Now That’s The Rub!

Now That’s The Rub!

by

Shellee-Kim Gold

 

©Massage therapies that are homegrown and from Hawaii are being hailed as amongst those topping the current A-list of therapies in South Africa.

‘Aloha’ read my text message from Kahuna massage therapist Karin Pretorius. Either she was seriously into the Hawaiian philosophy or this was part of a performance.

But once I’d had the massage there was no doubt in my mind: The experience was the dramatic theatre production of body work techniques. ”I want you to be able to take something away with you”, Karin told me prayerfully. Beginning the sacred ritual with boisterous breathwork or ‘life force’ – which is a constant presence through the session – I was anointed with the blowing of enormous air streams across my body. They felt way too huge for what one slight woman could contain.

Used in ancient times by Hawaiian medicine people or shamans, people undergoing transformations or traumas would have this healing technique applied at the temples.

I hardly remembered to be my usual finicky self about oil in my hair as my skin and cells seemed to merge at the command of Karin’s magical hands and forearms. Sometimes the movements were smooth, swirling and ever so quiet. At others, rolling, flowing, invigorating and huge. But like the sea, they were always rhythmic, executed with the grace of a finely choreographed dance.

‘Breathe out the stuck energy’, Karin hissed gently into my ear. And that’s what this challenging technique is about: Releasing the stuck physical and emotional bits and getting the body’s energy field to flow again.

Staying in Hawaii for relaxation more than release, Hot Stone therapy is another import from that country. Heated, flat, round or square smooth, hand-held lava stones are used to obtain a deeper massage.

Having a greater heat retention than those found elsewhere, the therapist still encourages you to take the stones as hot as you can. Between the long, slow movements, my therapist was kept busy replacing cold stones and removing hot ones from her bain marie.

I was intrigued to learn Hawaiians believe when people die their souls go back to the earth and rocks become ancestors. They believe that if a stone falls off a person accidentally it means ‘it’ doesn’t want to be with you.

Because of the ability to work deeper into the muscles, I was told an increasing number of people prefer this to the better-known massage techniques, and even fall asleep. No better proof of relaxation than that.

I didn’t think I’d fall asleep when I heard about the TheraVINE Pinotage bath treatment. A proudly South African contribution to the international beauty scene, when I thought of the fruit of the vine smothering my entire naked body it was: Yuck…This is going to be one sticky mess! But like a glass of good Pinotage, it’s a velvet experience.

Once dissolved, the liquid, which smells strongly of the vine, turns the bath merlot red and smooth. You are first exfoliated with the Pinotage ground grape seed containing a profusion of polyphenols with high anti-oxidant and anti-ageing properties contained in the grape skins. Indigenous oils are added to the bath and the candle-lit room is poised for your scalp massage or jet bath. Finally, you are massaged with a Pinotage oil and the ‘barrel bath’ treatment ends with the application of a Cabernet body lotion, Sauvignon Blanc shampoo and a Chardonnay conditioner. No surprise then, that treatments are located in the heart of wineland country at historic Stellenbosch.

It doesn’t matter what treatment you have at the Sanctuary Spa at the 12 Apostles Hotel in Oudekraal, because from the moment you walk in, it feels as though you have been transported to a fantasical sphere.

Padding across the rainbow bridge’s underfloor of soft, changing lights and rising steam from the ‘colour-therapy’ Jacuzzi below, the fact you are in a mammoth partially-natural, dimmed cavern makes you feel you are discovering a lost planet and a high-tech spaceship.

No wonder they were selected the leading spa for 2005 in Southern Africa by the Leading Hotels of the World. But for the record and as it was the end of an exhausting working day, I owed it to my feet to do the right thing. My reflexology treatment was superlative, thanks to the skill and nurturing of therapist Mandisa Mbali-Gontsi. In a matter of a few minutes she had identified several past and current health issues. All this in the foot with the entire body reflected through pressure points there. “I have a desire to help someone feel better…give them new feet”, said Mandisa. Some of the Spa’s unique fynbos Moya range of body products were used on me, including the peach kernel pips for exfoliation and chamomile and geranium oils.

New feet? My entire body’s been sung back to life. Now, can someone do something about my soporific mind?