How three flatmates built The Sauna Project

I’ll be honest with you. The first time I went to one of these outdoor saunas, down in Wellington, I nearly talked myself out of it. Sitting in my togs in front of a bunch of people I’d never met wasn’t exactly my idea of a relaxing morning. But once I was in there, nobody cared, in a good way. There were people of all shapes and sizes, no one was looking at anyone, and before long we were all quietly chatting away. I’d never experienced anything quite like it.

So when I heard The Sauna Project had opened at the Kinloch marina, I had to find out more. I caught up with Keelan Kanji, one of the three founders, and it turns out the whole thing started in a flat driveway.

A sauna in the alleyway

About four years ago, Keelan was flatting in Mount Maunganui with his mates Luke and Dave. Luke was a qualified builder, Dave was working as an apprentice, and Keelan had just come back from overseas and was working for himself.

Keelan had always been a sauna person. His dad was into saunas when he was a kid, so he’d grown up with them, and one of the first things he did in the Mount was sign up to a gym purely because it had a good sauna.

Then Luke and Dave headed to Queenstown for a six month stint of building work and skiing. It was cold, so they started using the hotel sauna, and something clicked.

“I think they were like, oh man, I can see why Keelan really likes this,” he says. “They called me with a vision of building a sauna, and I said, say no more.”

The three of them pooled their money and built a wood fired sauna in the driveway of their flat, just for themselves. It didn’t stay that way for long. Friends came over, then friends of friends, and that little alleyway turned into a bit of a community hub. They started taking it down to the beach, and that’s when they realised they had something special.

It was never meant to be a business

A booking system came next, and then their first “franchisee,” a mate called Simon who’d been at uni in Dunedin with Keelan and Dave. He paid his sauna off slowly over about three years, and that’s when the penny dropped: this idea could spread.

After that it was people who knew them, and eventually, around the fourth or fifth sauna, complete strangers. That brought its own challenges: contracts, health and safety, liability, all the grown up business stuff.

“There were definitely a lot of points where we felt in over our heads,” Keelan says. He credits Dave’s big dreams for pushing them through the early days. “Me and Luke are probably more conservative. We kind of just closed our eyes and hung on.”

Today there are around 33 Sauna Project units, a team of nine or ten on the payroll, and saunas in Sydney too, after an Australian couple happened to sauna with Dave one night and Keelan another, and went home wanting to do the same thing over there.

What I loved was that they bootstrapped the whole lot. No big loan, years of doing whatever needed doing for no pay, then not much pay, and only now something they’re okay with.

Not really about health at all

You’d probably expect a sauna business to talk up the health benefits. Keelan reckons that’s not really what it’s about for them.

“Everyone has a different story about how it affects them and what they like about it,” he says.

Instead, the business is built around a few simple things: being out in nature, keeping prices low enough that plenty of people can come, and connecting with other people. There are no phones, because you’re in your togs, in the sauna or in the water, so for an hour everyone’s just there.

He has a lovely way of describing what happens. You know how we talk about someone “warming up” to a crowd? In a sauna it happens literally. As your body relaxes, the nerves go too.

“At the start of a session things can be a bit quiet,” he says. “Then half an hour later they’re chatting away.”

He calls it social wellbeing, and says it’s the biggest thing they’re trying to push. So many of us don’t have enough low pressure places where we can just be around other people, maybe make a friend, maybe just sit and listen. “It’s not that we can’t communicate,” he says. “It’s almost like we’re losing it because the spaces aren’t there.”

So why Kinloch?

This was my big question. I’d heard a sauna was coming and went looking on the Taupō lakefront, with no luck.

Turns out Taupō is the place more people have asked The Sauna Project for than anywhere else, with over 100 enquiries. But getting permission on the lakefront has been close to impossible.

Then a woman with a berth at the Kinloch marina rang Keelan to say someone should put a sauna there. He asked if she wanted to run it. Her answer was a firm no, she just thought someone should do it. So Keelan rang Dave, and the business ended up owning this one themselves.

With the grass, the playground and the lake right there for a dip, Keelan reckons it ticks every box. It’s also one of only a couple of lake saunas they have, and he admits he’s a freshwater fan himself.

The Fieldays story

Of course I had to ask for a disaster story, and he didn’t disappoint. Early on, when they were all still working other jobs, they took a couple of saunas to Fieldays in Hamilton to try and sell them. Being so time poor, Dave whipped up some flyers that ended up with three spelling mistakes. Nobody was buying a sauna on the spot, and they’d paid a fair bit to be there.

They stayed in a campground, sat around having a few drinks each night wondering what on earth they were doing, then turned up every morning trying to look professional. Keelan finished the weekend towing a two tonne sauna three hours home, exhausted and out of pocket. They can all laugh about it now.

If you’ve got an idea of your own

His advice is to expect it to be hard at the start, and see that as a good thing. “So many people hit that and stop,” he says. If you’re the one who keeps going, you’re the one with the story at the end.

The other is never to underestimate goodwill. Even when money was tight, they refused to chase short term cash over doing things the right way. “You may win the battle but lose the war,” he says.

Nervous about giving it a go?

Keelan’s answer is simple: it all comes down to the host. “As soon as you show up, you’ll have a host who cares about your experience,” he says. “Just turn up and be yourself.”

He loves how many people come along on their own, and honestly, after my experience, I get it.

I gave it a go at Kinloch

I got out to Kinloch last Friday, and Ana was our host. She’s been in the wellness industry for years, and she started by talking us through how it all works: three 15 minute rounds in the sauna, with a dip in the lake in between. Each round opens with an aufguss, a German tradition where she steams up the room with a little aromatherapy oil and fans it around with a towel. Then you close your eyes and sit with the heat. Ana says stopping completely can feel uncomfortable the first time, but by round two most people are loving it.

If you’re feeling nervous to begin with, her advice is simple. There are no expectations, and if you need to leave the sauna, you leave the sauna. She even admits she once swore she’d never get in the lake, and then did. “The feeling was incredible,” she says.

I felt at ease from the start, just like in Wellington. Ana was calm and relaxed, and the chat was my favourite part. By her estimate, about 80 per cent of the crowd are regulars, and they’re quick to welcome anyone new. Being in freshwater was a bonus too, because I didn’t have to rush off for a shower afterwards. I’d go back in a heartbeat, seriously, I can’t recommend it enough.

Want to give it a go? Find The Sauna Project at the Kinloch marina and book your session here: Book Now. Bring your togs, a towel, and a bit of curiosity.