Home(opathy) in the Wood!

Thursday 2^nd April, Day 139 of our trip, 20 weeks in, and we’re back in Northlands, our favourite part of NZ. Stopping briefly for a fruit juice at Cafe Eutopia in Kaiwaka, and lunch at Uretiti Beach, we arrived at the bottom of Genevieve’s 4.8 km drive at about 3pm. The decision was made to attempt the climb in the van – and we made it, JUST! Couple of hairy moments, similar to getting in to Prana and climbing the mountain to Anahata, but we eventually emerged in to a clearing wherein stood Genevieve’s dome. Actually she rents it from a friend, Nick, but she’s been living here for about a year now – wild! LITERALLY!

Although isolated, we were able to borrow Genevieve’s car occasionally, when she was working from home, and get out and about a bit. We went to a lovely evening of singing at Ngunguru Memorial Hall, led by Zoe whom we met at Voice Camp in January. Explored Whangarei reasonably extensively, including the library, all the second-hand book stores (from where various items were acquired!), various galleries, cafes and restaurants, and of course Genevieve’s Clinic. She is an excellent homeopath, and taught us much about her profession during our stay. From knowing nothing about homeopathy I now feel like I at least know the basics – thanks Genevieve! Absolutely fascinating. As with many professions, there are many ways to approach and practice homeopathy – we particularly liked the way Genevieve works and will recommend homeopathy to others as and when it feels right.

Despite having very limited electricity in the bush and being almost totally reliant on solar power, we were able to watch several DVDs, including ‘The Majestic’ with Jim Carrey and ‘The Lake House’ with Sandra Bullock and Keano Reeves – both excellent.

Met Genevieve’s friend and teaching colleague, Julia, at their house in Mamakea Community nearby. Julia’s husband, Chris, has created a new charity called ‘Oceanwatch’ – see www.oceanwatch.org – which he is in the process of promoting and growing. Its main purpose being marine conservation.

Visited several of the local beaches, including Matapouri Beach (left) and Whale Bay – delightful! – and only 5 minutes away, once you reach the bottom of the drive! Weather has been glorious, especially considering it’s now Autumn! Had various visitors, including Genevieve’s 14 year old daughter Rachel, and her 19 year old son, Max. Also enjoyed several delightful days alone at the dome – our very own bush retreat – when Genevieve went out to work.

That brings us back up to date, finally! Loads I haven’t said. Loads more photo’s to show those who are willing to endure them! Read loads. Learnt loads. Shared loads. All good fun! And now less than one month to go!

Hope all is well with you. Much love. Richard and Julie xxx

Feasting to Fasting!

We left Dagma & Steve’s in Rotorua on 19^th March, with the possibility of meeting again next year in Germany where they are planning to live for a year from about October this year. It will seem strange visiting them in Germany and a lot easier I imagine.

And so we arrived back at Aio Wira to spend five days not eating! It was great to be back, to see Di and Lalage again. It was also good to know that we were there entirely for our own well-being, to work on ourselves, rather than on any WWOOFing jobs Di might have. The fast was a juice and vegetable broth fast. So we were still getting all the nutrients we needed whilst not eating any solid food. I thoroughly enjoyed it and was surprised not to feel hungry at all. Julie had a different experience and found things a little tougher. We were both glad to have done it though and our twelve fellow-fasters were all very supportive and friendly. Did a lot of meditation, yoga and walking. Did my first ever Tai Chi with a wonderful teacher, Ben, from China. Enjoyed several massages, facials, and frequent hot tubs and saunas, all of which help to eliminate toxins. Had an amazingly energetic dance late one night too, going wild to music from Afrocelts and The Who! There was another elimination process we experienced too, which was extremely effective! One of these even involved coffee! We’ll leave you to guess what that might have been!

Our ‘break-fast’ meal on Day 5 was an absolutely delicious baked apple with a prune inside! Thereafter, we took five more days to very gradually return to normal eating. We decided to stay on at Aio Wira to do this, enjoying its beautiful bush setting, mountain stream swimming hole, quail families, sunshine, stillness, spa, sauna, and other facilities, including Friday night at Bethells Beach – a popular gathering place nearby where many of the locals meet to exchange news and enjoy each other’s company. The night we went, a large screen had been erected outside to show a film documenting the history and lives of some of the local families. A fabulous array of refreshments was also available from a mobile cafe that is there every Friday night along with a variety of live music entertainers. The atmosphere was very relaxed and friendly and we could feel a very real sense of community – wonderful! A little different to the atmosphere surrounding an early morning meditation and swim we had at the same beach a few days earlier.

Before we left Aio Wira we visited Graham and Megan in Auckland whom we’d met at the Prana Festival in January (and Graham at Aio Wira back in November). They have a beautiful house overlooking the sea and yet again made us incredibly welcome. We spent a lovely afternoon and evening with them in the company of some of their friends, sharing a wonderful meal. And, as if that weren’t enough, they even offered us the opportunity to spend some time at their family bach at a place called Parekura Bay in the Bay of Islands – how kind and generous is that! They really are a wonderful couple and they have two lovely children too. More about our stay at their bach later!

Something else we did before leaving Aio Wira is watch ‘March of The Penguins’, narrated by Morgan Freeman, an amazing documentary about the life of emperor penguins – and we sometimes think our life is hard! Do watch it if you ever get the chance. You may notice some similarities with scenes in ‘Happy Feet’ if you’ve seen that. Both movies are in my Top 10!

So it was, that with emptied and refilled bellies, new friends, more memorable experiences (including Chris James returning to Aio Wira to run a 5-day Sound Healing workshop, and going to the Basement Theatre in Auckland to watch a famous NZ actress, Danielle (who did a fast at Aio Wira whilst we were there), perform in a very unusual poetry recital accompanied by a base and classical guitarist), we moved on yet again! This time to Ngunguru on the Tutukaka coast, about 35 km north east of Whangarei, to stay with our friend Genevieve in the bush!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PETER!

Like my new rucsack? My Godfather, Martin, bought it for me for my birthday!

Revisiting Di in Taupo

I'm inclined to think there are lots of steep drives in NZ!

Dinner at sea?

Lynne and Julie at The Fisherman's Table ...

Back on the North Island ...

Our first stop back on the North Island was back at our friend’s, Joanne, in Otaki. Whilst there we also revisited the Coehaven Cinema where we watched ‘Female Agents’ – a wonderful film about the French Resistance, albeit quite harrowing in parts. We also reconnected with our friend Lynne Hurley whose parents and family live in Suffolk! We enjoyed a wonderful evening with Lynne at a seafront restaurant, The Fisherman’s Table, and lunch the next day at The Brown Sugar Cafe in Otaki before we dropped her at the bus stop from where she returned to Wellington. I know we will see Lynne again back in the UK, if and when she visits or returns. She is very interested in 7 Words (as is Joanne) and they may be the first 7 Words Associates in New Zealand?

We then retraced our steps (drive really!) back to Hastings, on the East coast, to stay once more with Jocelyn where we were privileged to be invited to join a meeting of a small group of pioneers working to establish the first Non-Violent Communication Centre in New Zealand. This included another friend from Dance Camp, Laura, whom we hadn’t seen since Dance Camp. It was lovely to see Jocelyn and Laura again. We wish them and their fellow pioneers well with their NVC Centre and we very much look forward to keeping in touch and hearing how things develop.

Thence to Taupo where we hoped our friend Di would be in and that she’d remember us from our previous trip last year. She was, and she did! It was lovely to see her and the children again, and to meet her husband, Colin, this time. Watched ‘Happy Feet’ – their daughter’s favourite movie – beautiful! And had our first ever go on a Wii system, playing tennis, baseball, golf and ten pin bowling – very strange! They were extremely welcoming, as before, and said we could stay as long as we liked, which was fantastic and delightful. However, we had to move on so that we could visit our friends in Rotorua before heading back to Aio Wira to fast!

So, we arrived at Dagma and Steve’s in Rotorua on 17^th March, St Patrick’s Day. It was wonderful to see them again. Julie and Dagma have been friends since they worked together in Auckland when Julie visited NZ ten years ago. Peter, one of their three sons, was three the next day, so we got to help ‘build’ his cake! We also made peach chutney – yum! Sad that we’d had so little time with them, we had to move on to get to Aio Wira in time to start the fast.

As high as a kite at Tahuna!

An amazing acrobatic aerial display of kite surfing.

Moving in with Chris in Nelson

A lovely new home for a lovely lady!

McKee Memorial Reserve

A shady spot, across the bay from Nelson.

The hot seat?

OK, you can stop now Richard, yoga's over!

More hilltop yoga!

The hilltop group yoga room at Shambhala

More tea vicar?

Tea with a view!

Tea for Two at Shambhala!

The smallest tea house we've ever been in!

Julie in the Wharariki Dunes

Wonderful to roll around in ...

... not so great when it gets in to your camera though!

Amazing Dunes at Wharariki Beach

Were it not for the sea, you might think you're in the desert!

Last days on South Island

Wow! It’s hard to believe that six and half weeks have gone by since we last updated our Blog. So, what have we been up to?

After leaving Anahata and a short stay at Pohara Beach, we travelled north towards Golden Bay, through Takaka, and on to Wharariki Beach (our most northerly point on our South Island travels) which has the most amazing sand dunes I’ve ever seen – some of which got in to my camera as I was rolling down them! It reminded me of being in the desert (Tunisian Sahara, Oct 2005) – apart from the sea!

From there we drove south and east again, back towards Takaka, stopping one night in a layby near Puponga – which didn’t smell! The next day, in Takaka, we managed to get tickets to the world premiere of “Music & Images from the Heart of Nature” – a multi-media evening with photos from world-renowned photographers Tui De Roy and Mark Jones, set to live music from Caitlin & Sika (who live on the same mountain as the Anahata Retreat). It was an amazing evening with some absolutely stunning photos. I hope the ‘7 Words Theatre’ productions I plan to produce are equally stunning. By extraordinary coincidence we also met someone that evening that Julie hadn’t seen since they were both on the same massage course in Bristol about ten years ago. Peter and his wife Linda now run the Health Food Shop in Motueka – small world! So, a few days later, we visited their shop and Julie had a wonderful massage from Peter before we moved on.

From Takaka we journeyed slightly north again to find ‘Shambhala’ – a backpackers that many had told us was well worth a visit. They are right! A very beautiful, peaceful, hillside, coastal setting with a gorgeous new group room for meditation and yoga, and lovely gardens including a Buddhist ‘tea room’ overlooking the sea – wonderful! We did a yoga class with a lovely lady, Murdita, who spends half of each year in NZ, and the other half in Greece, where she was born. She also teaches Satyananda yoga (like Anahata) in the UK sometimes. She was very interested in 7 Words and family constellations, and we plan to stay in touch – I’ve always wondered what it’s like in Greece!

Next stop: McKee Memorial Reserve, just south of Motueka, across the bay from Nelson. A lovely spot. Then on to Nelson where we spent several days staying with Chris and her family in their new home which they’d only moved in to the day before! We met Chris at Aio Wira back in November and she very kindly invited us to visit – which we did! Just before leaving Chris, Nelson, and the South Island, we were lucky enough to witness an amazing display of kite surfing at Tahuna Beach. If I was younger and fitter, I’d definitely have a go! Talking to some of the guys who were doing it, it isn’t something you can expect to master very quickly, and it isn’t something you can just have a go at. It takes a lot of training to master the basics. Great fun to watch though.

And so our month on the South Island came to an end after meeting yet more amazing people and seeing yet more amazing places – only some of which I’ve mentioned here. On 10^th March we had a calm and pleasant ferry crossing back to the North Island, where our adventure continued .../