Wintertime in Coromandel, the vacation spot for Aucklanders. I spend about 3 weeks in this beautiful peninsula, a beautiful way to say goodbye to New Zealand.
This is Kiley, when I arrived in Coromandel, my arranged host canceled on me. Frantically I called around, hoping to find a new wwoof host. Nobody could take me, but after many calls I talked to this lovely Canadian who was house-sitting for friends in Whangamata. She was sympathetic to my situation and took me in. We ended up spending a week together, enjoying the west side of the Coro peninsula.
We went to hot water beach, famous for the volcanically active rock bed underneath the beach which heats up the water there. We brought shovels and made an instant hot tub right there at the beach. The water was extremely hot, but purifying.
Next I arrived at the beautiful Mana Retreat on the east side of Coromandel. Here I met many beautiful people and rested my weary traveling bones.
This is The Sanctuary at the top of the hill. There was much wonderful quiet time to be found here. It was simply a sacred place, build on sacred ground.
This is Manuel, my french wwoofer friend who arrived at Mana a couple of days after me. We enjoyed working and cooking together, as well as many hours of ping-pong madness. Here we are at the very top of the mountain that the Mana Retreat is situated on.
This is where I lived at the Mana retreat. It was actually the caravan that the owner brought when he first moved here to start the center. He transformed the caravan into a house, and lived in it while he designed and built the Mana Retreat, and now his guests and wwoofers stay here. It had a marvelous outdoor shower, and a composting toilet.
This is Sol, the founder of the Mana retreat. He was such a wonderful and playful man. He taught me many things, including Tai Ji! He also invited Manuel and I to participate in a sweat that he was hosting at the retreat. This was actually the initiation of the first sweat in this beautiful newly constructed adobe sweat lodge. Here with a group of about twenty, Sol explains the history of the Mana Retreat, and the history of the sweats that have taken place on this land over the past thirty years.
Sol is actually a well traveled Canadian, he landed in New Zealand about thirty years ago, and brought the tradition of the Native American sweat ceremony with him from North America. He reckons that he might have been the first person to perform a sweat in New Zealand.
This is the inside of the incredible sweat lodge before the ceremony began. In the center is where we rolled in red hot rocks. We all sat very close together and endured a three hour sweat. We sang songs, shared our pain, and healed together as new found family. It was such a powerful experience, and for me it seemed a very appropriate thing to do just a few days before leaving New Zealand.
This is Kiri, I met her at the sweat. She offered to take me into her home in Auckland a couple of days before my flight. Kiri is a wonderful person who supports herself as a jewelry-maker. She toured me around Auckland during my last days in New Zealand. She could not however, be there with me the day before I left, and so she even connected me with a friend of hers who took me out to a nearby rainforest on my very last day to reconnect one last time with the land before leaving.
Content with my journey, and readying myself for Australia.
My entrance into Australia has been a graceful one. I'm staying with friends of my parents. "Big Mike" and Lee Erlin, and their two amazing children Connor and Clancy. They have taken me in, and my first few days here have been wonderful.
A hint of things to come. I am carefully feeling out my next adventure in Australia, and it feels good.
