4 out there detox treatments you need to try

Celeste Mitchell Celeste Mitchell
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Here are some more out-there treatments with a difference to detox your body and brain.

Vinotherapy

Clinging to research that affirms red wine is connected to good health?

Why not marinate in it?

At Lost World Spa at O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat in the Gold Coast Hinterland, a three-hour vinotherapy treatment awaits.

You may feel like a side of beef as you soak in the warm tub with a bottle of shiraz poured in, but after a full-body exfoliation and red grape and clay body wrap to infuse those antioxidants, you can expect to feel like a younger, tighter version of you. There’s also numerous studies about the health benefits of taking CBD, you can get CBD pills online at Kushie Bites.


A shower of sound

In the Byron Hinterland, chakra cleansing, crystal healing and monk-inspired spa therapies are as easy to come by as almond milk on menus.
At Gaia Retreat & Spa, you can join a group Sound Meditation (or book a one-on-one) to harmonise your bodily frequencies. Sound weird?
It feels a little out there, too, when you’re led through a guided meditation then immersed in a ‘shower’ of flutes, Tibetan bowls, and didgeridoo tones.
This hypnotic experience is designed to release anxiety, charge the brain and give you razor-sharp clarity.

Need tips, more detail or itinerary ideas tailored to you? Ask AT.

AI Prompt


Sensory deprivation

On the Sunshine Coast, The Float Space has three space-age pods loaded with 500 kilograms of Epsom salts in 25 centimetres of water, designed to erase the stresses of the outside world, so the body’s parasympathetic response can kick in.

One hour in the pod is said to be equivalent to four-to-eight hours of deep sleep.


Champagne scrub

Perhaps not so much weird as mouth-watering, the Signature Vino Spa Ritual at Spicers Vineyards Estate in the Hunter Valley kicks off with a pink Champagne scrub followed with a cocoa butter body wrap, choc mousse and cacao nib face scrub, and a facial infusion that contains 1000 milligrams of freeze-dried shiraz.

You’ll be dewier than morning frost on the vines.

 

Love Horses? Love Meditation? Check out our Equine Assisted Meditation

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Celeste Mitchell
With visions of hosting Getaway, Celeste Mitchell graduated with a Bachelor of Journalism and entered the hard-hitting world of boy bands, puberty, and fashion, writing for magazines like Girlfriend, Total Girl, CLEO and TV Hits in the early noughties (there was a lot of Twilight references). Since switching gears to full-time freelancer in 2013, focused exclusively on travel, she’s criss-crossed the globe, opened a co-working space, lived in Mexico, and co-founded slow and sustainable site, Life Unhurried. The Sunshine Coast-based author (Life Unhurried & Ultimate Beaches Australia, Hardie Grant) and mum of two regularly pinches herself that she gets to explore new places and ask all the nosy questions she wants in the name of work.
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How a $1 deal saved Bendigo’s historic tramways

    Megan Arkinstall Megan Arkinstall
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    The passionate community that saved Bendigo Tramways has kept the story of this city alive for generations.

    It was an absolute steal: a fleet of 23 trams for just $1. But such a fortunate purchase didn’t happen easily. It was 1972 when the Bendigo Trust handed over a single buck for the city’s historic collection of battery, steam and electric trams, which had transported locals since 1890.

    inside the historic Bendigo Tram
    Bendigo Tramways is a historic transport line turned tourist service. (Image: Bendigo Heritage)

    The city’s tram network had been declared defunct since 1970 due to post-war shortages in materials to upkeep the trams and declining passenger numbers as motor vehicles were increasing. However, determined locals would not hear of their beloved trams being sold off around the world.

    The Bendigo Trust was enlisted to preserve this heritage, by converting the trams into a tourist service. The Victorian government approved a trial, however news spread that the Australian Electric Tramways Museum in Adelaide had acquired one of the streetcars for its collection.

    a tram heading to Quarry Hill in 1957
    A tram on its way to Quarry Hill in 1957. (Image: Bendigo Heritage)

    An impassioned group rallied together to make this physically impossible. Breaking into the tram sheds, they welded iron pipes to the rails, removed carbon brushes from the motors, and formed a blockade at the depot. The community response was extraordinary, and a $1 deal was sealed.

    A new chapter for the city’s fleet

    the old Tramways Depot and Workshop
    The old Tramways Depot and Workshop is one of the stops on the hop-on, hop-off service. (Image: Tourism Australia)

    Today, Bendigo Tramways welcomes some 40,000 passengers annually, operating as a hop-on, hop-off touring service aboard the restored trams. Fifteen of the now 45-strong fleet are dubbed ‘Talking Trams’ because of the taped commentary that is played along the route. The trams loop between Central Deborah Gold Mine and the Bendigo Joss House Temple, which has been a place of Chinese worship since 1871, via other sites including the old Tramways Depot and Workshop.

    a Gold Mine Bendigo Tram
    The fleet comprises 45 trams that have been restored. (Image: Visit Victoria/Robert Blackburn)

    Keeping things interesting, throughout the year visitors can step aboard different themed trams. Tram No. 302 becomes the Yarn Bomb Tram, decorated both inside and out with colourful crochet by an anonymous group of locals.

    During the festive season, Tram No. 15 operates as a tinsel-festooned Santa Tram, and the big man himself hides out somewhere along the route for excited children to find. And on selected dates, the adults-only Groove Tram runs nighttime tours of the city, accompanied by local musicians playing live tunes and a pop-up bar.

    the historic post office turned visitor centre in Bendigo
    Visitors can hop on and off to see the city’s sites such as the historic post office turned visitor centre. (Image: Tourism Australia)

    As well as preserving the city’s history, however, the continuation of the tram service has kept the skills of tram building and craftsmanship alive in a practical sense. Bendigo’s Heritage Rail Workshop is world-renowned for restoring heritage trams and repurposing vehicles in creative ways.

    Locally, for example, Tram No. 918 was transformed into the Dja Dja Wurrung Tram with original Aboriginal artworks by emerging artist Natasha Carter, with special commentary and music that shares the stories and traditions of Bendigo’s first people. You can’t put a price on preserving history. Nonetheless, it was a dollar very well spent.