Wild Heart Retreat – Aotea, New Zealand

Wild Heart Retreat is a four-day spiritual retreat on Aotea, in the outer Hauraki Gulf of New Zealand, led by yoga and meditation teacher Rebecca Mayer. It is for people who want to step out of their lives for a few days and be met by the land, the body and a small circle of other people. Movement, yoga nidra, Qoya and time in the island's forest, water and silence make up the days.

What to Expect

Each morning begins with movement on a sea-facing lawn: yoga, yoga nidra and Qoya, a practice that weaves yoga, dance and ritual to return you to the body's own knowing. The rest of the day takes its shape from who arrives. There are excursions into the forest and along the coast, kayaks on the water, and hours with no plan at all.

Island practitioners may offer drop-in sessions, such as dreamwork or conscious rage work, led by people who live on Aotea. Circle gathers in a tatami room. Meals are prepared by local island chefs and eaten together over the water.

The pace is unhurried, and the retreat is not built around performing anything. The group is intimate, and the days are meant to give you room to rest and let things land.

If you want a softer arrival, two extra days on the island can be arranged directly with the venue.

About Rebecca Mayer

Rebecca Mayer teaches yoga and meditation through Rebecca Mayer Yoga, offering online courses, private sessions and small-group retreats. She is known for yoga nidra, Qoya movement, elemental yoga and Shakti tantra. Her work is trauma-informed and embodied, and it is built around learning to drop beneath the noise and listen.

Her teaching draws on many schools and traditions, along with what she has learned in the school of nature. She teaches people to connect to the rhythms and energy of nature, to receive, and to listen deeply.

The Setting

Aotea is a thirty-minute flight from Auckland. It has no power lines and no streetlights, and it was the first island certified as a Dark Sky Sanctuary. Sixty percent of the island is conservation land. There is kauri forest, thermal pools in the bush, white-sand beaches and dolphins and whales offshore. In February the warm water sometimes lights up with bioluminescence.

The retreat is held in a house built from native kauri timber with Japanese joinery, made over thirty years by the family who built it. A river runs through the property to a waterfall and two swimming holes. The house runs on spring water and solar power.

Before You Go

No prior experience is mentioned as a requirement, and the practices are offered as invitations rather than performances. Expect to spend much of your time outdoors, near water and in the forest, so pack for the weather and for swimming. For the extra days at either end, speak with the venue directly.