Australian spas to deliver bliss after coronavirus shutdown
After weeks of isolation, we’re hankering for pampering at these relaxing Australian spas. Our travel writers recall the best massage, facials and more indulgence from around the country.
Chi The Spa, Shangri-La Hotel, NSW
This hushed Sydney oasis, accessed via ebony double doors worthy of a temple, unfolds on level two of this towering hotel, along scented corridors lined with spacious treatment rooms, all featuring low lighting, ensuites and private changing facilities equipped with super-soft gowns. The Hong Kong-headquartered Shangri-la group takes its name from the mythical Asian mountain kingdom described in James Hilton’s 1933 novel, Lost Horizon. Accordingly, the signature 90-minute Himalayan massage, using heated stones containing 84 natural minerals and salts, is a blissful no-brainer for my first post-COVID-19 indulgence, guaranteed to transport me to a soothing slumber. Next choice would be a quick 45-minute detoxifying organic shea butter-and-sugar body scrub, leaving skin glowing and buffed, ready to shine in a reawakened world. Herbal tea is served at seating pods in a curtained annexe off reception and the spa store sells all-natural Sodashi skincare products and Shangri-la branded items, such as room sprays and candles.
SUSAN KUROSAWA
Stables Day Spa, South Australia
Winter is drawing in rapidly in the Adelaide Hills. It’s a busy time in the orchards, vineyards and gardens, so I can’t be the only one dreaming of a little pampering; of kicking off my gumboots and enjoying a long, luscious, rejuvenating body treatment. The Stables Day Spa sits in the grounds of the historic Mount Lofty House hotel, tucked below the summit with long views over the fecund hills, at this time of the year marked with squiggles of wood smoke and fruit-laden apple trees. Restored five years ago, the charming 1850s building has ditched the horse boxes for three cosy treatment rooms set within thick stone walls and augmented by a menu of relaxing treatments infused with Australian-made Waterlily botanicals. This seems entirely apropos given the Stables rests directly above the 97ha Mount Lofty Botanic Garden where waterlilies lattice the lake and deep, dark gullies shelter great banks of magnolias and rhododendrons. Hotel guests have a distinct advantage in that it’s barely a minute’s stroll to the Stables from the main house and, come September, the new luxury Sequoia Lodge.
stablesdayspa.com.au (opening June 8)
CHRISTINE McCABE
Spa Qualia, Queensland
There’s no forgetting where you are when you land in the Whitsundays. From the powdery white beaches hugging the piercingly blue Coral Sea, to the salty breeze and swaying palms, this Queensland archipelago blazes itself into your memory. Spa Qualia is a star attraction within Hamilton Island’s luxury Qualia resort; it’s a dreamy wellness cocoon specialising in therapies that celebrate Australia’s flora and heritage. Take, for example, the Whitsunday Escape, an extravagant three-hour affair that captures the Great Barrier Reef in a sensorial snapshot. I can hear the waves, which my masseuse mimics with gently flowing strokes over my back. I’ve just eaten macadamia-crusted fish for lunch, and now the native nut is crushed and rubbed into my skin to exfoliate and moisturise. I’m reminded of the balmy climes outside through in-room heat therapy, to relieve tension, and my marine mineral facial delivers a hit of antioxidants while nodding to the ocean, just metres away. Somewhere in between, there’s a clay body wrap and nourishing scalp treatment. Fittingly, it all ends with a drenching under an enormous outdoor rain shower. I’m in the tropics, after all.
qualia.com.au (currently closed)
NATASHA DRAGUN
The Spa at Lake House, Victoria
After weeks of mandatory isolation, it’s a different sort of isolation I’m craving — a treehouse set among the willow tops beside Lake Daylesford. In the centre is a jacuzzi filled with the mineral-rich waters piped from the volcanic fissures that course through the bedrock of Victoria’s Central Highlands. Jets off, preferably, the better to hear nature’s chorus of parrots and magpies and the lakeside breezes stirring the leafy canopy outside the louvred windows. While I’m soaking, the healing water’s sulphates perform such essential relief as purifying the liver and stimulating blood flow. Afterwards, retire to one of nine treatment rooms at The Spa at Lake House, one of Australia’s leading country house hotels, for a Bliss treatment — 90 minutes of rhythmic massaging, hot stones, warm oils and unguents from the new Daylesford Pure range. Lake House staff have been using their shutdown time smartly, learning the medicinal properties of herbs and other botanicals grown at their 15ha Dairy Flat farm and then transforming these into small-batch remedies. It’s a farm-to-spa philosophy that harnesses the healing powers of nature, just when they’re most needed.
lakehouse.com.au (currently closed)
KENDALL HILL
Gaia Retreat and Spa, NSW
Everything’s gentle at this Byron Bay hinterland escape, from the daily low-key yoga classes to the serene comfort of the wide wooden dining hall. A visit to the onsite day spa, which is available to retreat guests and external visitors, is also a study in quiet calm. On arrival you are greeted with warm smiles and hot tea, then led to a softly lit pampering room, where the pick of the treatments is the 4½-hour Gaia Goddess indulgence. Choose your own custom-mixed scrub; the wattleseed-and-lemon myrtle blend connects beautifully with the surrounds. Drift off under the slow application of a cocoa butter body masque and facial that uses the spa’s Gaia Retreatment Botanics. And the icing on top? The thick hair masque from cult brand O&M, which can be left on all day or even overnight, turning unruly “iso” hair into well-behaved waves, as soft as the rolling green hills that curve around the property.
gaiaretreat.com.au (possible July opening)
ALEX CARLTON
Hepburn Bathhouse & Spa, Victoria
Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile, reputedly bathed daily in the milk of 700 donkeys. Thankfully, it’s easier these days to make like North African royalty. Hepburn Bathhouse & Spa, the Victorian spa country institution that’s provided wellness bathing since 1895, is about 120km from Melbourne and offers an alluring range of hydrotherapies and beauty treatments. One that catches my eye is the 45-minute private Royal Moroccan milk mineral bath, a regal combination of milk protein and the region’s famous revitalising mineral waters. After wallowing in milk or “taking the waters” in a more traditional way, waft back across the road to one of Hepburn Spa Retreat’s 10 luxury villas or search for the natural springs within the 30ha Hepburn Mineral Springs Reserve. Falling as rain many years ago, the naturally carbonated groundwater has been enriched with minerals and trace elements leached from 450 million-year-old rock.
hepburnsparetreat.com.au (currently closed)
KATRINA LOBLEY
Rather than a specific spa treatment, I’m longing for the fully immersive retreat experience. Gwinganna, on a plateau in the Gold Coast hinterland, engages all the senses. You feel the stillness of the surrounding forest, see the sparkling, distant ocean, listen to birdsong, and taste flavour-filled dishes made with herbs and vegetables from the organic garden. Notice how your body feels during 5am qi gong on the lawn; at 3pm with a warm massage; stroking through the heated lap pool as it sends wisps of steam into the mountain air. There’s the exhilaration of a wild drumming class, the silence of a deep bath with a view from your lofty recycled-timber villa, and time to enjoy a good book. Food tastes amazing without sugar and oversalting; sleep can be deeper and longer without aperitifs, wine and nightcaps. Clenched muscles relinquish their hold and you rediscover your natural co-ordination, and the ability to do just one thing at a time. Or nothing.
gwinganna.com (possible July opening)
NATALIE FILATOFF
In the Know
While many spa resorts remain closed due to COVID-19 restrictions, some day spas have begun opening their doors. Endota Spa, which has 100 outlets across the country, has reopened many of its stores for retail sales of products and for remedial massage in selected NSW, Queensland and Victorian venues. Beauty treatments are available in Queensland locations. Ella Bache, which has more than 140 salons around Australia, has opened for retail sales and for beauty treaments in Queensland. Both chains are operating under revised hygiene rules, including client screening, cashless payments and limiting the number of customers to ensure social distancing.
PENNY HUNTER