This new hotel offers Auckland’s best massage

30 April 2024

In this day and age, having two-and-a-half daytime hours to do sweet nothing is a luxury in itself.

Spending those two-and-a-half hours in a state of sensory bliss as a master massage therapist melts away the tension from your aromatherapy oil-slicked muscles before covering you in gently heated stones like so many hot water bottles is priceless for anyone in need of peace and pampering. The series of yoga poses that follow to ease out any remaining kinks feels like an extravagant bonus.

New boutique hotel Abstract offers some of the best-value accommodation in central Auckland, but the Sa-ni day spa is worth the visit alone.

While not as overtly luxe in appearance as some of the city’s most sumptuous spas, it is soothingly simple, with neutral tones, dim, doze-inducing lighting and cloud-like white couches to sink into as you drink a welcome cup of purple butterfly pea tea. And the treatments themselves are second to none.