Spa Partners
The Age
Saturday October 28, 2006
Health retreats are doing a roaring trade but these days they're not all about hard times and deprivation.
Kay O'Sullivan looks at the evolution of the industry.THERE is a delicious irony in the fact that Australia's top health retreats are within spitting distance of the Gold Coast. The Golden Door Health Retreat, Camp Eden and, since March, Gwinganna Lifestyle Retreat are all nestled in that cool, green belt of peaks and valleys half an hour's drive from the coast's hedonistic pleasures.Just down the track and over the border in Bangalow is Gaia Retreat and Spa - or Olivia's place as it invariably known.Olivia Newton-John is one of four partners behind the retreat that opened in the Byron Bay hinterland 18 months ago. All report healthy figures and strong repeat business. Yet a decade ago the mention of health retreat and holiday in the same breath would bring into question the state of your health, specifically your mental health.Exercising at dawn, bans on booze, coffee, meat or dairy did not rate all that highly with hedonists or, for that matter, the average Australian intent on having fun on their annual break. But somewhere in the past 10 years Deepak Chopra went mainstream, massage and meditation became tools of the modern man, boot camps became fashionable and, hey presto, in 2006 health retreats are doing booming business.Brook Ramage, founder and general manager at the Golden Door, says his retreat at Willowvale, which can accommodate 140, runs at 95 per cent occupancy year round.When it opened 12 years ago the Golden Door struggled to attract 20 guests a week. In that time, the brand has grown from the original Willowvale property to include another retreat, Elysia, in the Hunter Valley, and three day-spas.The Golden Door's newest competitor for business, Gwinganna Lifestyle Retreat in the Tallebudgera Valley, is operating at full capacity. "We run at about 30-plus a week," says general manager Sharon Kolkka. "Eventually (when new accommodation is finished next year) we will be able to take 60.I don't envisage we will have a problem filling the beds. Already we are doing repeat business."What hasn't changed in the health retreat business is the core clientele, which is basically aged 35 to 55, professionals old enough to have achieved their goals (and afford the notinsubstantial prices) and smart enough to know they have to do something to continue to enjoy the fruits of their labours.Women outnumber men nearly two to one but male numbers are growing. Guests are as likely to come on their own as with a friend or group.Mr Ramage says while he has been in the business - he worked at Camp Eden before starting the Golden Door - the reasons for going to health retreats have changed. "People came for weight loss and smoking in the early days but now it is about managing their lives and stress."The three Queensland properties are built on a concept that bundles up exercise, nutritional food, pampering and education. That said, there are significant differences between the three. Irrespective of which you choose, those unaccustomed to the morning light will have some adjusting to do. At each, nature's dawn chorus is quickly followed by a chorus of staff rapping on doors with a cheery good morning. Even Gaia, based on a philosophy of rest rather than activity, schedules a yoga class at 7.30am, although if you turn over and ignore the gong that heralds it, then so be it, says cofounder and managing director Gregg Cave.At Camp Eden and the Golden Door, the daily program keeps guests moving through the day and into the evening.The activity is broken up with lifestyle lectures and pampering sessions. Attendance is not compulsory at any of the exercise sessions, be they a stretching class, tai chi, the morning walk or a talk on nutrition, but the advice is that the more you do, the more you will get out of it.Sharon Kolkka, who was program director at the Golden Door before being approached two years ago by fitness chain magnate Tony de Leede to set up Gwinganna, has tweaked the exercise/pamper/nutrition formula. "People need strategic rest now as much as they need movement and nutrition," she says. At Gwinganna the exercise program is confined to the morning and the afternoon is given over to rest, which may mean a massage, a beauty treatment or simply taking to your bed. The evening meal finishes the day's schedule. The other two offer activities or talks after dinner.At all the retreats the food is mainly vegetarian and largely organic and, of course, at Golden Door and Camp Eden, there is famously no alcohol or caffeine, which does cause furrowed brows even for those who imbibe irregularly. Again, Gwinganna swerves from the norm, serving up red meat in the form of lamb and beef, and on the fourth night of a five-day stay guests are offered a glass of wine with dinner - organic, of course. On short stays of two and three days, guests are allowed coffee before 11am and a glass of wine nightly with dinner.Mr Ramage has no intention of relaxing the no-alcohol policy at the Golden Door. He insisted that it be extended to the Golden Door-Elysia when that property opened in the Hunter Valley two years ago. Guests at Gaia can buy a glass of wine with dinner.Fun and games are an essential ingredient of the health retreat strategy of getting people in touch with what makes them feel good. Rhythmic drumming, tribal dance, games of handball, volleyball and cricket get people moving and laughing like kids let out for school; laughing yoga is the name of one of the sessions at Camp Eden.I have been to all three Queensland retreats and can say that the sense of fun is palpable - or it is after the first couple of days, once everyone has got over the grumps that invariably accompany withdrawing from modern life.The message at each of the health retreats is unequivocal: we can show you how good you can feel, we can tell you how to do that at home, but in the end you are responsible for your life.Accordingly, each offers lifestyle lectures with therapists, trainers and all staff compounding the message of how to apply the principles of optimum health at home.It is at Camp Eden that the role of personal development takes centre place. In the early days of the retreat, which opened in 1989, first-time guests were required to attend a daily group therapy session. It is no longer mandatory and there is a new program that has been devised by facilitator Colin James, who is a repeat guest at Camp Eden and whose website lists BP China, Exxon Mobile, Bankers Trust and Estee Lauder among his clients.Camp Eden's skew towards personal development also has it offering various physical activities, which are as much about the mind as the body. It lays claims to having Australia's longest flyingfox ride and guests can choose to climb to the top of an 80-metre pole and freefall down.When I was at the Golden Door and Camp Eden, fiveday programs were the norm.Now the seven-day program is mandatory at Camp Eden and the most popular at the Golden Door, a change that was a response to demand, says Mr Ramage. Longer stays are available.Gwinganna offers two, three or four-day stays, as well as five days and a week-long detox program.Although it tends to get bundled with the other health retreats, Gaia Resort and Spa is different to the others, in emphasis, program and philosophy. "This is no boot camp," says Gregg Cave.The aforementioned yoga class is the one certainty of the day, with the option of meditation and tai chi and perhaps a lifestyle talk."On the first day guests say 'This is so peaceful', on the second day they ask me what are they going to do, but by the third they've got it."Gaia - pronounced Guya - means spirit of Mother Earth, which Mr Cave says is appropriate as he and Ms Newton-John discovered the property on a journey with echoes of the film and book Last Orders. "We were taking Olivia's mother's ashes to that part of the world that Olivia so loves, to scatter, when we saw this property for sale."Mr Cave says the property was a health retreat in the 1970s but its last incarnation was as a pink and white motel. Serious money was spent turning it into the kind of place the pair wanted and felt others would respond to."Barefoot Armani is how Olivia describes it," says Mr Cave, adding that the star makes at least five visits a year. An airy communal room and a spacious spa centre were added. There are 20 suites. "We can be full but it is never crowded."Perched on 181-hectares of the highest land in the Ballina shire, Gaia has sweeping views of the coast. "Renew, refresh and restore your mind, body and spirit" is the retreat's creed. The package reflects this philosophy with iridology, naturopathic consultation, body polish and massage built into the cost. There is an exercise program on offer but it is optional and extra."It's your choice," Mr Cave says. "Life at home is all about choice, so we assist you with the tools for wellness."The writer travelled as a guest of some of the resorts.Fast facts The Golden Door Health Retreat, Willowvale Phone 1800 816 906 www.goldendoor.com.au/ Five-night package includes accommodation, all meals, five seminars, fitness assessment, four pampering treatments, airport transfers. From $2250.Camp Eden, Currumbin Phone 1800 074 157 www.campeden.com.au Seven-night package includes accommodation, meals, Eden program and a choice of lifestyle programs which may include a combination of massage, beauty treatments and a counselling session, airport transfers.From $2950.Gwinganna Lifestyle Retreat, Tallebudgera Valley Phone 1800 219 272 www.gwinganna.com.au Five-night package includes accommodation, meals, three massages and one facial, one workshop daily, health analysis, airport transfers. From $1625 (30 days advance booking.) Gaia Retreat and Spa.Bangalow Phone 612 6687 1216 www.gaiaretreat.com.au Five-night package includes accommodation meals, airport transfers, daily yoga and daily selected activities, a spa gift, one-hour massage, a body polish, a live blood analysis, iridology consultation. From $1700.
© 2006 The Age