New Zealand
Yoga & Sacred Nature
Retreat
Feb 1-8th 2018
You have always wanted to visit New Zealand, right? You are drawn to the images of stunning wild nature there. The exotic plants, birds and big big sky. You want to visit, and you want to have a REAL experience. Connecting ethically and deeply with the land and the people who care for it.
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You also need a break. A vacation that nourishes you on a deep level. Reminds you how to take care of and enjoy the precious body you live in! You love home-cooked quality organic food, but you don't always have time to prepare it yourself. You long to live closer to the land, maybe grow your own food one day, or at least make friends with the gardeners who do.
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You want to travel, but you also want to spend your resources on meaningingful personal growth, increasing your health, taking time for yourself and having the chance for new life insights to emerge in safe, supportive authentic community.
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This is the retreat for you. Carefully crafted by a New Zealand raised farm-girl-yoga-teacher, currently bay area healer, and a whole crew of passionate supporters who have your goals in mind. With gentle yet profound yoga and pranayama practices as the base of each day, you will also be led into gardening and harvesting projects to give back to the land that will be supplying most of your food during your stay. A Rongoa teacher (traditional Maori herbal medicine) will teach us to identify native plants and understand their uses to bring more richness to our bushwalks (NZ forrest), Glow-worm caves, and River outings. All the while you will be fed with food grown and prepared organically and with love, on the farm homestead that will be home for 7 nights.
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Manawatu Farm Retreat Setting
This Manawatu central North Island NZ venue is a converted hay-barn on idyllic organic homestead property. The views from this hilltop location on a clear day include as far south as Kapiti Island, as far west as Mt. Taranaki, as far north as Mt. Ruapehu and over to the Tararua and Ruahine ranges to the East.
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Far away from the noise of cars or other people, the sounds of native birds chorus from the new growth native shelter trees.
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The catered meals come from the lovingly grown produce on the property itself. Farm-to-table has never been more direct.
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The composting toilet, rainwater collection and simple accomodation model environmental stewardship and permaculture principles at their best. Rustic, peaceful, and environmentally sustainable to the highest degree, this is an exceptional setting for connecting with the energy of New Zealand.
The Crew
This crew will be with you throughout your retreat, guiding your yoga practice, your morning meditation, ensuring that you are fully nourished and all your food needs met, and introducing you to all the intimacies of the land and the garden so that you will feel fully at home here. Additional staff will be supporting, guest teaching, driving to special activities, etc.
Rebekah earned a Bachelor of Science (honors) in Psychology, at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. She specialized in social-cultural psychology. She attended Sivananda Ashram in Kerala, Southern India and completed her 200-hour yoga teacher training. The program taught an integral practice including meditation, asana, chanting, service, and clean diet. She's also studied level 1 and level 2 Thai massage and Thai foot reflexology at TCM, a Thai massage school in Thailand. Moreover, she is also a Zero Balancing practitioner and teacher and incorporates this thorough background into her yoga instruction and personalised guidance.
Gabriel earned a BA in Psychology at Pomona College, CA. He was raised in the Tibetan-Buddhist tradition and began learning meditation techniques and philosophy at age 10. After a traumatic Kundalini Awakening in 2004, he disavowed all internal practices until he could find a safe system to develop the structure needed to contain that level of energy. In 2012, he resumed practice in earnest, delving deeply into learning vipassana meditation, qigong, and bodywork (Zero Balancing). He also teaches Jiu-Jitsu to help kids enjoy safe physical play!
Suzy is a woman of many talents. She co-runs Waiata Gardens with her husband Viv. Together, they grow amazing organic food, which Suzy turns into delicious food. When she isn't busy preparing feasts from the land, Suzy is a composer, voice coach, and Zero Balancing therapist.
Viv is a master gardener who is dedicated to living in connection with nature. Born and raised on the land where he now lives and loving tends, he knows these hills and rivers inside and out. He can tell you exactly which species of native bird have been sharing the plums with you...
Jess is a chill, cheeky Chiwi (Chinese Kiwi) from Palmerston North. She studies at Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School in Wellington. She is passionate about eating, sleeping, and meeting new people, bathing in the sun and walks through the bush (forest). Her greatest trial in life right now is learning to be kind to herself. She approaches whatever she's doing - be work, time with friends or performing on a stage - with a sense of openness and empathy.
Getting to New Zealand
Ticket prices vary, and of course it depends on where you are flying from! SFO and LAX both have direct flights to Auckland - the main international airport in NZ. Prices range from $700-$1600 return regularly.
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You will need to get a connecting internal flight from Auckland (AKL) to the little local airport Palmerston North (PMR). (Unless you decide to rent a car or take a bus the 7 hours drive down the country ). (There are currently flights from SFO-PMR for $913).
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US citizens get a 3 month visitors visa upon entry to the country.
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If you need additional support with making arrangements, please
get in touch. We are happy to help you. We're also happy to give you suggestions if you want to extend your stay and visit some of the country's other amazing spots.
What kind of Yoga, and how experienced do I need to be?
You will be lead through meditation, pranayama (breathing practices) and Asana (poses) with the goal of helping you to have a deeper experience of your body. Through this careful and slow practice, you will start to feel the way habits of tension have formed in your body and discover how to access new possibilities of relaxation, strength and coordinated movement. With hands-on adjustments designed not to push you into a pose in a different way, but to bring awareness to your body in new ways, you will start to feels years of stress habits beginning to drop away.
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This retreat is most suitable for people who have some experience with yoga, and feel comfortable sitting on the ground cross-legged. Fairly new through to advanced practitioners will be supported in finding a depth of practice that allows them to reach new levels of health, vitality, relaxation and body awareness.
This is a one-of-a-kind experience, with room for only 10 participants. The small group size means lots of personalised attention. Time to be alone in nature. And time to connect meaningfully with others.
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It also means the retreat will fill up soon! Make sure you are a part of this. Apply below!
(application begins the process and does not complete registration).