http://www.tewhenuaretreat.co.nz/

Te Whenua Retreat, 2277 Gibbston Highway, Gibbston (2026)

05/04/2026

Greetings!

We are mid-way through our 5-day Easter Retreat. Themes that we explore on retreat are always emergent, not pre-planned, meeting guests where they’re at. This retreat we’ve explored themes of life transitions, family, bereavement, joy, and the healing power of nature. We had daily yoga nidra, shiatsu massage, river walks and hot cross buns. Having experienced the shift of summer-time ending, and now the darker evenings, we’ve had our breakfast and our supper by candlelight!

Joy is such a big theme for me personally this year. In the past, I’ve confused the idea that seriousness equals depth, sincerity and devotion. Welcoming joy into our lives does not deny the suffering in the world, and it’s not in opposition to how much we care. Laughter is medicine, and lightheartedness can bring creativity, inspiration and new ideas that are simply not available to us in our heaviness. Worry narrows our vision, joy widens it.

There is plenty to feel dispondant about right now, but to bring balance, could you list 20 things that bring you joy? How recently have you allowed yourself to do these things? Where does non-permission for joy, perhaps out of beliefs connected to loyalty or sacrifice, show up for you?

It’s so helpful to reflect on the stories we tell ourselves, and reorient to the life we want for ourselves.

Our next retreat with availability is May 25-28th - 3 nights all inclusive. See our website for full details!

All welcome 🏡🧡

31/03/2026

If I felt called to join a restful retreat right now, but that didn’t seem possible, here’s a few things I would do in that situation to support myself at home:

1) Slow my week right down. Have a week off from optimisation, tracking, output and intensity in all its guises. Take breaks to allow pauses in my day; just feeling my feet on the ground and taking 5 deep breaths is very helpful. Looong exhales. Walk slowly. Sip my coffee. Remember - pastries are now classified as nervous regulation tools. Cancel the thing. Watch old TV shows that calm and centre me. Downtown Abbey again? Why not!

2) Carve out time at the beginning and end of the day for myself, no phone. Dawn and dusk seem such precious moments. One hour would be great, 15 mins would suffice. Settle in, somewhere where I feel safe, undisturbed, relaxed, and let myself attune to the feeling of the support under me - the chair, the bed, the blanket - and the sounds around me; birds, wind, traffic… Just sitting, with no idea of changing, fixing, resolving anything. Being a cosmic, planetary being, not a productivity robot.

3) If time allows, I’d add some journalling to this ‘me time’. Topics; things I am grateful for - at least 10. Gratitude for my heart that beats, the food in my belly, the trees in the garden - they don’t have to be giant things. Another journalling topic - what feelings are present in me that I’ve been ignoring, suppressing, avoiding? Just to name them, not to clear or resolve or even feel them fully. Just to acknowledge their presence, my truth. Place a hand on my heart and tell myself thank you beloved, for doing your best in challenging times.

Go easy out there this Holy Week 🏡🧡

22/03/2026

One of the most helpful, ‘stopped me in my tracks’ pieces of advice I‘ve ever heard was from the poet-philosopher David Whyte.

He was giving a talk called, 9 Ways To Deepen A Conversation. I was all-in for this, I love deep conversations.

Step one, he said, was to ‘stop the conversation’.

That’s it. That’s how to begin.

Not; ask more open ended questions, validate your conversation partner’s feelings, or ask meaningful follow ups.

Stop the conversation.

If you are sprinting along, making amazing progress (seemingly) but suddenly realise things could be better, or different, or more attuned to your personal wildest dreams, the first thing to do is stop.

Stop the routines, stop the habitual actions, stop the old strategies.

This is how to deepen any conversation, including the conversations with your own body, soul, your conversation with life itself.

Years later, I don’t even recall David Whyte’s 8 following steps. This first one - stopping the conversation - has always brought me to a deeper place of clarity, confidence and inner calm, and from there I just know what step to take next.

Are you due or overdue some moments of pause?

See our website for all 2026 retreats.

Wed 1st April - Quiet Day of Meditation & Rest
4-8th April - all inclusive Reconnection Reteat
23-26th April - all-inclusive Return To Centre Retreat

All welcome 🏡🧡

13/03/2026

Every guest experiences a retreat in their own unique way of course.

And also, there are universal ways that healing unfolds, and clarity, confidence & joy emerge… four of which are mentioned in the images here. They are sequential - re-dreaming your life on top of a frazzled nervous system, just doesn't work.

Our retreats are radically simple, because this is absolutely what’s missing in our busy, complex, often over stimulated lives. Simple, is profoundly transformational it turns out.

This is a return to what truly nourishes our nervous system; which is the deepest level of our soul, our consciousness, and a barometer on how we feel moment to moment.

Whether you are navigating a transition, or simply wanting to press pause on the striving, the struggle, the problem solving, and the ways you’ve been putting your own needs (and dreams) aside, we’d love to welcome you to one of our all-inclusive retreats.

See our website for details and dates, or simply send me a message.

All welcome.

🏡🧡

07/03/2026

‘All Inclusive Retreats’. It’s only occurred to me recently that this has another meaning, ie beyond ‘what is included in the price’, and this feels very important.

All of you is welcome here.

There is nothing you need to do to ‘fit in’ here. You don’t have to have clarity, or purpose, and please lord, know that you do not have to be spiritual. And, your spirituality is welcome here.

Radical non-opposition is nervous system rest. Radical inclusion is unity, is healing, is real love.

(Our Autumn Retreat has 2 spaces left - 4th to 8th April. 4-nights, all inclusive. Full details on our website.)

Here is a beautiful poem by Julia Fehrenbacher, called The Most Important Thing.

I am making a home inside myself. A shelter
of kindness where everything
is forgiven, everything allowed—a quiet patch
of sunlight to stretch out without hurry,
where all that has been banished
and buried is welcomed, spoken, listened to—released.

A fiercely friendly place I can claim as my very own.

I am throwing arms open
to the whole of myself—especially the fearful,
fault-finding, falling apart, unfinished parts, knowing
every seed and w**d, every drop
of rain, has made the soil richer.

I will light a candle, pour a hot cup of tea, gather
around the warmth of my own blazing fire. I will howl
if I want to, knowing this flame can burn through
any perceived problem, any prescribed perfectionism,
any lying limitation, every heavy thing.

I am making a home inside myself
where grace blooms in grand and glorious
abundance, a shelter of kindness that grows
all the truest things.

I whisper hallelujah to the friendly
sky. Watch now as I burst into blossom.

24/02/2026

Days of total nervous system rest are the medicine we so urgently need…

No one to be, nothing to accomplish, no peaks to scale, nothing to prove, nothing to fix, no problems to solve. The self-improvement project also gets to sit it out for a while - nothing to learn, no biometric trackers to monitor.

Do you remember what that feels like? When you were all heart? When you were guided by feelings, not thoughts?

☺️🏡🧡

16/02/2026

Your portal to deep soul-rest is here

Quiet Weekend Retreat, 2-nights, 27 Feb to 1 March

Quiet Day of Meditation & Rest, Sun 1st March

Return To Centre, 4-nights, 16-20th March

Autumn Re-Connection Retreat, 4-nights, 4-8th April

Details on our website, link in profile and stories, or send me a DM.

Retreats to honour your nervous system, and support deep soul rest.

All welcome 🏡🧡

12/02/2026

As JOY has the same musical tone as love, I thought this valentines weekend to share some reflections that invite more joy into our lives 💓

The first prompt is a quick win and a no brainer.How easy it is to find moment of easily accessible joy, yet how often do we miss them?

The second is a prompt I’ve been reflecting on for many months, and I’m still finding more gold the deeper I go. I say it’s ‘humbling’ because I started out on this reflection thinking I was a very joyful person, only to find new places that I was holding a kind of ‘non-permission’ for joy.

Reflection three is a deep, loving, gentle project that is relevant to all of us, and requires patience. Ultimately, joy can be felt not just as a mood, not as the fulfilment of hoped for outcomes, but a restful experience of life to be enjoyed, fully, sensually, gratefully.

I hope these help, and would love to know what you noticed.

Much love to you all! ❤️‍🔥

09/02/2026

TESTIMONIAL

“I arrived feeling tense and troubled. I was not sure anything would help. I had no expectations really - just hope.

It was a gentle arrival and easing in. An invitation to simple be. And to be me. I felt immediately supported and that I was in the right place.

The elements of the retreat that needed to be time specific- like the massages and yoga classes - were advised gently and it felt like an easy shift. There was no pressure.

The retreat felt soft, like being lifted up and out of my darkness. It wasn’t a difficult struggle because all I needed to do was let it happen.

Things are clearer now; I have myself to nurture and I know how to be gentle with myself. I have reconnected with my wisdom council who are there when I need them. I am not alone.”

💜🧡💜

4-night Re-Connection Retreat, 2026

24/01/2026

Greetings all!

I’ve been pondering changing the name of these monthly, and perennially popular, one-day retreats.

A marketing expert may advise against it, given how established they’ve become over the last 5+ years…

And given that the retreat itself is not about to be re-designed or re-imagined (although over the years it has slowly, imperceptibly evolved.)

But I’ve been thinking a lot about REST.

I’ve been thinking about how, as a species, we are not very good at it.

Yet, rest is essential if we want to be healthy, joyful, inspired and at peace in our lives.

How do you rest? Watching tv / movies? Gardening? Being in nature, hiking, biking, kayaking? Being with friends? Walking the dog?

Me too!

But these are all examples of ‘doing’ rest. How about ‘being’ rest?

Being rest, at the deepest level: the nervous system.

Not being with friends & family, scanning for approval / disapproval. Not meditation, yoga, or pilates, wondering whether you’re doing it ‘right’. Or my personal favourite - sitting with a good book and a coffee looking peaceful, whilst internally evaluating and judging myself.

Nervous system rest does not depend on the body being still, though slowing down helps us identify the constant background hum of our nervous system scanning, reporting, alerting, notifying…

Meditation, including the styles I’ve offered in the past, were something guests were invited ‘to do’. Now, they are invitations to do absolutely nothing and simply receive. So this is the word in the retreat title I am thinking of fading out. Because for many, the idea of ‘doing’ a meditation has the fragrance of anti-rest.

These day retreats, plus our 4-day ‘Return To Centre’ retreats, unveil deeper layers of you BEING you. Not you, DOING you. No performance anxiety. No vigilance. Nothing to get right. A soft invitation to rest the body, the mind & emotions, and if you’re up for it, to rest the nervous system.

Who might you even be, without the constant hum of your nervous system, trying so hard to keep all the balls in the air?

2 spaces left on Sunday 1st Feb, and the 1st of each month thereafter. All welcome. Full details online or send me a message.

🙏🏡🧡

31/12/2025

Happy new year! I hope it’s filled with joy, ease, playfulness and illumination!

We are on day 4 of our New Years Retreat. Each day brings more peace, more confidence and more discoveries (and more rainbows!)

Thank you for your support this year. 2025 was the year we sailed through our 5th anniversary, and it’s been a pretty special time - thanks to you!

All best wishes 🥰

🙏💫🧡

22/12/2025

I asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic
and she said yes
I asked her if it was okay to be short
and she said it sure is
I asked her if I could wear nail polish
or not wear nail polish
and she said honey
she calls me that sometimes
she said you can do just exactly
what you want to
Thanks God I said
And is it even okay if I don’t paragraph
my letters
Sweetcakes God said
who knows where she picked that up
what I’m telling you is
Yes Yes Yes!

—Kaylin Haught

Sending out much love! 💜💙🩵💚💛

Te Whenua Retreat

05/04/2026

31/03/2026

22/03/2026

13/03/2026

07/03/2026

24/02/2026

16/02/2026

12/02/2026

09/02/2026

24/01/2026

31/12/2025

22/12/2025

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