Winter wellness in Auckland: staying warm and calm

People who move to Auckland from colder places are always surprised by the winter. Not because it is severe — it is not — but because it is wet, and wet at fourteen degrees gets into your shoulders and stays there in a way that dry at four does not.

Add the dark, weeks at a time without a properly clear weekend, and the sinking feeling of leaving work after sunset, and June to August takes a real toll. Here is what our therapists recommend, from most to least useful.

1. Heat treatments, which is what they are for

Winter is the season our heat treatments come into their own, and they do different jobs:

• Hot stone massage — broad, sinking warmth over the whole body. The treatment for when you cannot get warm through and everything feels guarded. 90 mins $175 Viaduct / $160 St Heliers.
• Thai herbal compress — rhythmic, herbal, pressed warmth. Better when specific areas ache — a lower back that has stiffened, shoulders permanently hunched against the rain. Same prices.
• The infrared sauna at St Heliers — 45 minutes and a shower, $60 for one, $90 for two. The most direct answer to damp-cold there is, and available at St Heliers only. New to infrared? Our comparison of infrared and traditional saunas explains how it feels different.

Candle therapy massage at the Viaduct belongs on this list too — warm melted massage candle wax worked in with Swedish technique, 60 mins $140, 90 mins $195. It is a Viaduct exclusive and it is very much a winter treatment.

One caution with all of them: if you are pregnant, or have a heart condition or high blood pressure, check with your GP or midwife before booking a heat treatment, and tell us when you book.

2. Warm oils rather than light ones

Warm coconut oil massage does double duty from June onwards. Winter skin gets tight and papery — heat pumps, long hot showers, wind off the harbour — and a warm oil treatment softens and moisturises it at the same time as the muscles are worked. Pair it with a body scrub (on its own at the Viaduct, or within a package at St Heliers) and you will notice the difference in your skin for days.

"From May the bookings change. Nobody asks for something refreshing. Everyone asks for something warm."

Siri therapist team

3. Light, early, and outside

The most effective non-treatment thing on this list, and the least appealing at 7am in July. Get outside within an hour of waking, even under cloud — outdoor light on an overcast Auckland morning is still far brighter than indoor lighting, and daylight is one of the main cues your body clock uses to decide when you should be awake and when you should be asleep.

Ten minutes. Tamaki Drive if you are near it, the block if you are not. Many people find it does more for winter mood and sleep than anything they could buy.

4. Small warmth, repeatedly

• Turn the shower temperature down slightly. Very hot water strips winter skin faster than anything you will put back on it.
• Moisturise within a few minutes of getting out, while skin is still damp.
• Warm your feet before bed. Socks, a hot water bottle, or five minutes rubbing your own feet. Many people find warm feet help them drift off.
• Keep moving on the grey days. Not training — just walking. Stiffness compounds fastest in weeks where nothing happens.

5. Book something in the middle of it

August is the month people crack. A treatment booked for early August in the middle of June is one of the more effective things you can do for a winter, partly because of the treatment and partly because of the six weeks of looking forward to it.

Both spas are open seven days, 10.00am to 8.00pm, right through winter. An evening booking after dark, walking out into the cold with your shoulders finally down, is a specifically excellent thing — and it often makes for the best sleep of the week.

Can you have a massage with a cold?

Not while it is coming on, and not with a temperature. Move the booking. Three reasons:

• You will not enjoy it. Lying face down with a blocked nose is miserable, and a body fighting off a bug is in no mood to let go.
• Colds spread easily, sometimes before you feel properly sick. Healthify's advice on colds is to avoid close contact with others for the first two to four days — and a massage is about as close as contact gets.
• Heat is not a cure. A sauna or a hot stone massage will not sweat out a cold, and a temperature plus more heat is a bad combination.

Phone the branch to move your appointment — Viaduct 027-722-6564, St Heliers 027 654 6642 — and come back once you are properly over it. Cold symptoms usually hang around for a week or two, and the tail end, when you feel well but are still a little stuffy, is fine for a treatment. Mention it when you arrive so your therapist can keep you comfortable, and save the eucalyptus steam bowl for home.

When it is more than winter

If the flatness is heavy rather than mild, if it arrives every year at the same time, or if it comes with poor sleep, loss of interest or persistent low mood, that is worth a conversation with your GP rather than a spa booking. Seasonal affective disorder is a recognised type of depression that tends to arrive with winter, and it is treatable — not something to push through alone. In New Zealand you can also call or text 1737 free, any time, to talk to a trained counsellor.

A hot stone massage is a genuinely good July afternoon. It is not a treatment for depression, and we would rather say so plainly.

Common questions