A wellness retreat at Spicers Tamarind in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland

Even devout wellness warriors don’t achieve balance overnight, but for novice Celeste Mitchell, two days is a great start.

I’m probably supposed to be hitting some higher level of consciousness right now, but all I can focus on is how much caramel is stuck in my teeth. Practicing mindfulness by devouring a matchbox-sized chocolate like it’s the last whiff of pleasure I’ll experience on this earth, a sound sends me unglued. An old friend is opposite; her stifled giggles manifesting as a rip-roaring snort. I know immediately she’s hoovered hers. 

I’m in a circle with eight other women and one token male on day one of Spicers Tamarind’s inaugural wellness retreat, held in June. A tranquil sprinkling of villa accommodation wrapped in rainforest along Obi Obi Creek in Maleny in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, Tamarind (spicersretreats.com) is renowned for its hatted restaurant, cooking school and day spa. Not pretzel-like yoga or caffeine withdrawals. That fact is admittedly what drew me here, and I’m pleased to find the program prioritises decadence over deprivation. 

Short wellness retreats – as opposed to wellness holidays that used to go on for weeks – are on the rise. With Australia’s collective mental health straining against the pandemic, we’re a captive market, who have, in many cases, also been held captive in our homes for months. “I’m just exhausted,” admits the GP I sit beside at lunch when we first arrive. “I haven’t been travelling or spending money, just working, so I saw this and said, ‘yes’.” It’a a formula being embraced by a number of retreats in Australia, including Crystalbrook Byron. Daintree Ecolodge sold out a May retreat in two weeks, swiftly locking in dates for three more in 2022.

“The theme of these next few days is to slow down,” says leader Rachel O’Brien as we pad across polished boards and sit by the fire in Spicers Tamarind’s longhouse-style conference room. The ex-Flight Centre Executive has spent the past decade on a personal wellness journey after discovering a lump in her neck on a flight to London. A diagnosis of Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma led to a total life overhaul – long hours, stress and too much wine swapped for yoga, meditation, and Wim Hof-inspired cold showers. She’s emerged as a leadership expert who can “walk the line between corporate and as woo woo as you can get”. To my relief, rather than espousing strict rules or lessons, she paints our time ahead as an open invitation, “to share and find what works for you”. 

“Everything is available here – coffee, wine,” she says. “It’s not school camp. If you want to sleep in, whatever your body needs for these two days, that’s what I’m going to encourage you to do.”

>This story first appeared in QANTAS magazine November 2021. Continue reading on the PDF below.