It’s official: I am a rat. A spa rat.

Dear Doctor,

I’m a little concerned and I’m hoping you can help me.

See, it’s like this. I have a thing for fluffy towels. Can’t get enough of them.

Oh, and also a quality white robe. One that fits me and doesn’t make me look like a towelling Michelin man.

I kind of need to have aromatherapy oils wafting from vapourisers about the room. 

And here’s the weirdest bit, I’m happy to swap a skinny flat white for a lemon myrtle and peppermint herbal tea.

What’s wrong with me?

Yours faithfully

Ms Spa Rat

Dear Ms Spa Rat

I’ll be straight with you. There is no cure.

You have Sparatitus.

I suggest you head to The Spa at Hyatt Regency Coolum (I’ve attached a photo as part of your prescription). Stat.

Doctors orders.

PS. Leave the kids at home

 ——————————————————————————————–

So, I just had to. Didn’t I? Ditch the kids and whisk Mr Styling You away for a 18.5 hours of bliss.

The reason I’m so precise on the .5 is that our gorgeous babysitter dropped Mr 6 to us at 8.30am on Sunday morning for brekky and a swim. Something you can do when the getaway is just 20 minutes up the road.

He, was, however a little put out on seeing our TWO-bedroom golf villa apartment (the refurbishment of the resort’s villa apartments was completed last year and so far 40 of the King Rooms have received at makeover).

“Which room was your’s Mummy? Which was Daddy’s?” he asked on first inspection. When told that we actually shared the one room – and the one gigantic king-size bed stacked with all the feather pillows from the other king-size bed – he did what any kid would do … made himself at home.

But back to that spa.

Hyatt Coolum set an Australian spa benchmark when it opened back in 1988. In Queensland at that time we may have been familiar with a salon facial or a pedi but the concept of booking in somewhere so spacious where you can sit, relax, while away the hours AND get pampered within an inch of your life was as foreign a concept as the European spas, it was inspired by.

But Queenslanders and Australians caught up. Suddenly day spas were popping up everywhere. And some time between the late ’80s and now, Australian habits changed. Now a resort or hotel escape does not seem complete without some kind of downtime at a spa.

Or maybe that’s just me?

As an officially diagnosed spa rat, The Spa at the Hyatt has well and truly kept up with the times. As far as spas goes, I’ve never visited any other that is as spacious as this one. It’s huge.

You don’t feel like you’re changing your disposable undies on top of the next person. You know you can actually stay for hours, just chilling, sitting in the spa or lying beside the lap-pool (or YOU might even swim some laps … ).

You could almost forget why you’d arrived at The Spa in the first place.

Almost. When a girl gets asked if she’d like a 90-minute hahana stone massage, it’s a no brainer.

Lead me to your massage bed of loveliness; pummel and stroke me with smooth warm stones. Yes, please. I’ll have some of that.

This particular massage is based on rhythmic Hawaiian Lomi-Lomi techniques, techniques which are said to release healing energies deep into the muscle, chipping away at any tension or stress. I can report that it did all that.

What I really, really love about this style of massage is the “grounding” you feel with the stones. No, I’m not going to go all new-agey with you but while parts of your body are being massaged with the stones; stones are also placed (and left there) in certain positions around your body.

For instance, when it started I was face down with arms down by my side and a stone was place in each hand. And I’ve just done a bit of a Google and the other points weren’t random, they were to do with my charkras and trying to balance them.

And apparently one stroke of a heated stone is the equivalent of 10 normal massage strokes. I say apparently as I am not a scientist … and I may or may not have fallen asleep.  Yep, again.

 ——————————————————————————————–

Now, if you’ve stuck with me so far, thank-you for showing empathy for my Sparatitis condition.

By the time I’d changed back to my clothes, I think I was in remission. Confident that I would be more than capable of making scintillating table conversation with Mr Styling You over dinner at Eliza’s Restaurant. He had spent the afternoon at the gym and watching the cricket in peace, thus nature had balanced itself.

Eliza’s is Hyatt Coolum’s fancy schmancy restaurant. Some would call it fine-dining. I love the word fancy, myself.

And can I just say – before I move on to the reason why it turned out I didn’t actually need to talk that much to my husband over dinner – that the Masterchef-phenomenon was alive and well on this Saturday night? More than three tables had children sitting at them. And with nary a chicken nugget to be found on the stunning menu.

Remembering I’m not a food blogger (I’m a blogger who likes food), the reason I didn’t have to talk that much was because my mouth was continuously stuffed with food. Really, really good food. So good that I was reduced to OMGs, OMFGs and when the individual croquembouche arrived for my husband’s desert, OMFG why am I gluten intolerant. Why?

But don’t feel sorry for me. What, you weren’t? Oh, ok if that’s how you’re going to be I’ll hit you with some of the rest of the menu we devoured.

Restaurant manager Nicola De Santi not only steered us in the right direction and entertained us with Italian-accented stories, he introduced us to a South African wine varietal called Pinotage. It’s a balsy red with a smokey barbecue finish. Surely that makes me a wine blogger too?

 ——————————————————————————————–

Mr Styling You and I were very gracious guests of Hyatt Regency Coolum. These thoughts and opinions are all mine. If you’d like to escape the kids for a night, there’s a Couple’s Indulgence package available (from $425 per couple per night in a king room).  It includes accommodation in a king room with sparkling wine and chocolates on arrival, plus continental breakfast for two. Entry to the Spa and tennis centre is also included along with complimentary golf clinic lessons in the morning (Mon-Fri). You can also choose between the option of unlimited golf and shared motorised cart use or a selected 60-minute spa treatment, per adult per night (Ladies, suggest you don’t even mention the golf option). Available for stays until December 23, 2012.  For full details, conditions and bookings contact Hyatt Regency Coolum Golf Resort and Spa on 1800 COOLUM (1800 266 586) or visit www.coolum.regency.hyatt.com  (Quote offer code CLM009).

 ——————————————————————————————–

We don’t get to go away much without the kids in tow – this was SUCH a treat. Do you? Do you have date nights? Or maybe you have a bad case of Sparatitus, like me?