among natural materials and very little else. Three materials do the whole of the work here: charred ash without, pale oiled ash within, granite in the ground. Nothing is painted, nothing is veneered, and nothing is shared with anybody.
The first thing most guests remark on is the quiet; the second is that nobody has spoken to them. There is no reception to pass, no turndown, and no one appearing at the door with an explanation of the amenities.
The floor is warm underfoot from the doorway, heated off the spring line. The courtyard glass is one way mirror laminate: from within, the bush; from without, nothing at all.
The rockpool is cut from granite, the same rock through which the water spent millennia moving; everything else is timber, oiled and left pale. The smell of it is the first thing through the door, and it lasts about a day.
1 bedroom · Rockpool 4.2 × 2.6 m · Indoor spring bath
A single open room turned to the courtyard, glazed on that side in one way mirror laminate, so that the rockpool remains yours alone and the glass returns the trees to the bush.
3 bedrooms · Rockpool 5.4 × 3.2 m · Indoor spring bath
Three bedrooms gathered about a central room, a larger rockpool, and a full kitchen for the nights you would sooner cook. The lake lies on one side and the alpine ranges rise on the other.
and let the treatment come to the villa. Therapists arrive at the hour named, set up in the living room or the courtyard, and leave the way they came. No robe is issued, no relaxation lounge is passed through, and no one asks about the pressure twice.
Slow, warm and thorough, taken after bathing when the muscle has already given up most of its resistance.
Suited to a first evening, and to anyone who has driven a long way to get here.
In the villa · 60 or 90 minutes
Firmer work through the back, hips and shoulders, with the therapist looking for the particular thing rather than the general.
Suited to riders, skiers, and desks.
In the villa · 60 or 90 minutes
Two therapists, two tables, set in the living room facing the courtyard.
Suited to those who would rather not be in separate rooms.
Two therapists · 60 or 90 minutes
Cleansing, warm compress and facial massage, using the spring water itself.
Suited to skin that has been through a winter, or a city.
In the villa · 60 minutes
Forty five minutes of directed breathing, conducted beside the water rather than in it.
Suited to those who find the mind slower to settle than the body.
In the villa · 45 minutes
Assisted stretching and joint work, taken on the floor, with the heat already doing half of it.
Suited to stiff mornings and long-standing complaints.
In the villa · 60 minutes
Treatments are taken after bathing rather than before it. Heat has already done a good deal of the therapist’s work by then, and the hour goes further for it.