Escape the cold weather at this slice of heaven right here in Australia

I'm enjoying my start to this Far North Queensland summer day, tucking into warm coconut buns with macadamia butter lagoon-side at one of Australia's most storied resorts. Until I stop mid-mouthful as a penny drops: "Oh, we're walking IN the river."

On our itinerary, part of a "Green Getaway" package at Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort, Port Douglas, we're scheduled to do a "Riverwalk Tour" on the Mossman River and I had assumed we'd be walking alongside it, bushwalk style, on the lookout for cassowaries and soaking up the green lushness of the rainforest.

It is in fact a "River Drift" experience and there will be soaking, all right. We head back to our room to change and soon enough, after being picked up at reception by Back Country Bliss tours, we're pulling on rubber boots and grabbing ourselves an inflatable red river sled each, which we proceed to drag behind us upstream through mostly shallow, clear, surprisingly cold water. After an hour or so of championship-level wading, we'll get to a point where the real fun begins: jumping on the sleds and riding currents - at times nail-bitingly strong - back down the river as a light rain falls and, at one point, we lie on our backs to gaze at the tropical canopy closing out the sky above us.

The guide for our group of eight, Guy Wall, explains the tour did involve walking through forest, and snorkelling as well, until the wettest tropical cyclone in Australian history pounded the region before Christmas last year. Cyclone Jasper "changed the river's topography", he explains. Many of Australia's freshwater fish species would dart about in the river - thus the snorkelling - until Jasper dumped tonnes of sand over the rocks where the fish lived.

Happily, Guy has no doubt the topography will restore itself and the fish will return. Cyclones, after all, have been shaping and reshaping this landscape for millennia. In fact, the tributary we walk up has been here only since 1910, when a sugarcane farmer awoke after a cyclone to find a new river flowing through his property. "Even now you won't find it on Google Maps," Guy says. "It is still registered officially as dry land."

We're spending three nights in Port Douglas, where two World Heritage-listed areas - the Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef - meet. It's an hour-or-so drive north of Cairns along a coastal road that reopened in late February, just in time for our visit, after also being smashed by Jasper.

While rainforest and reef are the centrepiece of our minibreak plans, our accommodation is part of the attraction, too. Few resorts come with the backstory of the Mirage, an icon of the heady, hedonistic, white-shoe-brigade days of the 1980s. Australia watched goggle-eyed as tycoon Christopher Skase's extravagant dream rose from the ground, opening in 1987 and sprawling across 147 hectares on Four Mile Beach. Port Douglas was a sleepy fishing village - a sweaty dot on the map - before Skase arrived and you can see why tourists come here: its town centre is well kept and attractive with its greenery and smart-looking cafes, shops and restaurants. And there are many more resorts these days.

We run out of time to properly explore the town. We're too busy kicking back at the Mirage in between Green Getaway tours. One of them is an all-day outer-reef trip with Sailaway Port Douglas, where we snorkel over coral in iridescent blues, greens, yellows and pinks, and visit Mackay Cay, a sliver of white sand in the middle of the Coral Sea - there's nothing on it but a big washed-up tree branch and a flock of terns that quickly takes off.

Our bright and breezy studio suite - one of 294 resort rooms and 55 villas - has ladder access off the balcony straight into a lagoon pool, which is beyond perfect when you've worked up a sweat just by sitting on the balcony reading a book. We also laze away a few afternoon hours in a pre-booked poolside cabana, sliding into the water whenever we feel like it and ordering lunch via a QR code: a Thai beef salad and a pina colada delivered by friendly staff from the swim-up Lagoon Pool Bar.

An army of sun loungers and umbrellas face the 10 lagoon pools that together spread across two hectares of the resort, some with man-made beaches, others whose speckled bottoms are in apparent need of a paint job. Four Mile Beach beckons from beyond the tree line, but we are happy simply to walk along it given the resort signage that warns against many hazards, including crocodiles.

The Grand Mirage's last major renovation was in 2016 to the tune of $43 million, but most recently it's been investing in sustainable initiatives, spending $9 million on measures involving energy reduction, waste recycling and buying local. That includes produce from local farmers, no doubt ending up in dishes at Lagoon House Restaurant which becomes our go-to eatery among the handful on site - including the much-awarded fine-dining establishment, Harrisons; Feast, where a breakfast buffet is served; and the Deck at Feast specialising in Italian cuisine (the mushroom truffle risotto is excellent). A cafe in the enormous lobby area - its epic size a testament to Skase's long-ago ambition - serves barista coffee and snacks until 3pm. Also in the lobby: a grand piano that sits on an island platform surrounded by water, an echo of those early days when the international jet-set first came to town.

At the Lagoon House Restaurant, Asian flavours rule the plate. At our outdoor table, as a welcome evening breeze stirs the palm trees, we share wok-fried squid, smoked wagyu brisket, swordfish sashimi and shiitake dumplings. The chefs work nearby at an open kitchen and strike a gong each time a dish is ready to be served or, as the resort describes it, happiness is about to arrive on a plate. There is no doubt we're feeling pretty good right now.

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Getting there: From Cairns airport, Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort is just over an hour's drive north in a hire car or shuttle bus. In Port Douglas, private bus operators offer well-priced door-to-door transport. visitportdouglas.com.au

Staying there: Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort's four-night Green Getaway package includes exclusive offers with local tour operators and $50 daily credit in the resort's restaurants and bars. From about $410 a night. Standard room rates also from about $410. marriott.com

Explore more: tourismportdouglas.com.au

The writer was a guest of Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort.