Adrift on Australia's rainforest island

Travel writer Paul Rush spreads his wings to explore the interior of Dunk Island, Australia's most spectacular rainforest island.

My first sight of the iridescent blue wings is breathtaking. A big Ulysses butterfly flashes by high in the canopy. You have to be quick to spot the startlingly beautiful winged wonder in flight, as it seldom alights on trees.

When it does, the search might well be abandoned, as black and brown markings on the outside of the wings blend in remarkably with dappled foliage.

The urgency of the butterfly's search for a suitable mate is apparent in its flurry of activity around the rainforest canopy.

A delay in the vital process of reproduction of even two weeks can be too late for this exquisite creation of mother nature.

The Ulysses butterfly is the famous eye-catching symbol of Dunk Island, a family fun resort on the Great Barrier Reef, off the Cairns coast.

Another species found here is the green-spotted triangle (the famous birdwing), Australia's largest butterfly.

My nature-watch endeavours are being made from a very comfortable base in a Bayview Suite with uninterrupted views over a picture-perfect coral-sand beach and the sparkling ocean.

Elsewhere in the resort are split-level beachfront rooms and garden cabanas set among lush tropical vegetation. All are air-conditioned, with private bathroom, ceiling fan, and tea and coffee facilities.

I can feel the enchantment of Dunk Island the moment I step out of the Hinterland Aviation Cessna Caravan at the island airport.

Receptionist Jesse indicates the road to the Jetty Café and Watersports Centre and then guides her charges through to the Terrace Restaurant where brilliant blue crescent-shaped swimming pools sparkle under a shelter belt of lush rainforest.

The spacious Plantation Bar and adjacent Beachcomber Restaurant are the community centres of the island and they are already buzzing with activity.

Families are dining and enjoying a splendid view over the beach to a tiny coral atoll called Purtaboi Island. Others are sprawled out on sun loungers around another pool, cocktails in hand.

The most striking feature of this scene is two vivid blue-tiled images of the ubiquitous Ulysses on the floor of the pool, an arrestingly beautiful foreground to the palm-fringed beach.

Here you can lose yourself in a whirl of activity; aerobics, archery, golf, squash, tennis, sailboarding, water skiing, or simply practise the fine art of doing nothing at all.

The Dunk Resort philosophy is to cocoon and pamper both humans and wildlife alike, as I learn from the Farm Walk with nature guide Holly.

The walk leads across the island's nine-hole golf course where we spot a lone birdwing butterfly. Two Union Jack butterflies then flutter past with the red and blue edgings to their small white wings just visible.

Dudley, the mild-mannered ex-wild pig, is the first hobby farm animal to greet us with an impatient grunt that signifies he wants to get stuck into the apples we've brought.

Mr Ridley, the kunekune pig, is craving for an apple binge, but first he must have his mandatory back scratch with a therapeutic plastic rake.

The small children in our group are now let loose with a bucket of cabbage leaves to feed some more ravenous animals like Bonny and Clyde, the Middle-Eastern donkeys, Mr Little, the Shetland pony, and a gaggle of ducks, geese and last but not least the friendly, cheek-nuzzling trekking horses.

The whole affair is a pantomime of pleasure-filled squeals, shrieks and whinnying from animals and children alike.

Holly's Bird Walk in the resort grounds is another feast for the eyes, with myriad colourful avian friends parading almost on cue.

The shrill note of a little shrike thrush is heard and binoculars are trained on a high branch to watch its flitting and darting antics. Then a shoulered dove pops up its pretty head, followed by a tawny frogmouth and variegated fairy wren.

Welcome swallows dive erratically as an osprey soars on the thermals above. In the trees we spot a yellow-bellied sunbird, with its long curved bill and olive-green back.

A blue-green sacred kingfisher is sitting in his favourite perch high up on the mesh fence around the tennis courts. Scratching a living in the leaf litter are strong-legged, red-headed brush-turkeys.

An aggressive male, resplendent with his bright yellow wattle, is bulldozing leaf mould into a massive nest to incubate the female's eggs. These cheeky scavengers are constant companions for guests dining al fresco.

As the sun beats down on a shimmering Coral Sea, softening the deep blue water, I return to my lounger on the foreshore. A gentle breeze whispers in the palm fronds and gentle waves hiss on the fine coral sand.

On an exceptionally warm, humid day, I venture into the dark wet rainforest on the Circuit Track, marvelling at the forest giants draped with dangling roots of the strangler fig and dodging the hooked tendrils of the "wait-a-while" vine.

From Mt Kootaloo I have a panoramic view of the entire Family Group of islands floating in the jade-coloured Coral Sea.

Dunk Island has no equal for a relaxing tropical family holiday.

There is an amazing variety of activities for kids and adults, rejuvenating spa treatments, a children's programme and forest tracks that lead to an abandoned artists' colony on an idyllic white sand beach.

It is truly a fantasy island that is the stuff of dreams and sublime memories.

Paul Rush is an Auckland-based travel writer. He travelled to Dunk Island courtesy of Tourism Queensland and Voyages Resorts.

- Paul Rush