NEXT time I go kayaking I'll ask for a single one.  

While my husband and I love doing a lot of things together, kayaking for now won't be on the list.

I wondered how the other kayaking couples on the Valentine's Day outing went.

Johnny Riley, owner of Palm Cove Watersports, about 25 minutes' drive north of Cairns, was planning to take several on a special outing for that day.

On our journey, we paddled over to Double Island, home of an exclusive resort, right opposite Palm Cove.

Keanu Reeves stayed here after filming The Matrix and is said to have paid more than $60,000 for a gym to be put in. But then that's reasonable considering it costs about $30,000 a night to stay there (you need to book the whole resort).

We took a glance at it as we wondered along the shore checking out lagoon and mangrove rays, crabs and shovel nosed sharks and trying to spot a turtle.

This is stingray heaven full of smaller fish feeding on plankton.

Riley filled us in on the marine, bird and plant life.

After that we paddled round to the other side where the water was calmer and translucent, stopping off to sit on the rocks and have morning tea. If you wish to snorkel you can don stinger suits to avoid being bitten by dangerous jellyfish known as marine stingers. 

We could have paddled on to the smaller island known as Scout's Hat but decided to take the easier way back.

That was lucky because between the two of us it wasn't THAT easy - something about the steering I think or perhaps too many chiefs and not enough Indians but we sure weren't moving in rhythm.

Riley said some couples who hadn't kayaked together before think they will be really bad and turn out fine while the opposite  happens too. You just can never tell.

Anyway Riley could see we were in a spot of bother and came to our aid, and we got back safe and sound.

Normally the trip takes around four hours leaving at 8.30am or there's a sunrise trip from 6am to 7.30am. There's also afternoon excursions.

• More Cairns region adventure activities

Ironically enough, we were in Palm Cove for a romantic Valentine's Day weekend.

Marketing Palm Cove as a Valentine's destination is a good idea as it's very quiet in Far North Queensland at this time of year.  But despite reports of bad weather - and a cyclone a couple of weeks before - it was actually gorgeous weather - hot but bearable with some rain in the evening to cool you down.

While you can only swim inside the stingers net off the beach in the wet season between November and March - which I did - there are still the hotel pools. And in the evening the beach is perfect to walk along, and the jetty popular for fishing.

Palm Cove is also extremely popular as a wedding and honeymoon destination, whatever time of year.

It's now being promoted as a place to go to on Valentine's Day or another time to renew your wedding vows. This year Tourism Palm Cove ran a competition to find a couple who wanted to publicly declare their love and picked Alan and Judith Crockford, from Cairns, who were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.

In front of a small group of family, friends and media they did just this in a simple but not-without-humour ceremony at the all-white Angsana Great Barrier Reef Chapel on the waterfront. (It's said to be the only purpose built beachfront chapel in Australia.)

• Cairns region wedding information

After the kayaking renewing the vows was also not on the list  for us but eating, lying by the pool at our resort - the Sebel Reef  House - and reading worked better as our couples' activities - as  well as a spa treatment at the Reef House Spa.

My 90-minute Mala Mayi body treatment began with an Aboriginal smoking ceremony, burning lemon myrtle to clear any negative energy. (I needed that after the kayaking experience!)

You're exfoliated then "calmed and revitalised" in warm Mapi mud while you "submit" to a scalp massage. Then there's the rain therapy to wash the mud off. The whole treatment ends with a 30-minute Kodo or rhythmic massage, devised by the Li'tya treatments range.

After it, I sat for a few minutes upstairs in a tropical-style room, with shuttered windows, with a cup of herbal tea and a glass of water, overlooking one of the resort's pools. Alone, bliss.

• More Cairns region day spas

The last morning I did laps in the saltwater pool with nobody else there to bother me.

The original Reef House was built in 1958 by a Cairns bookmaker and used as a family home. Later in 1972, Brigadier The Hon David Thomson, MC, RL, (later Federal Minister for Science & Technology), bought the property and operated Reef House as a private residence with visitors treated as personal guests.

Guests helped themselves to drinks from the bar, and in the true tradition of an officer's mess, signed chits on an honesty system. You can still do this in the Brigadier's Bar.

The whole resort has a beautiful laid-back tropical feel to it, but this doesn't affect its excellent service.

Its restaurant is set behind 300-year-old Melaleuca gums.

And breakfast there has an unusual and delicious hot menu as well as a buffet of fruit and pastries.

Another gorgeous restaurant is Nu Nu right opposite the beach and also in among the Melaleucas. The menu uses local produce mainly from the Atherton Tableland and local fishermen and reflects North Queensland, Asian and Mediterranean cuisines.

And we didn't fight once over what we were going to eat. 

• More Cairns region restaurants

More:

• Cairns accommodation
• Palm Cove attractions
• Palm Cove Watersports website
• Sebel Reef House website
• Nu Nu website
• Angsana Chapel website

The writer was a guest of Tourism Palm Cove and Tourism Queensland.

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