Publicity

These are just a few of the large amount of reviews that have been made about Kangaroo Island Health Retreat, if we cant convince you, maybe these can!

• "Does Fasting Work?" The Age (newspaper)
• "Spa Horizons?" The Advertiser (newspaper)

New Idea July 2009

Destinations De-Stress Kangaroo Island Health Retreat, SA For a total health retreat away from the stresses of daily life, head for the hills overlooking exquisite Emy Bay. This retreat offers a six night detox, including fitness, yoga, pilates, meditation sessions, return flights from Adelaide, accommodation and all meals. It also offers culinary and cooking classes, anatomy and nutrition lectures, massage and reflexology.

A typical day starts 7.00a.m. with body preparations, skin brushing, glorious sunrise and sunset walks, beach and bush walks, all classes, and then afternoon relax with therapies, and the all important anatomy and nutritional lectures. Great location, pristine and unspoilt.

Scoop Traveller 2008

The kick-your-butt-into-gear Health Retreat KIHR is tucked away on Kangaroo Island 16 Km off the Fleurieu Peninsula and known for its unspoilt wilderness, beautiful beaches and pristine waters. The retreat accommodation, Shamrock Lodge, caters for six people and offers private bedrooms and bathrooms and ocean views. Guru Sue McCarthy, who has owned and managed health retreats for 27 years, across Australia, has had the honour of having this one listed in the worlds top 100 getaways by UK lifestyle magazine Harpers and Queen. Not bad. It's not for the faint hearted though. Sue says the focus is on healthy diet, exercise and education - and any addictions (nicotine, alcohol, fast food and work) can be left at the door. Want to live to 100 plus and give disease the flick? Then this is your kind of retreat.

Australian Traveller Magazine, 2006

Sue McCarthy, the woman behind Kangaroo Island Health Retreat, ran a day spa in WA back when the rest of the country thought a body wrap was a doona. She believes it all comes down to two things: having a clean, concise mind and a high immune system. Sue says she could lie on a hot tarmac road and get the same affect as that from a hot stone treatment; "Spas are lovely and they make you feel fuzzy and good, but they're not life-changing. Yes, they're therapeutic, but what I'm doing here is so much harder and more rewarding. And you do need willpower."

Visit Kangaroo Island Health Retreat and leave all your addictions at home. Sue's course isn't easy or cheap and it lasts for a week, but - because she's spend her life exploring heath and wellbeing - she promises guests they'll find what they came for.

And you can't beat the surrounds: 16km off SA's Fleurieu Peninsula, Kangaroo Island is recognised as a unique unspoilt wilderness, with beautiful beaches and an abundance of wildlife. Hell of a place to be pampered.

The Advertiser, Thursday, November 13, 2003

ADAM Kingsley has lost 4kg in a month in a desperate bid to save his Port Adelaide career. One of the six Power players told their services were no longer required after the disappointing preliminary final loss to Collingwood, Kingsley cut a striking figure yesterday as Port officially began pre-season training...

...Having declared his "axing" at Port as "maybe the sharp kick up the bum to get me going", Kingsley has gone on a strict diet, including spending time at a health farm on Kangaroo Island, and he has hit the gym and running track hard.

Harpers Abroad, 2002

Six simple but comfortable rooms overlook the spectacular Emu Bay: a perfect crescent of white sand and turquoise sea, home to dolphins, penguins, sea eagles and sea lions. Guests come here to de-stress and detox on Sue McCarthy’s individual programmes of diet and exercise. ‘Guru Sue’ believes that ‘Health is about being strong, resilient and functioning’. At 55, she is the embodiment of vigour, with a enviable pair of legs, and as a reformed chain-smoker, she understands the problems of addictions.

The Islander, Thursday, February 2nd, 2002

Sue McCarthy’s Kangaroo Island Health Retreat has made it to the list of the world’s top 100 retreats, the only one in Australia to do so. Her complex, at Emu Bay on the Island’s north coast, was visited by a overseas critic last year and this month found itself in the top 100 list in UK lifestyle magazine, Harpers and Queen. Sue is delighted with the result which sees her Retreat rubbing shoulders with establishments which charge over $1000 a night. Along with husband Austin, she moved to Kangaroo Island three years ago to start the business and while her Retreat clientele is predominantly from interstate she is well known to locals through her yoga and aerobics classes. Sue hopes to expand this aspect of her business and is looking at building a fully functional studio on their Emu Bay property for this purpose.

West Australian (Today Section), Monday June 11 2001

Time may have added a few grey hairs and a fine line or two but it has in no way dampened the get-up-and-go of Sue McCarthy. She still extols the "your health is your own business" message – perhaps a tad more marketed and polished – but as no-nonsense as ever.

For years West Australians trotted out to her McCarthy Park Health Retreat which she and her husband, Austin, set up in Gidgegannup 20 years ago. There they coaxed, cajoled or ultimately dragged clients into a strict regimen of exercise and healthy eating.

In the excesses of the 1980’s people came looking for a weekend pep-up but what the McCarthy’s delivered was a no-holds-barred lifestyle makeover instead.

Some clients dropped by the wayside but a great many stuck it out and emerged claiming they had never felt better.