Travel: Queensland, Australia

THERE are always too many memories, views, smells, sights and sounds to squeeze into the 1,000 or so words that fit on a travel page. My recent trip to Australia, as part of a global campaign by Tourism Queensland to dispel the images of floods and devastation that crossed the world after storms hit the Whitsunday Islands and Sunshine Coast, left me with hundreds of incredible memories to share.

So, if you want to know the facts and figures, check the factbox. Meanwhile, they say a picture paints a thousand words, but let me try to use a thousand words to paint you some pictures ...

Stepping from air-conditioned minibus chill on to the Novotel Brisbane forecourt, memories of a grey Glasgow March fade as I stretch my flight-cramped limbs into a balmy 70F heat ... at 1am.

Six of us strapped into a helicopter cabin, rotor blade roar muted by earphones, lifting from a pontoon floating on sparkling blue to fly just a few hundred feet above the Great Barrier Reef. Gaze transfixed by Heart Reef, a heart-shaped vision of coral, its outline lightening the aquamarine that laps its edges, my throat constricts as I find myself wanting to cry for the sheer beauty of it. It was worth the 24-hour journey for that view alone ... ten minutes I'll remember forever.

Face-down in the bathwater-warm South Pacific, giggling through my snorkel as stripy 'Nemo' clown fish and wrasse butt my mask, our diver guide Emily points out giant clams, anemones, stingrays, small sharks and a myriad different shapes and colours of coral, as she leads us along the jagged edge of Hardy Reef under a fierce mid-afternoon sun, skin protected from heat and marine stingers by a bright pink Lycra suit that makes me feel like the Tellytubby who ate all the pies.

Cuddling Lawson the koala at Australia Zoo, who is quite heavy – a bit like a coarse-furred child – and smells of the eucalyptus tips he eats which, according to zoo staff, mean these sweet, sleepy creatures are constantly stoned. The zoo was founded by 'crocodile hunter' Steve Irwin, who died after being stung by a ray in 2006, and whose grinning image lines every route for miles around zoo-town, Beerwah.

Stepping from the Virgin Blue 737 that flies us into Hamilton Island in the tropical Whitsundays to be enveloped in a cloak of damp heat which drips from palm fronds and the sleek prows of boats crowding the tiny marina. Then entering the Yacht Club, where all is cool teak and metal sculpture, and where the iced water tastes better than water ever has before. I wonder how the staff keep the creases in their smart trousers and crisp white shirts.

Sitting in my private hot tub at the Coral Sea Resort, Airlie Beach, watching the sun rise over the bay, scanning the moored yachts and fishing boats bobbing in the breeze that lifts and teases the string edges of the hammock hung across my terrace, wondering whether I will ever want to move again? Missing the white, personable cockatiels that fought and squawked on the balcony I left behind atHamilton Island's Reef ViewHotel, where dire warnings of "don't leave your windows open, they steal things ..." followed us into the lifts from reception. What things? I wonder now, too late to ask. Clothes? Jewels? Your soul?

Eating the freshest, plumpest prawns I've ever tasted at Fish on Franklyn, in Mooloolaba, a restaurant worth a visit not only for the amazing seafood in unpretentious surroundings, but for saying which town you're in after a couple of glasses of sauvignon blanc. Waking up in the elegant Hyatt Regency Coolum, just up the road, to find kangaroos grazing underneath my window.

Running along the fabulous silica beach at Whitehaven before boarding a seaplane waiting in the shallows to fly us to North Island, and the eco-resort of Paradise Bay where I taste delicious canaps and sip chilled champagne before being drenched by warm rain in the lee of a lush, tropical hillside as we tour luxury, waters-edge cabins furnished with four posters and the best eco-friendly toiletries money can buy.

Sailing from Long Island to Coral Sea Resort, gripping the stern rail of a powerful cruiser big enough for 130 – we are just 13 – still getting drenched by that relentless warm rain, exhilarated by the churning sea frothing and fighting in our dusk-draped wake, and wondering where I picked up my power/speed fetish?

Lying back in the sun, the white canvas sails of tall ship Solway Lass – as far from home as I am – clean against the deep blue Queensland sky, timbers creaking as she cuts the Coral Sea between Daydream Island and mainland Airlie Beach. The Onedin Line's Spartacus theme tune plays in my imagination while a friendship bracelet is woven on to my wrist, and I wish I could spend a tranquil week hoisting sails, hosing decks, helping out and just gazing at southern hemisphere stars against velvet night black.

So few pictures, and nearly all my words used up. Room for just a few more. With that warm timber deck beneath my body, and rocked by our graceful carrier, I turn to look across the sea to the mainland which bore the brunt of tropical storms and flash floods around Brisbane in December and January, and 30ft waves that ripped into the Sunshine Coast with cyclone Yasi in February. History now. Not forgotten, but dealt with by a golden state in north eastern Australia with the guts to get up again and say to me, you and prospective visitors worldwide: "Welcome to Queensland."

Novotel Brisbane Airport (07 3175 3100, www.novotel.com.au)

Fantasea Adventure Cruising, Hamilton Island/Great Barrier Reef (07 4946 5111, www.fantasea.com.au)

Australia Zoo (07 5436 2000, www.australiazoo.com.au)

Virgin Blue (www.virginblue.com.au)

Coral Sea Resort, Airlie Beach (07 4946 1300, www.coralsearesort.com)

Reef View Hotel, Hamilton Island Resort (07 4946 9999, www.hamiltonisland.com.au)

Fish on Parkyn, 25 Parkyn Parade, Mooloolaba, Qld (07 5444 4711)

Hyatt Regency Coolum (07 5446 1234, www.coolum.hyatt.com)

Air Whitsunday Seaplanes (07 4946 9111, www.airwhitsunday.com.au)

Brisbane Marriott Hotel, 515 Queen St, Brisbane, Qld 4000 (07 3303 8000, www.marriott.com/bnedt)

Paradise Eco Bay, Long Island (07 4946 1344, www.paradisebay.com.au)

Solway Lass tall ship cruises (07 4946 5932, www.whitsundaysailing.com)

Emirates flies daily from Glasgow via Dubai to Brisbane, economy class return fares start from 985 (www.emirates.com/uk)

• This article was first published in the Scotland on Sunday on June 12, 2011