RURAL RETREAT TO
Holly Reid leaves the rat race and finds yoga and birdsong.
hink about the quietest sound you can hear this morning,” says Bhavani Davies, halfway through my last yoga class on a two-day retreat at Taranaki’s Sanctuary Hill.
I’m lying flat on my back in the studio, eyes closed, surrounded by soft blankets and the warmth from a panel heater on the ceiling feels like sun on my face.
I listen intently and, right on cue, a bird calls from distant native trees before the deep, steady breathing of a nearby classmate brings my attention back into the room.
Would I have noticed that bird two days ago? I doubt it.
We’ve just finished an alternate nostril breathing exercise, using long exhalations and shorter inhalations.
Richard Davies, co-owner of Sanctuary Hill Retreat with wife Bhavani, says this technique, practised at traditional Hatha yoga classes, activates the side of the nervous system that helps us rest, relax, and slow the blood pressure and heart rate down.
But still, the bird surprises me.
Richard and Bhavani, or Brenda as she’s known outside yoga circles, say they notice a definite change in visitors towards the end of retreats.
“When they leave, everyone always looks bright. Their eyes have a bit of glow in them,” Richard says.
The couple have dedicated the past 13 years to yoga and its benefits, by studying the wellestablished Sivananda philosophy stemming from ancient Indian traditions.
They first met at a Canadian Ashram, when Brenda, an architect, arrived from her home country of Mexico and Richard, a Kiwi, took a break from being private chef on a multi milliondollar US yacht.
Their friendship eventually brought Brenda to Taranaki where Richard, or Ram — his yoga nickname earned in the Ashram — had by then established the first Sivananda-affiliated yoga centre in the country.
Together, they led various large retreats and workshops locally, then managed the exclusive Aro Ha Wellness Retreat in Queenstown catering for the rich and famous.
Now with two children, Oliver, 5, and Sophia, 3, they own an idyllic, rural haven dotted with fruit trees, have built a Scandistyle yoga studio and opened Sanctuary
Hill six months ago to share with other busy people the knowledge and skills they’ve gained along the way.