learn all about these increasingly threatened insects whose natural rainforest habitat continues to disappear.

An even better display in in Ian Moore's own strictly secret patch of private rainforest. If you thought a few hundred glow worms in a cave was a thrill, wait until you on Ian's private tour of the area. Walking with Ian through the rainforest is literally breath taking, especially on a night when the moon is low in the sky. Although the wooden walkways are stout and have strong handrails, the sound of Cedar Creek rushing past its great boulders just down to the left makes you glad you have an industrial strength torch (supplied by Ian) and serious foot wear.

There are two glow worm areas in this stretch of forest. The larger, called the Milky Way, stretches for 30 m and is so thick with these tiny larvae and their dangles of glowing excreta that its easy to imagine you are looking at a star lit sky. There's more than just glow worms, though, like the possums feeding near the creek and the 300 year old strangler vine stretching up perhaps 75 m into the sky. The vine is totally hollow now that its black box host has died, and lit from the inside so that you can see all the roots and Lewis Carroll like writhing coils.

It's a great experience and, until Ian's Rainforest Experience Centre takes off at the end of the year, is available only to guests of the Cedar Creek Lodges and thunder egg park. But staying here is a treat in itself, and you don't have to pay top rates for the flash cabins, although they are tempting. There's a camping and caravan site, with a few on site vans for rent, while the other accommodation ranges all the way up to the two bedroom cottages with log fire and spa bath, where we stayed.

The lodges are rustic luxury, but once you step outside your accommodation the resort is totally democratic and everyone can, for a reasonable fee, go horse riding, play mini golf and find their own thunder eggs in the fossicking area. Here, these ugly ducklings of the mineral world are available for $6, plus a little extra to have them split open to see what wondrous patterns have formed inside.

Our first day was pure sensual indulgence, beginning with breakfast around the wood stove to which the resident peacock snuggles up as soon as its lit every morning, before wandering around showing off to all the guests. As we ate our boiled eggs and toasted panini, rainbow lorikeets and their numerous companions crowded around the bird feeders keeping all the kids quietly amused.

After a pot of caffeine free hot chocolate, we retired to our warm lodge, where Alison Shaw and her associate from Ripple Massage arrived right on time and gave us the best massages we've had in a long time. This sent me off into a wonder world of total relaxation. The products which Alison brings for clients to choose from are good enough to eat, and if you opt for the 90 minute package ($90) you get a clay face mask, facial and tub of body lotion as well.

Then it was another stunning meal, this time in Ivory Jacks Club Lounge, the main house dining room, resplendent with leather sofas by an open fire. And then it was an early night because the children were arriving the next morning. That meant a day of entirely different experiences - horse riding, Thunderbird Park, a personalised Tamborine Trolley Bus tour, the Witches Chase Cheese Factory, Michael and Alla's Tamborine Distillery (they were not allowed to sample the schnapps and flavoured vodkas), the enchanting Nardoo Lavender Shop, and Granny Mac's shop at Gallery Walk, where we let them choose just four types of fudge from 80 varieties