Story by News Ltd: Vanessa Brown.
Read News Ltd’s full story here
BYRON BAY has always been a little loose for me. It’s as if stepping on to the tarmac at Ballina airport in northern NSW opens the gates to indulgence. The belt loosens, the weight lifts and the bottles flow.
I’ve spent countless weekends here. Lapping up the sun, sleeping in until late and kick starting the afternoon with a healthy serving of cheese and champagne.
But my most recent visit was going to be a little different from previous trips.
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As I boarded my flight in Sydney, I wasn’t headed for a beachside resort or lush AirBnB apartment in town.
Instead, I was en route to rehab. An isolated sanctuary in the Byron Hinterland which would play as my home for the next 24 hours.
Winding into bushland and battling poor phone signal, I reached The Bay.
“There’s nothing quite like The Bay,” head of marketing and my host, Mairead Cleary explained as we made our way through the glass front doors and into the foyer of the two-storey home.
Operating for just over 10 years, this $30,000 a week retreat takes a “holistic, trauma approach” to healing clients with an addiction.
“The most common way of treating addiction is the Twelve Step AA method, but we don’t use that here,” Ms Clearly explained.
“We focus purely on one-on-one rehabilitation, so it’s quite intensive therapy.”
One could stay at the beach in Byron for $28 000 a week….This is becoming affordable housing these days…