Totally charmed, I'm sure

Tiger prawns with fennel and orange salad.

The man opposite appears to be in rapture. Eyes closed with a contented smile, he's fingering an imaginary piano on the white tablecloth as Marina Prior belts out another number.

We're upstairs at Berardo's Restaurant and Bar in Noosa.

Berardo's is packed with Noosa's well-heeled who have paid $164 a head for the pleasure and a sumptuous three-course dinner. The food is divine, especially the roasted swordfish with skordalia (garlic sauce), and orange oil.

The service is spectacular, too - an army of white-aproned waiters glide at speed between the tables to serve the throng before Prior takes the floor with her pianist called Luvvy. The audience is adoring.

A woman behind me adds an enthusiastic "Yay!" to the applause after every number. By the third yay, I'm mildly irritated. By the end of the set I want to do something violent. The fans don't mind though, lapping up everything the Australian popera diva throws at them, including her banal banter. "We call him Luvvy - I don't know why, we just do."

Prior says there's time for one more song. Should it be Les Mis or Phantom? "Phantom", yells yay woman, "Les Mis!" cries virtual piano man, clapping self-consciously above his head as Prior begins a Les Miserables dirge I vaguely recognise. Everyone is spellbound.

Food and culture. It's a recurring theme of our Noosa sojourn. Earlier we have witnessed a medley of acts to launch the annual Noosa Long Weekend - a locally run arts festival that's grown into a 10-day event. The opening is on Noosa Heads beach - a stunning location with surf crashing stage right on the fine white sand.

Actually the sand is lucky to be there - piped in regularly because it gets washed away because of a badly aligned rock wall built in the early 70s after a cyclone damaged the shore. That bungle was exacerbated by the plonking of a huge land mass to relocate the Noosa river mouth in 1978 to protect expensive canal properties from the eroding sea.

Despite the mess made from messing with nature, Noosa is still gorgeous and has it all - surf beaches, bush, river, canals, a low-rise building policy that avoids the crassness of the Gold Coast tower blocks, an abundance of fish and marvellous pelicans.

These days Noosa Main Beach keeps its beauty courtesy of an 18m self-burying submarine sand shifter and attendant pipeline which nourishes the shore with about 40,000 cu m of sand a year. But on this clear mid-June evening we're oblivious to such machinations and more concerned about the chill in the air - especially the 13-year-old who has refused to bring a jacket and sits shivering until I gallantly give her mine. The locals tell us this is unseasonably cold and the rain on Australia's Sunshine Coast a few days earlier was unusual too.

Escaping an Auckland winter, we're not too bothered - especially as temperatures have been about 20C during the day and the water warm enough for a few swims.

But most of the locals have come prepared for a cold night and it's fitting that the finale is a weird piece of dance theatre with fake snow. That gives way to a fireworks display fired from beyond the surf break and followed by vintage (1959) Sydney rock'n'roll band, The Delltones.

The gangly Pee Wee Wilson aka "the Beanpole of Bop" wows the crowd with his booming bass tones in classics such as Hanging Five on the Malibu.

Wonderful and great added colour for a passing tourist, but one gets the sense the Long Weekend is mainly a local affair to feed Noosa's culturally starved residents - predominantly retirees and a smattering of barefoot executives.

But if culture is sometimes in short supply in Noosa, fine food is everywhere. Two nights earlier we dined at Gusto on Gympie St in Noosaville. It's our first taste of Noosa style - fast, fresh and without fuss - and a significant notch up on most of Auckland's restaurants.

My pacific oysters with watermelon salsa made with raspberry vinaigrette were sensational. And my barramundi, perfectly cooked with sparing adornment, was quite possibly the finest fish I've ever eaten.

The high standard continues the next night when we are picked up at our apartment jetty by a gondola - yes, really. Greeted by a blokey Aussie improbably called Ricardo, we're soon sipping bubbly, plying Noosa's waterways to the strains of Santa Lucia and gawking at the residents of glass-fronted riverbank palaces. Surreal voyeurism. Ricardo drops us at the pontoon of Ricky Ricardo's (no relation) river bar and restaurant.

Once again the food and service is exquisite, this time with more Mediterranean flavours. Ricky's signature tapas are a must.

Everywhere we eat in Noosa we're knocked out by the combination of stunning food, service and ambience. Lunch at Jasper is another example. I can thoroughly recommend the shallow-fried calamari and it's also a great place to lounge with a glass of wine watching the passers-by, while others peruse the famed Hastings St shops.

Our accommodation has been the Las Rias apartments - privately owned units that are let out to tourists for most of the year, like many of Noosa's properties.

Our complex is managed by Paul and Leslie, expat Kiwis who moved over about two years ago. Kiwis are everywhere on the Sunshine Coast, testimony to the great New Zealand exodus to the lucky country over the last two decades. And after a few days in Noosa you understand why - gorgeous climate, laid-back lifestyle and jobs and opportunities to burn.

But like coastal land everywhere, Noosa property prices are insane. Paul says our first-floor apartment is worth about A$2 million ($2.2 million). Located on the river's edge, with its own beach and looking out to Noosa's bush-clad, sparsely populated north shore, you can see why. Tourists can partake of this luxury lifestyle surprisingly cheaply in the off-season, with rates going down the longer one stays.

Noosa also provides a great base from which to venture further to attractions like Fraser Island or Australia Zoo. Or the less well-known Noosa hinterland which we explore via the food-and-wine trail.

Our tour guide Terry - another Kiwi who has made Australia home - indulges my sweet tooth with a quick stop at the Nougat factory to see just how egg whites, sugar and macadamia nuts are transformed into such a heavenly treat.

Next we're coffee tasting with Jason ( yet another Kiwi) at the Pioneer Roastery. Fascinating to actually taste the difference between and Colombian and Guatemalan beans. And to contrast those with the "low body, explosive florid flavours" of the Kenyan. By the end of the session we're on our way to becoming connoisseurs - seriously discussing the different tastes produced by roasting techniques and the merits of blends - "medium body, not too challenging, nice aftertaste with perhaps a hint of blueberry".

Across the road at the Buderim ginger factory row upon row of vats of ginger are being processed into syrup which is a little unnerving - one half expects a bunyip to emerge from these simmering yellow swamps. But the ginger beer - just add the syrup to mineral water - is very good.

Lunch is on a wide-open verandah at the picturesque Dingo Creek vineyard, where the wine is at the sweeter end of the palette, the kangaroo sausage is delectable, and tranquillity rules. The setting is also home to the annual Dingo Creek Wine, Jazz and Blues Festival.

What's astounding about this tour is not just the surrounds and the food, but the entrepreneurial spirit of the people we meet - each carving out a niche in their own piece of paradise.

Carol of Carol's Salads started out growing beautiful salad greens in her backyard. Today she has beds and beds of baby silverbeet, china greens, sorrel, baby cos, crinkle cress and more which she picks every day to deliver to several of Noosa's top restaurants.

The tour ends with a lively wine tasting at the Noosa Valley Winery where winemaker Heather Robinson shows off Robinson's wines which come from Ballandean on the Granite Belt of Southern Queensland. Hailing from the Saltrams Winery dynasty, Robinson has loads of wine knowledge which she interweaves with lovely humour and intuition to make good wine taste even better.

Back on our Las Rias balcony we watch the sun go down and the landscape fall to silhouette with the faintest of orange hues at the skyline. The river is flat, quiet and inky purple. Noosa's charm has just claimed another convert.

* Chris Barton travelled to Noosa as a guest of Noosa Tourism.

Getting there

Pacific Blue's Auckland-Brisbane adult return fares start at around $375. See www.flypacificblue.com.

Accommodation

Las Rias Luxury Apartments on Noosa Sound, offer seven nights from A$1330 ($1470) in low season. See www.lasrias.com.au.

Things to do

Gondolas of Noosa is at www.gondolasnoosa.com.

Noosa Food and Wine Trail is outlined on www.noosahinterlandtours.com.au.

Where to eat

Berardos Restaurant & Bar, Hastings Street, Noosa Heads, www.berardos.com.au.

Gustos, 257 Gympie Terrace, Noosaville.

Ricky Ricardo's River Bar & Restaurant, Noosa Wharf, Quamby Place, Noosa Sound, www.rickyricardos.com.

Jasper Restaurant, 42 Hastings Street, Noosa Heads.