Peninsula Hot Springs resort puts glamping on the menu
I’m in my swimsuit, smeared head to toe, ear to ear, in four layers of mud. But this is no ordinary grime.
Getting dirty with six scantily clad strangers has never felt so good. I’m in my swimsuit, smeared head to toe, ear to ear, in four layers of mud. But this is no ordinary grime. The gloopy white, red, olive and brown clays have been sourced from outback ranges and volcanic plains across the country, and each promises unique therapeutic properties, from healing scars and improving circulation to relieving muscle pain.
The all-over beauty mask is part of the body clay workshop at Peninsula Hot Springs on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. And by the end of the 45-minute session, when the sun has dried the mud and we’ve washed away the dust beneath outdoor hot mineral showers, we’re all glowing. My skin feels so soft it’s easy to believe there really is magic in the mud.
Voted the world’s best mineral spring spa at the 2020 World Luxury Spa Awards, Peninsula Hot Springs recently emerged from the largest expansion since its 2005 opening, with a cafe, additional bathing areas, an outdoor stage, wellness centre, private cabanas and airconditioned relaxation domes. On-site glamping accommodation, which opened in December 2020, allows overnight stays for the first time. I’m staying in Tent 1, the pick of the inventory of 10 if you like your privacy. It’s on an island, opposite a cluster of tents across the footbridge. Once the newly planted native garden grows, you won’t even be able to see those neighbours.
The walls may be made of canvas, but there’s not much that’s tent-like about these lodgings. The facade is all glass, and instead of annoying zippers there are sliding fly-screened doors. There’s an ensuite, walk-in wardrobe, ceiling fan, air-con and heated polished concrete floors that turn on the moment the ambient temperature hits 17C. Creature comforts include a king-sized bed with a natural timber bedhead, moody charcoal and grey linens, felted wool furnishings, brass fittings, deckchairs out the front and a big circular couch perfect for curling up in. Along with a coffee pod machine and fridge, guests have access to room (tent) service should they get peckish in the middle of the night. It’s not as preposterous as it sounds, because there’s bathing around the clock, and nothing sharpens the appetite like a midnight soak.
It’s my first visit to Peninsula Hot Springs and the property is much bigger than expected. More than 50 pools are spread across the 17ha site and I spend much of my time lost, wandering a maze of pathways that winds through bushland around a chain of pools cascading down the hillside, spilling from one terrace to another. The most popular is the hilltop pool, where bathers can gaze out across the Mornington Peninsula. The soaking stations are meticulously landscaped, but the springs are natural, with geothermal mineral waters pumped up from wells more than 600m below. The water is a hot 54C, but the temperature in the pools varies from 34C to 42C. It is rich in minerals: boron, which builds muscle mass and strengthens bones; magnesium, which is good for the skin; and potassium, to reduce blood pressure and help to eliminate toxins. A cocktail of other minerals promises to purify, soothe arthritis and rheumatism, improve circulation, settle nerves and remedy just about any other ailment. It’s my kind of holiday health program because soaking is all that’s needed to reap the benefits.
Other options include hot springs yoga, which is a novel take on aqua aerobics, and fire and ice workshops that involve rotating between a sauna, ice cave, minus-25C deep freeze, cold plunge pool and hot springs. There is also guided meditation, barrel bathing, cave pools, private bathing pavilions, massage showers, reflexology walks, foot baths, waterfall bathing, a Turkish hammam, bathe-in cinema on Friday nights during summer and a raft of spa treatments.
I opt for a one-hour Kodo massage in the Spa Dreaming Centre, an adults-only wellness area away from the family-friendly pools. Using Li’Tya products sourced from Australian native plants, it’s a relaxing rhythmic massage incorporating modern Indigenous knowledge of herbs and botanicals and rituals such as a smoking ceremony with lemon myrtle leaves. The massage is part of a glamping, dine and spa package, which includes breakfast and a two-course dinner with a glass of wine or beer, served at the Spa Dreaming Cafe overlooking the springs, one of three dining venues on site. Some guests dress for dinner, but most dine in their bathrobes, fresh from the water. The menu has mostly vegetarian options, with changing daily specials for meat eaters, although for single diners like me, choices are limited as most of the specials are share platters. I try grilled fish with guacamole, sweet corn salsa and a jalapeno sauce. A dessert platter with passionfruit cheesecake, beetroot chocolate pudding, lemon tart and fruit is also offered as a boxed-up takeaway option for guests to take back to their tents.
Still in the robe I donned on arrival, I indulge in this sweet course on the deck of my tent, overlooking the reed-fringed lagoon where tiny ducklings waddle in a line behind their mother, and honeyeaters and wrens flit from shrub to shrub. As the sun sets and the moon rises, frogs begin booming out a lullaby that lasts all night long. Plan A was to make a night-time dash to one of the pools for a spot of moonlight bathing, but the minerals seemed to have delivered on their promise to improve my sleep and I’m out like a light not long after dark. I do manage to get up before dawn and sink neck-deep into the first hot pool I find, watching the mist swirl above the surface in wraith-like tendrils in the fresh morning chill.
My glamping package includes a pre-breakfast yoga session beside the pools. It’s a deceptively gentle stretching class that caters for beginners as well as the more experienced, although the next day I’m reminded of muscles unaccustomed to being stretched every time I raise my arms above my head.
I’ve yet to feel that pain at breakfast as I toss up between the healthy option of fruit and yogurt or a more decadent scrambled eggs with grilled haloumi, bacon, beets and za’atar spices. There’s time for one more float and soak before departure. Detox, retox, repeat. It’s a routine I could get used to.
In the know
Peninsula Hot Springs is at Fingal on the Mornington Peninsula, about a 90-minute drive from Melbourne. Full-day and one-hour bathing passes are also available.
Lee Atkinson was a guest of Peninsula Hot Springs.
This story was originally published in May 2021 and has since been updated.
