About Us
Elaine Denton
“It is from the energy of this story a healing massage dance was created: ‘a massage dance from the heart’"
From a pocket coastal village in New Zealand with serene names and beautiful, ancient healing ways - Elaine Denton’s Mākoha Spa comes from a great line of wise and gentle healers.
There’s a little spring up high on Mt Taranaki on the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island. It’s name is ‘Rautini’ which flows into another spring, ‘Pungaērērē’. The combined waters gently slide down from the mountain and into the sea at a small coastal town called Rahotu.
Elaine Denton’s Māori birth name is taken from the Pungaērērē spring (meaning ‘lush waterfall life’, ‘movement of the stars’, and ‘the beginning of life’).
‘Mākoha’ means ‘natural gift and ocean energy’ - the end journey of the Mt Taranaki springs. ‘Mākoha’ treatments are imbued with the wisdom and richness of hundreds of years of Elaine’s Rahotu family culture. The story of the Mākoha Miri Miri massage is about a Māori girl named Waikeringa. The little girl Waikeringa left her homelands and followed her heart across the ocean while voyaging in her waka (canoe). Finding terribly low times, her spirit was revived by the ocean energy. “It is from the energy of this story a healing massage dance was created: ‘a massage dance from the heart’, a celebration of life, rejuvenation of spirit and freeing of physical weight,” Elaine said. “A Mākoha treatment is like moving heavy old jackets from the aura and body, allowing one’s truth to express itself.” Elaine is a direct descendant of that little girl, Waikeringa.
