NIHI Sumba: A luxury escape to the Indonesian island of Sumba
This luxury health resort on a remote island in Indonesia is not like the others. There is equine therapy, waves surfed by Kelly Slater and you can even have croissants.
The arrival at luxury resort NIHI Sumba can be eventful. For me, it’s throwing up in a bag as the combination of a bumpy turbo-prop flight and a long winding drive takes its toll. For a guest arriving the day before me, apparently it involved driving past 12 sacrificed buffaloes, innards and bloodied heads laid out in a circle for a funeral.
This is not a regular resort arrival, but then this is not a regular resort. I have flown to the Indonesian island of Sumba, via a one-hour service from Bali, to experience the wellness program at NIHI Sumba, which is promoted as the “Edge of Wildness”. I soon realise that’s not an overstatement. I skip the purple welcome drink, although resident biochemist and wellness guru Freya Pinckney later shows me its active ingredient growing in the estate’s organic gardens. It’s the blue flowering butterfly pea, heavy in antioxidants and linked to promoting weight loss and skin health.
Instead, I stagger down the hill towards the ocean and my villa, which even in my unwell state, or perhaps because of it, is breathtaking. The design is lovely, all timber and soaring ceilings with a thatched roof, but it’s the view that truly delivers. From my bed and the deck, and indeed even my infinity pool, I look directly on to the surf break that put this place on the map.
My villa has gun-barrel views of “Occy’s Left”, a lefthander reef point break made famous by Australian world surf champion Mark Occhilupo, and since surfed by the likes of Kelly Slater, big-wave legend Greg Long and actor-cum-keen surfer Chris Hemsworth. But surf shack it is no more. Nowadays you are more likely to find guests such as David and Victoria Beckham in residence.
Brody Jenner got married here and semi-clad Instagram influencers jostle to snare a room at NIHI to have their bare bottoms (and sometimes fronts, I’m told by staff, much to the displeasure of traditional locals) photographed on the resort’s famous horses.
Nihiwatu, as it was first known, began life as a basic surfers’ hotel in 1988 developed by Claude and Petra Graves. The evolution to luxury came after US billionaire Chris Burch, former husband of fashion designer Tory Burch, bought the property in 2012 from the Graves, who now run the universally acclaimed Sumba Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation funded by resort guests, which has reduced malaria in the area and provided clean drinking water, healthcare and education to locals.
Most of the guests during my stay are from the US too, although there is a strong smattering of Australians and some Europeans. Burch is in residence on this occasion, as is his business partner, South African-born hotelier James McBride, both appearing remarkably fresh after a 13km hike in the island’s humid conditions.
With a glass of red wine in hand, McBride explains that the resort doesn’t preach “exclusions”, or have “detoxes, biohacking or cryogenic chambers” as part of its wellness philosophy. “Real things make people healthy, and everything here is authentic and real,” he says. “Not everything has got to be about infrared and hyperbaric chambers. All of these things are great, don’t get me wrong, but we have everything in its most natural form.”
True to that philosophy, one of the four legs of NIHI’s Wild Wellness program is surfing combined with equine therapy, supporting the Sumba Foundation, and encompassing hiking, personal training and brainbody methods such as breath holding. Yoga, pilates and spa treatments round it all out.
Guests can sign up for five, seven or 10-day programs, all individually tailored by wellness director Melany Martinez Thomas, whose previous role was at Kamalaya wellness retreat in Koh Samui, Thailand. She points out that guests on the surfing program don’t want to come in after four hours in the waves and have a kilojoule-controlled salad for lunch. “They
might want a burger,” says Thomas. And indeed, when I walk past the small beach bar that afternoon, there are four bare-chested men in boardshorts doing just that as they watch the waves roll in and listen to a guy with a guitar singing Jack Johnson hits.
My mini four-day program is all about horses and hiking, with my own added touch of to-die-for cinnamon scrolls and croissants for breakfast. On day two of my stay, I am given Rosie for a sunrise ride along the deserted 2.5km stretch of private beach. I spotted Rosie the day before when she and the rest of the property’s herd trotted from their shady spot on the hill to cool off in the ocean and canter and play along the beach. Rosie is one of 28 horses at NIHI; most are part-sandalwood pony, a breed descended from the Mongolian horses that Chinese brought to Sumba to collect the fragrant timber centuries ago.Rosie is easy enough to ride with just a halter. She is attentive when I ask her to trot and then canter across the sand and, importantly, is happy to return to a trot and walk when I ask. Later when I take her swimming in the ocean, she is keen to cool off in the softly rolling waves.
The experience is bliss and plays to the resort’s philosophy that just being around horses can instil happiness. Indeed, some guests who do the equine program don’t even come to ride, but just to brush, pat and lead the horses around. During one of my visits to the stables, an eight-year-old Australian girl is there, simply spending time with the horses while her dad surfs and
her mother hikes. Judging by her contentment, the resort’s philosophy of just “being” with horses clearly makes sense. I am told that horses and water buffaloes are still used for sacrifice during funerals as part of the Marapu religion. They’re loved in life, too. Horses usually form part of dowries, with the prospective groom often required to provide as many as 15 to win the bride’s hand in marriage.
Day three is for a “Spa Safari”, entailing a 6km hike through rice fields and hills to the NIHI day spa. It’s a fairly easy but very humid hike and there’s the prospect of seeing water buffaloes along the way, but not today, sadly.
A light salad lunch follows the walk and then the indulgent three-hour spa session. I opt for the traditional Sumba massage, performed by firm hands and involving a focus on the stomach, which local people believe has strong connections to the brain. Before the therapist begins, I receive a Sumba-style scrub with a native plant that lightly exfoliates my skin, and then my body, hands, feet, stomach, hair and face are all massaged.
The end result? Contentment. I am pleased to have “worked” for my treatment via the hike, I’ve avoided any pastries at lunch (not by choice; they just don’t feature on the spa menu) and then I’ve been scrubbed to within an inch of my life.
I manage another hike during my stay, up the hill to one of the villages where the locals are happy to have “outsiders” visit. It’s made up of traditional houses that have a high-pitched central peak in the thatched roof, a feature believed by adherents of the Marapu religion to give a connection with the spirits. Animals often live on the lower floor, with families in the middle, and food, spices and possibly spirits stored on the top level.
Unfortunately, due to my first day of illness, and the heavy humidity, Thomas doesn’t let me loose on long walks. But I’m content with light hikes, horse-riding on the beach and reading my book for hours on the beach in-between watching surfers being towed out on jet skis
and catching that perfectly barrelling Occy’s Left. In the end, my jeans are looser. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
In the know
NIHI Sumba has 27 uniquely designed villas and duplexes of various sizes and configurations, all with pools; from $US900 ($1347) a night in a one-bedroom villa, including meals, ground transfers, minibar and laundry service plus a select range of activities. Seasonal variations apply. The award-winning property is a member of Leading Hotels of the World.
Tansy Harcourt was a guest of NIHI Sumba
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