Daylesford
[ 10 January 2008 ]
As many of you are aware, over the Christmas period, my boyfriend & I fled Melbourne in search of Australia’s spa capital — & relaxation holy grail — Daylesford, Victoria. Daylesford is a tiny little town, set at the base of an enormous mountain range. It is most well-known for the mineral springs that surround the area, & the mineral water that is used in the multitude of spa treatments available there.
Cherry Tree Cottage
I decided that we should do something more exciting than staying in a huge hotel while we were in town, & started searching online for an interesting-looking b&b. I was a little bit concerned that we might end up in a place that seemed like it belonged to someone else’s grandmother, so I had a good poke around. I was sold as soon as I saw Cherry Tree Cottage’s slogan, proclaiming that the cottage was a “doily-free zone”. I thought it was totally hilarious, so after looking at the pictures & showing them to my boyfriend, I called David (the owner) to book in to the Garden Spa Apartment.
One of the first things you should know is that David is awesome. He made me an egg sandwich on Christmas day because I was hungry — what a champion! He has a great personality, he’s an artist & a bit of a kook, & he does a fabulous breakfast. We were presented with a sheet of paper every day to fill out, with options like egg, bacon, avocado, sausage, mushrooms, tomato etc., which we ate in bed. No skimping here! The weather was quite cold while we were in Daylesford, but on the last day it warmed up, so we had breakfast outside at a little table & chairs — very civilised.
The apartment we stayed in was behind the main house, but it was enormous, with a bedroom, kitchen, living area & generous bathroom. The kitchen was well-equipped, with a microwave & a fridge, & there was complimentary champagne & a cheese platter waiting for us when we arrived. The spa bath was absolutely incredible, with fantastic jets & (more than enough) room for two. We spent a lot of time sitting there, water bubbling away, making plans for 2008. Spending time at Cherry Tree Cottage was the best ever way to see out 2007, & make way for 2008. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Old Hepburn Hotel
An Irishman at the visitor’s information centre recommended that we pay a visit to the Old Hepburn Hotel. He said they did amazing pub food, & on our first day there, that was exactly what I was in the mood for. After driving up & down the road & eventually going back to the information centre, we found it. It was a Real Country Pub. Intense. Anyway, the food was mind-blowing. I had the most amazing Chicken Kiev I’ve eaten in my entire life. The plate awash with garlic butter, & a huge, juicy piece of chicken, generously crumbed, sat in the middle. So good. Not necessarily very healthy, but SO GOOD.
SalusSalus, the spa attached to The Lake House, was the first one we visited. I was very impressed with the whole thing. We arrived & were given robes & slippers to change into, before being led down an outdoor pathway to our tree-top mineral spa — pictured above. We walked into a little wooden cabin with a tub near the window. We were given a choice of oils (lavender or rose — we picked lavender), the woman fired up the spa & left us to it. We had booked in for half an hour, with my next treatment following soon after, but as there was a bit of a wait until my boyfriend’s facial, she said he was welcome to stay in the tub until his therapist was ready. Very cool. The spa was lovely: the smell of cedar, shutters that we could open or close as we pleased (without getting out of the tub), the cool fresh air outside, a beautiful view out over the trees.
Simon had an Urban Cleanse facial, while I had a Relaxation Massage in another room. My massage therapist was fantastic, very talented & I felt incredible by the time it was over. I asked him to mostly concentrate his efforts on my back & shoulders, which he did, & I was really happy with everything he did. I don’t think it could have been improved. Simon doesn’t remember much about his facial (any more!), but I know that when he came out of the room, he was totally blissed out & dazed. Salus did everything right. The facilities were clean & modern, the staff were very friendly, personable & skilled, & we left feeling really good about ourselves.
The Lake House
We had Christmas dinner at The Lake House, & were incredibly impressed. The Lake House has won squillions of awards, so we were expecting something pretty impressive, & they really delivered. We had…
Soup: Cucumber vichyssoise, smoked trout custard, house cured salmon, crème fraîche.
Entree: Pressed duck terrine & morello cherry sauce.
Main: Roast breast of free-roaming turkey, wild rice, cranberry & pine nut pilaf, miniature turkey pie, sweet potato.
Dessert: Nougat parfait, berry sorbet & local berries.
As well as miniature plum pudding, mince pies, chocolates & Christmas cake to take home.
The service was efficient & crisp, the food was fabulous, & it was worth the $120/head price-tag. We were also given Christmas crackers!
Mineral Spa
Mineral Spa is adjoined to the infamous Peppers Springs Retreat, a huge old hotel which has been tarted up & given a shiny new visage. It is an imposing piece of architecture, surrounded by sculpted hedges & a gravel driveway. We walked in the front, were issued with robes, slippers & a locker key, then sent off to get changed. The receptionists were very “business-like”, & not particularly welcoming. We then reconvened in this strange waiting room area, which had tiny teacups & a lot of books on the soul etc. We waited in this area for at least half an hour before one of us was called off to begin our treatment. (Not cool — we were there on time.)
I had a Mineral Spa Signature Li’Tya Ritual. At two hours (& at a cost of $240), I expected it to be pretty damn marvellous. This was reinforced by the amazing woman I spoke to on the telephone, who outlined what I’d be getting for my money (I never met her in person, unfortunately). The signature ritual involved “a gentle nourishing facial incorporating our unique pressure point face clay mask, a full body mud wrap, hair & scalp hydrating mask, soft pak float bed, hydrotherapy massage bath, & finish with a complete head to toe sustenance for the skin”. What I got was less impressive.
I walked into the room & was told to sit down & put my feet in a bowl of warm water. My therapist offered me three jars to sniff, & told me to choose which one appealed to me most. As it turned out, I chose the “rejuvenating” oil, which was used in my foot bath & also in my mud wrap. Now, here’s where it gets interesting. The rejuvenating oil was called “pepperberry”, & contained menthol. She said that sometimes, the menthol in the mud was quite cold, so I should be ready for that. I lay down on a bed which was heated underneath, & she started to apply the mud to my body. She put it on quite quickly, then wrapped me in a sheet & pulled up the flaps from the side of the bed, which were filled with warm water. This was quite comforting, kind of like wearing a big hot water bottle, but soon the menthol kicked in & I was freezing. I am one of those people who really feels the cold & oh baby, did I ever feel the cold! She applied a mask to my hair & scalp & gave me a little head massage, which was nice but I couldn’t concentrate on it because I was so cold. It was not relaxing in the slightest. I started to shiver & shake & just when I thought I couldn’t take it any more, she hit a button & I started to sink.
I didn’t know it when I first walked in, but the “bed” I was lying on was actually a waterbed. Somehow, the hard surface which was initially supporting me started to dissipate, & I was lying in a big, warm bed — except I wasn’t getting wet. It was great. I was so warm, I was really happy. She told me she was going to leave me for a bit, so she walked out & I lay there, enjoying the warmth, wriggling about a bit like a mermaid (remembering, of course, that I was stuck to a sheet with a whole lot of mud so I couldn’t move much). When she came back, I was feeling really good, & she told me to clamber out & come through to the next room where there was a hydrotherapy bath awaiting me.
I climbed in but it wasn’t very warm (I was still covered in menthol mud, brrr!), so I asked her if I could have more warm water. Somehow, the taps didn’t work, so she ran off & came back with a jug of hot water, which she poured in. This did the trick. Then she left me to it. The bath was incredible. It had handles on the side & a bar for your feet to go under, as well as a display screen which indicated which parts of the body the jets were working on. The bath went through its routine — jets on the back, jets down the legs, jets on the shoulders, & about a million other combinations. It was great & totally weird & I was loving it. When it finished, about half an hour later, there was a big lovely ring of mud all the way around the bath, & I was squeaky clean & soft.
I went back into the original room & my therapist covered me in oil & massaged me. It was a very, very good massage. This was definitely her forte. Yum. Then she gave me a facial, & I think she hit the button which immersed me, again, & that was the end. I ran to the locker room looking like a troll doll — hair sticking up in the air — rinsed out my hair mask, & got dressed.
It was a strange experience, almost a case of the technology being too advanced for the people, or the technology making the people look amateur. The bath was great but if you don’t know how to make it warmer, then that’s a problem. The woman who took me for my treatment was very kind, but didn’t seem to know what she was doing — I actually had to prompt her to do the hair & scalp hydrating mask, for example. The facial was disappointing, too — it involved her putting some kind of cream on my face & touching about three pressure points once each. Perhaps the problem was that I was expecting one person to be great at all the things involved in the spa ritual, but that’s what you pay for, right? If you’re thinking of going here, I definitely recommend anything that involves the soft pak float bed or their hydrotherapy baths — when it comes to the rest of it, your mileage may vary.
Simon had a Li’Tya Kodo Massage for 90 minutes. He was very impressed by it, & thinks his massage therapist was amazing. Apparently, it was very much like a regular massage, but there was additional limb stretching, a little bit of reflexology & some pressure point work on the hands. Simon uses massage etc. to help him work through emotions & spiritual issues, & he felt that the massage he had was very beneficial in helping him sort through a lot of stuff. Highly recommended!
Also: Simon went to see Ann Holden for a crystal healing, which he said was fantastic. We paid a visit to Lavendula Swiss-Italian Lavender Farm, which was beautiful — unfortunately the proliferation of flies made it impossible to eat our lavender scones. I did buy lavender oil to use in cupcake baking, though! I found a tarot reader on the main street who also practised EFT (exciting!) but she was away so I didn’t manage to see her. We had brilliant fish & chips at the Daylesford Seafood Bar — the best I’ve had in Australia, in fact. People rave about Avant Garden secondhand bookshop, but I didn’t see a single thing I wanted, & MAD magazines were $20 each! Yow! I had much better luck at the Daylesford Book Barn, beside the lake, where I spent $100 & scored an enormous stack of brilliant books.
Summary
Daylesford is an excellent town to spend some time in. Don’t expect to rage it up — this is the kind of place where you roll out of bed, get pampered, then roll back into bed early. Our cellphones had no reception whatsoever, & there wasn’t a chance in hell of finding a wireless connection (I took my Macbook), which at first was kind of irritating, but it turned out to be a good thing. We were only away for about four days, but it seriously felt like we had been gone for a month. It was remarkable, & exactly what we needed. If I did it again, I’d either stay at Cherry Tree Cottage or The Lake House, I’d skip the Mineral Spa at Peppers Springs, & I’d pay a visit to Acqua Viva, which I hear is very good.
Super-love & cupcakes,
Gala
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Wow, what a shame Mike & I aren’t in Victoria for longer in February – I would LOVE to pay a visit to Daylesford! The Cherry Tree Cottage looks divine. Sounds like you both had a lovely, relaxing holiday – yay for you!! :) xox
Ooo lucky you! It makes me want to fly on over from North America just to stay at the Cherry Tree Cottage.
this vacation sounds like a little slice of absolutely amazing on earth! when my mom, dad, and i traveled around once when i was in 5th grade, we stayed in 2 different bed and breakfasts (one in New Orleans, Louisiana and one right near Memphis, Tennessee) and they can be so much better than a hotel. the service we had at both places was fantastic and the two families were so inviting. it was quite nice!
sounds like you had a blast, though! this article was great.
thanks for your insight gala! wish i was a little closer to home so i could consider checking these places out! im going to the salvador dali exhibition tomorrow (1 mins walk from london eye) so im doing my own branch of relaxation therapy! hee!
Wow, that sounds so incredible!
For some reason, reading about massages and spa treatements always makes me want to go get some done.
Once, I was snowboarding for two days straight, and then, at night, my family and I would hit the spa and get massages. I barely could walk out of the spas, I was so relaxed.
By the way, you’re a very lucky gal to have such an open-minded guy!
Eek, that sounds lovely!! I’m seriously dying for a good facial or massage right now…I love reading about the “quickie” packages a spa across the street from my office has. I’ve never gotten one but I think it’d probably be a good investment.
ugh, i am so jealous.
skips off to book a massage
Waah, I wish I could go there! I plan to go to Australia one day anyways, but the airplane ticket is crazy expensive! But if I ever go, I’ll may take a trip there :D
But here in Chile we have aweeeesome spas too (is one of the most volcano-active countries in the world, so is full of mineral springs!). I’ve went to many springs and most of them are sorrounded by lush forest and nature and rivers…i luv my country xD I don’t know if appeals you, but Chile is a great country to visit hehehe :P
Mmm, I totally want to visit that sea food bar!
what is crystal healing?
i hope one day you’ll write more on eft and things of that nature… or astrology
:)
glad you had a great timne
Sounds like it was a wonderful holiday!
Victoria has great holiday destinations not too far away from Melbourne – in fact, I’m heading off to Anglesea later this week!
Felicity — It’s not too late to change your plans, surely? ;>
Retro.Bunny — Ooh, me too. I love to see what kind of treatments are on offer at the various places, it’s so interesting & it always makes me yearn to be touched!
telis — Give it a try! You won’t get maximum relaxation in a lunch-hour but it’s definitely worth doing anyway.
grace — Such good fish & chips. I miss NZ fish! Boo!
lola — Haha, if I wrote more about that stuff, my secret dirty spiritual hippie-type identity would be revealed! ;D I really try only to write about things I know something about, & I know very little about astrology etc. so I tend to leave it to people who know their shit & I’ll happily link to them! Here’s an article on crystal healing which is quite interesting: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22918336-5006047,00.html
Basically we went to Daylesford & Simon wanted to try as much “weird” stuff as he could find, hence the crystal healing & Aboriginal massage :> We would have done more, but it was Christmas so a lot of things were shut!
Miri — Oh, cool! What’s in Anglesea?
Wow!! That sounds like the loveliest way to spend your Christmas holidays. I wouldn’t mind trying the tree-top mineral spa – it sounds and looks almost magical. And I laughed out loud when you wrote, “...she walked out & I lay there, enjoying the warmth, wriggling about a bit like a mermaid..”! I’m loving the photo of you and Simon – it’s beyond cute!
Wow. I thought my holiday was relaxing. I think yours just trumped mine 100x (not that we’re competing of course!). I have a few questions though…
1) Your hair looks AMAZING in that picture. It brings out your eyes and adds a whole dimension of colour awesomness to the picture. You and Simon look so happy together, it makes me all warm and fuzzy! (that wasn’t actually a question)
2) How much would you say one should budget for to take a vacation like yours to Daylesforth. Like, would it be soemthing you could do over the summer vacation, or is a very much a special occasion trip?
3) How are you going to use lavender oil in baking?
-Ayomide!
Ayomide — Thank you ;> Well, we spent a couple of grand, but it would be easy to spend much more or much less than that. That included accommodation, car hire, food & treatments. & I’m going to use it in cupcakes! Lavender icing. Mmmmmmmmm. Lavender icing on chocolate cupcakes. Hell yes.
I feel all blissed out just reading about this. I am planning a trip to Margaret River, an awesome wine region just a few hours south of us, and they have a few places that do day spa treatments as well as a lush spa chalet surrounded by forest on one side and vineyards on the other. I’m hoping it’s as good as the brochure makes it out to be :)
And like everyone has already agreed, the photo of you and Simon is fabulous :) You make such a gorgeous couple.
as i read this, i remembered the only facial i’ve ever gotten; it was in the basement of a polish hotel (sounds so seedy!) and the girl was amazing! she did all the EFT pressure points on my face and on my chest and i was just so relaxed. my friends convinced me to get my nails done, which took forever and i ended up ripping off on the plane ride back!
ahh, i’m so relaxed just thinking about it!
Oooh Gala – that sounds like my dream weekend!
I was recently at Salus Spa for a three hour package, which included the tree top spa, massage and the orchid milk bath – was amazing, so I can second your comments on how fantastic their therapists are.
I remember visiting Daylesford a couple of years ago, and I remember we visited the book barn. It’s like I’m magnetically drawn to the closest 2nd hand book shop! We also visited Kyneton and Woodend. I just loved that whole area. If I was to live in Victoria, I’d either be in St Kilda or one of these smaller towns.
It certainly sounds as though you and Simon enjoyed yourselves. Glad you had such a great Xmas, Gala!
i love daylesford. i went there countless times during my childhood. i used to love pedaling down the river on those massive water-contraptions with huge wheels.
anglesea is BEAUTIFUL. my boyfriend’s family has a house there and we went maybe seven times last year. during summer, the beaches are beautiful, especially at point roadknight. during winter, late-night walks are lovely if you’re wearing lots of layers. there can be a lot of schoolies kids there around nov-jan, though. the town is pretty small but it has a great op shop and the best fish & chips ever. and if you feel like a taste of the city but still near the beach, lorne is maybe 20 minutes away.
thus ends my essay :)
i’ve never had a facial or massage or even a manicure, i’ve always really wanted to but always thought it was a bit extravagant.. my parents and boyfriend would probably be horrified if they found out thats what i was spending my money on!
Gala, that sounds absolutely DIVINE! That’s a lot better than my holiday. I have a problem though, and was wondering if you could give some one of your splendid advice.
See, I’m still in high school and in a relationship boy who’s practically 18. He lives four hours away, and my dad won’t even meet him. My dad is immovable. He’s as stubborn as a toddler. His parents are very chill and are trying their hardest to make things work. We have to keep sneaking around.
He’s a very sweet guy; I couldn’t ask for someone more wonderful. Even though we hardly get to see each other, he still wants to stick with it. And here’s part two to my dilema: I don’t even know if I like him anymore. I think I’m just staying with him because we’ve been through a lot with our parents, and he wants so badly for everything to be great. Nothing he says makes my heart skip. I suppose it’s because I haven’t seen him in over a month, but it just doesn’t feel the same. I’ve read your long distance relationship article, but not much is helpful for this situation.
That’s all a bit vague, I guess. How do I deal with terrible fathers and…learn to love my boyfriend again? I don’t know. That’s a bit much.
on another note the nominations for http://2008.bloggies.com are open, and i have nominated you for everything i can.
other people should too!
MJ ~ you’re going to LOVE dali world! i dragged my little sister in there when i was last in london & it scared her witless. :D!
I just voted iCiNG for everything even remotely relevant in the 2008 bloggies too!
i thought it was really interesting that your boyfriend does crystal healing. so does my grandma and she always tries to get me into it! so much so that she gave me some blessed crystals from brazil for christmas.
i just wanted to say that reading this made me feel so relaxed & i’d gladly read your tarot any time haha.
=[ — I know a girl who met a boy from another country. They liked each other, decided to live together & get married. They had to organise visas, find work, find apartments, etc. It was a huge fiasco. But it was such a huge fiasco that they lost sight of the fact that… they didn’t actually like each other that much. They got caught up in the details. Sounds like you’ve done something similar. Don’t sweat your father — he’s stubborn & he will never change. Assess your real feelings for your boy before you do anything else!
sarah & Felicity — Thank you!
hannah — He hadn’t done it before, he was just curious… but he was really impressed! I think if he had the opportunity he’d definitely do it again.
I love Daylesford and have been going there as a kid. I call it my spiritual home, I’m sure you know why! I even spent this new years there. And yes, the flies were EXTRA bad at Lavandula this year.
We stayed here:
http://www.lakedaylesford.com.au/
Also you must return and visit the Chocolate Mill and eat at the Farmers Arms.
And hire a canoe on Lake Daylesford for $12. :)
Fiona
Where did you get the amazing dachshund shirt you’re wearing in the picture?
Lara — I bought it on Ebay!
wow, Daylesford, I live near there and I’ve only been once, but it was mad fun, the whole place has a super relaxed vibe.