Getting heated at HALE

Posted on 28 August, 2018

What to do when you simply can’t abide the cold and it’s impractical to relocate the family to Cairns.

Despite my car heater blowing 40 degrees for the entire 10-minute drive to Barton, I step out of the driver’s seat with feet so numb it hurts to walk. It’s just another winter’s day in Canberra and I try not to curse our forefathers who choose this blustery sheep plain in which to put a capital city when they could just have easily claimed a little clump of Queensland.

I hobble across the carpark in winds so wild and chilly they feel like razors to the face.

The doors to HALE Day Spa swing open automatically and I am immediately safe from the winds. Aromatherapy-infused air fills my nostrils and I check in for a treatment they promise me is going to warm me from the inside out. Bring it.

But first a disclaimer. I have been hanging out at HALE quite a bit this winter. It’s the beautiful new spa and gym from the Doma Group, taking over the front of the Brassey Hotel.

The multi-million makeover has created a gorgeous space, and between the spa, sauna and restorative body massages and facials, I can only say it has been a sanity-saving location when the relentless cold pushes me to the edge. I’ve always saved my spa dollars for overseas trips, but here I feel—for a few hours at least—that I am far away from Canberra, ensconced in world-class luxury. It has been an investment in my wellbeing that I do not regret for a second.

I get changed into swimmers and head for the spa. Anyone having a treatment can come early (or stay late) and hang out in the spa, sauna or Scandi-style lounge which features the longest open fire I have ever basked in front of.

The spa is always my favourite start to a treatment. Dark, warm and cave-like, you can take the waters still and quiet or press a button for bubble city. I’ve been asked whether it is awkward if there are already people in there, but other than the time I took a bestie, I’ve never seen anyone else. It is delicious solitude.

The bubbles help pump blood to my still-frozen toes and after a half an hour of soaking my cares away I head into the infrared sauna. I’ve never really been one for saunas—the steam and sweat don’t really appeal. But this sauna is different, the heat is mild and dry (hair stays mercifully unfrizzy) and it truly does warm you from the inside out. I lie on a wooden bench like a lizard in the desert. Within minutes my swimsuit is bizarrely dry.

In time, my therapist Gina taps on the door. Now the real fun begins.

She leads me into one of the luxury treatment rooms and I disrobe—save for a modesty-enhancing G-string—and lie on the bed. Gina begins to scrub my dry and wintery skin away, using a Pevonia exfoliant which combines chamomile, sage, rosemary, allantoin and Saponaria. When she is done I shower off the scrub in a marble shower located at the end of the room and return to the bed which is now covered in a plastic sheet.

Gina proceeds to massage Pevonia preserve body moisturiser on my skin—a blend of safflower seed oil, orris root extract and chamomile flower. I smell like a fruit salad—only better. I am already feeling warm and relaxed when the magic starts.

She wraps the plastic sheet firmly around my slathered body, places warm towels on top of me and adjusts the bed so my legs are slightly bent. The firmness of the wrap and weight of the towels feels somehow blissful. It is hard to describe, although it does bring to mind those Facebook stories on weighted blankets reducing anxiety and fully-grown adults rocking in tightly-tied sheets. Perhaps there’s something to that after all.

Meanwhile, I am having to put images of the glad-wrapped cat from cult indie film Bad Boy Bubby out of my mind to focus on my breathing. As the heat courses through my veins, I start to drift off. Not to sleep, but into a state of near-thoughtlessness. I can’t remember a time when the pressures of the world have simply dissipated. I am here and warm and nothing else matters.

Time passes (How much? Who knows? I am on another planet) and Gina reappears to unwrap me. She then proceeds to administer another hour-long full body massage and I could almost cry with happiness.

The usual HALE packages recommend a facial while the body wrap takes full effect and I will definitely do this next time as I would give anything to stay wrapped for longer. The upside of the massage is that the warm cream is thoroughly absorbed into my skin, and the next time I shower, water bounces off me like I’m a freshly-waxed car.

Sadly, the massage comes to an end. I may or may not have fallen asleep. Someone snores. Twice. But it wasn’t me. The hours have seemed to blur into a period of near-unconsciousness. I walk out through the arctic carpark with feeling in my toes and a smile on my face. I’ve already booked another treatment.

Disclaimer no. 2 – this is not a sponsored post. HALE can take my money any day. And it’s cheaper than moving north.