The gourmet getaway just two hours from Brisbane

Fine food and a taste of the great outdoors are on the menu at Spicer’s Peak Lodge, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

Spicers Peak Lodge in Maryvale.

There is something kind of magical about being woken up by the sounds of happy cows mooing outside your window – even if it is a whisker before 6am on a Sunday.

I’m at Spicers Peak Lodge in Maryvale, a two-hour drive southwest of Brisbane.

This glorious luxury lodge envisioned and built by Jude Turner, of Flight Centre fame, and her sister Ros 20 years ago (now owned by Salter Brothers), is set 1100m above sea level amid the mountains of the Great Dividing Range and lush World Heritage-listed Main Range National Park.

An aerial shot of Spicers Peak Lodge, Maryvale. Picture: Supplied

To get here you’re best to use a 4WD, all-wheel drive or helicopter, thanks to the property’s bumpy, unsealed entrance, which takes about 20-25 minutes to traverse by car. That said, there are plenty of steel-willed guests and employees who are happy to live out their rally car racing dreams and make the somewhat treacherous trek in a two-wheel drive, which I’m told is part of the fun. Once you arrive here, however, there is absolutely no reason to leave, with all gourmet meals and drinks included (sans a select few premium offerings) and a buffet of experiences to keep even the most dopamine-seeking diehards entertained.

We arrive perfectly timed for lunch – a four-course tasting menu from talented chef Gareth Newburn, with matched wines. All Spicers properties are committed to providing a fine dining experience for guests using the best of local produce to bring the story of the region to the plate, and that is certainly the case at Peak.

The dining room at Spicers Peak Lodge.

While Newburn may be from New Zealand, he has found an affinity for the surrounding Scenic Rim ingredients, and has created a delicately portioned degustation beginning with kingfish, continuing with local mushrooms, anchored by duck and concluding with meringue. Each dish is a work of art visually, but this isn’t style over substance, it’s flavour first and every morsel is to be savoured.

There is also another tasting menu with matching wines available for dinner, because at Spicers they never want their guests to go hungry (snacks in the mini bar are also included in your room rate), so that means it’s exercise time for us in order to work up an appetite before nightfall. For the fit and highly adventurous, there is a downhill mountain bike track, navigating perilous, undulating terrain amid a landscape of eucalyptus and acacias.

Staff warn it is designed for the intermediate to advanced rider, and they’re not kidding.

If you’re a little shaky on a bike, this is certainly not for you unless you want to be wearing the dirt you’re supposed to be riding on like I did on a previous visit. Adrenaline junkies, however, will love it; and for the cardio-keen you can even choose to cycle back up the 7km hill.

Mountain biking at Spicers Peak Lodge. Picture: Supplied

Or if the white-knuckled ride has you weary, the property’s caring and forever hospitable staff will pick you up from the bottom.

For those who aren’t quite as thrill seeking, the lodge offers six different walking tracks throughout the property’s 3237ha, ranging from an easy 4km circuit loop designed to take about an hour to a more challenging 7km hike, which will stretch to roughly two hours one way.

My guest and I create a little hybrid of the tracks, walking over grassy knolls alive with flowers and bees, alongside those aforementioned black angus and Highland cattle, before heading into the forest where there are plenty of steep hills to get the heart well and truly pumping.

The retreat also offers a schedule of complimentary yoga classes, and a tennis court, but we find ourselves exploring a bit of hot and cold therapy at the retreat’s pool and hot tub, jumping between the unheated pool that’s bordering on ice bath territory after a couple of chilly nights and rain before our visit, and the spa which is warmed to a toasty 42 degrees.

The property also offers a wealth of less goosebump-inducing complimentary activities such as cocktail making classes, gin appreciation sessions, art tours of the property, bushcraft classes where you’ll be taught how to start a fire using the friction method; billy tea and damper events, plus canapes by the campfire.

Or you could simply relax in the stunning lodge’s timber and stone-clad lounge area, complete with an open bar, roaring fireplace and myriad cosy couches for snuggling up with a book or board game from the library.

The lounge area at Spicers Peak Lodge.

After a quick shower (there’s also a bath in our room and heated towel racks), it’s time for dinner and it’s just as good as lunch.

This time we’re offered the a la carte menu – a far less formal affair with dishes ranging from a light and bright cured salmon ensemble to a comforting, classic duck ragu. Just don’t forget to add sides with the battens of sweet and sour eggplant making a sensational vegetarian substitute for sticky pork ribs; while the beer-battered chips are some of the best you’ll find anywhere.

The pastry department also doesn’t hold back, offering old favourites with a twist like a creamy rice pudding layered with dulce de leche thick caramel that I can’t wait to try making myself at home.

One of the rooms with a fireplace at Spicers Peak Lodge.

It’s enough to put us into a food coma – well that and the ridiculously comfortable kingsize bed, which my partner won’t stop raving about.

There’s an a la carte offering for breakfast the next morning, with the likes of waffles and fruit, a big brekky or eggs benedict that will set you up for, perhaps, one of the optional paid activities like 4WD adventures and helicopter flights or guided hikes and private wine and cheese tastings. But we choose a little pampering in the on-site spa.

There’s a couple’s room as well as individual spaces, plus a hot tub for relaxing in pre- or post-treatment.

I’m in for a facial and massage and my therapist Camille is a wizard, transforming my dull, dry skin into the dewy, shimmering epidermis of my dreams using organic products from the Brisbane-based Waterlily brand.

The outdoor pool at Spicers Peak Lodge. Picture: Supplied

She tells me that plenty of visitors simply come for a day trip, enjoying lunch and the spa before returning home, but that would be to do yourself an incredible disservice.

Peak Lodge begs to be enjoyed at least overnight. With that crisp, clean country air, food and service that warms your soul, and mountains that paint a picture in your mind, it’s the ultimate in relaxation – even with an alarm clock of cows.

The writer was a guest of the operators

Spicers Peak Lodge

1 Wilkinson Rd, Maryvale

1300 253 103

spicersretreats.com

Two-hour drive from Brisbane.

Accommodation including breakfast, lunch and chef’s tasting menu for dinner, complimentary mini bar and selected drinks from $1444 a night.