Stretch, switch off and spring back in Byron Bay
Sure, it’s more hipster than hippie these days but Byron Bay is still the best place to drop in, turn off and tune out, writes Alexandra Greig.
Sometimes you hear a word you’ve never really encountered before then suddenly you’re hearing it constantly. I experience this phenomenon in Byron Bay and the word is “modality”. It can be preceded by “healing” or maybe “meditation” but it always pertains to my spiritual and/or physical wellbeing. I hear it so often that I suggest you add it to your vocabulary before visiting this idyllic beach town on NSW’s North Coast.
Between Hemsworths, murfers (that’s mums who surf – a distinct local subspecies) and an influx of wealthy entrepreneurs, Byron has emerged as the wellness capital of Australia – if not the world.
But long before the digital-detoxers, New-Agers and backpackers arrived, Byron Bay was a place where the Indigenous Bundjalung people lived and congregated; they call it Cavanbah or “meeting place”. The rich volcanic soil, dense rainforests, protected bays and coastal heathlands provided an abundance of food as well as spiritual sites that are still significant today.
Byron remains a gathering place for a transitory community of holiday-makers, travellers and seekers. Arrive a tightly wound ball of quotidian woes and let its beauty and attitude and those healing modalities do their thing. Leave fully unfurled and even, perhaps, on a brandnew leg of your life journey. Here’s how.
Elements of Byron
Wellness with a side of pizza? It’s admissible, especially when the pizza is made with sourdough fermented for 72 hours and you’re booked in for the five-day Elements of Wellness program at Elements of Byron (hotel.qantas.com. au/elements). The retreat has direct access to Belongil Beach, two pools, an onsite horse ranch and dining options such as the aforementioned pizza at Azure Bar and Grill and fresh Mexican fare from Summer Salt Bar.
Add beachside yoga, group fitness classes, guided rainforest walks and the option of Bare Blends smoothies and treatments at Osprey Spa as part of the wellness program. The schedule isn’t rigid; you can choose to do a yoga session one morning and head to a workout the next.
Spend evenings exploring the Byron scene then retire with a kombucha and soak in your private bathhouse, leaving the windows wide open to hear the sweet sound of wallum froglets harmonising in the lagoon. It’s wellness as you like it.
The private bathhouse in Elements of Byron’s deluxe two-bedroom villa (above left); an alfresco yoga class by the beach
Soma
You can arrive at Soma without realising you’ve arrived at Soma (somabyron. com.au). There’s no signage, just a dirt road leading to a contemporary glassand-steel structure with shoes piled outside the door. It looks like the private residence of a nouveau Byronite – someone who has exquisite taste and a penchant for entertaining. As you turn to leave the cool, calm surroundings before you get caught, someone in bare feet will quietly welcome you to Soma and issue a key to one of the 10 suites. “Dinner’s at 6.30,” they’ll add before leaving in a similarly ethereal fashion. Check-in complete.
The retreat is the brainchild of Gary Gorrow, a Vedic meditation practitioner whose techniques have helped the wealthy and well connected find their inner peace. Gorrow dreamt of a place to regroup, eat wholesome food and meditate. When he found nine gloriously wild hectares in the Byron hinterland, he built – with the help of investor Peter Ostick – a remarkable sanctuary that feels remote but is just 10 minutes drive from the centre of town.
Guests – some Zen zealots, others close to burnout – make themselves at home, reading in comfy chairs, snoozing on sun lounges or swimming in the infinity pool. In the evenings, they gather around the seven-metre-long dining table for Ayurvedic meals.
Byron Bay’s newest wellness getaway offers four intensity levels. Soma 1: Reset suits a laid-back stay, with daily yoga in a see-through geodesic yoga dome amid the rainforest, one night’s dinner and a Kahuna massage. Soma IV: Re-Design, meanwhile, is a rigorous seven-day program that involves one-on-one sessions with Gorrow, digital detox, breathwork and cleansing therapies – this one is for the hardcore. The property is also available for hire but only to groups hosting their own wellness retreats (read: no parties).