Our time at Te Mo

Our first night on the Coramandel Peninsula was at Broken Hills DoC campsite. With a privacy in the trees by the river, this spot was a heck of a lot more scenic than the parking lot in Matamata. There was even a swimming hole (as seen in Alex's picture of "us" enjoying it. I couldn't get him in.) It was tough to leave, frankly, but the following day we were due to start our WWOOF job at Te Moata.

We had a little auto trouble en route. The air valve stem starting hissing air and flattening the tire. We had enough pressure to drive to the closest service station...that was closed. It just so happened to be a national holiday. I explained our situation to a women in the gas station and she said "that's no good, huh?" We got lucky though, a man working with her came out and heard our situation and he told us that if we took the tire off he'd fix it for us. Phew! $15 later we were back on the road with a shiny new stem.

Te Moata is located in the hills overlooking the Pacific on the east side of the Coramandel Peninsula. The entire retreat center consists of 344 hectares of regenerating bush ('bush' being the kiwi word for forest.) The place runs entirely off the grid by solar power, gas and a wood-burning boiler. It was initially opened in the 80s as an insight meditation center. At that time it ran Vipassana retreats on donation. Since then it has broadened its scope to involve other types of retreats like yoga and permaculture and has had to start charging a base-line fee for participation.

When we arrived we stayed in "the cottage." This is the spot Te Mo wwoofers call home. It's got several beds, a big bathroom complete with gorgeous view from the toilet, and a kitchen/living room. We shared it with Heather, our newest American friend.

The main center is further into the valley, connected to the cottage by a path through the bush. The courtyard and fish pond are the center of a wheel of buildings: the ktichen/dining room, the dorms, bathrooms, a walking hall, a meditation room and a loungey library of sorts
We did most of our work in the kitchen...chopping, shredding, cleaning.

During retreats meals were delicious and vegetarian. We even had truly French desserts made by a professionally-trained pâtissier who has graduated from wwoofer to boyfriend of the cook. Between retreats we had free reign to all the food in the pantry to whip up our own concoctions. The commercial set-up was for sure a treat coming out of Patty's "kitchen."

Nestled inside the ferns and flax is a secret garden where lots of flowers and food grows for the center.

Outside the center there are more plush huts for retreat teachers, and yogis that pay extra. Alex and I made up "Santara," where our retreat teacher stayed in.

There are several remote huts reachable only by foot. The land is covered in tracks, often with rope holds to make passage possible.

The water for the center is pumped up from a stream in the bush. There are several waterfalls and swimming holes within its banks stretching deep into the property.

One afternoon after a hard day of work together we made a group trip down for a swim.

Even this was made into some work with some literal bushwhacking with a couple of machetes to clean up the trail.

Heather is working to toughen up her paws NZ style by giving barefoot tramping a go. Kiwis, especially in the warm north island, are barefoot more often than not. While it would be illegal in the US, it is common practice to grocery shop without shoes. Our retreat teacher told us he spent the first 8 years of his life without wearing shoes. Children are often seen in toe of their parents on sidewalks with their little piggies out free. It's a cultural norm. I dig it. Sure there's fear of stepping on something scary, but there it brings a mindfulness to walking and intimate contact with the ground.

The morning Heather left for her next chapter we celebrated her with Pancakes. I whipped up the batter from my mom's recipe and Alex cooked 'em. It was his idea. As soon as we realized we had a kitchen at our disposal with all sorts of dry ingredients, Alex exclaimed "we can make pancakes!" I think they are his favorite part of American cuisine. He made these ones with golden kiwi and banana and fried them in butter. Delicious. Heather approved and Alex felt rightly proud.

Like all the tracks we tramped on in this country, Te Moata's is equipped to kill unwanted mammals. Eager to get some kilometers in exploring the trails, we accepted the job offer to help check the trap line.

We also took staple guns out and tacked up poisons to the trees to kill rats and possums. I want to own up to doing this job, but even writing this makes my stomach turn over.

When I am asked why I don't eat meat, I often site industrial opposition, a desire to avoid growth hormones, etc. These things are true, but my answer is often to simplify an interaction with a meat eater who I don't care to get into it with. At heart, probably the biggest reason for my diet is that I don't like the idea of animals dying for me when it's not necessary for my survival. The idea of killing a creature hurts and because of that, I try my best to live by the precept of doing no intentional harm. Of course I wash my hands and kill microbes, I unknowingly stomp on insects, I eat eggs laid by hens that are probably a lot less "free" than the carton suggests and so on, but stapling up poison for the explicit purpose to end a life is the most grievous act I think I've done in a long time.

We all want the birds to live. It was a tragically shortsighted idea to introduce mammals that now threaten them. But taking their lives by introducing poisons into the bush and calling this "conservation"? It's certainly not a 'leave no trace' strategy.

After meditating for a couple of days on retreat, I came closer to the complexity of the kiwi ecological predicament in the emotional sense. I asked our teacher about the issue. He's kiwi and follows teachings of the Buddha's, so he was sensitive to my conflict. (I am going to paraphrase his answer, but from what I remember...)

He said most people harden themselves to this experience and feel nothing for the lives that are taken, which leaves them that much more disconnected from the natural world of which they, too, are a part. Feeling the pain of the act, on the other hand, keeps a person in touch with what is happening and, in a sense, honors all life. He pointed out that killing introduced species is for the greater purpose of preserving the life, and can be held in that context. This answer has satisfied me.

Speaking of our teacher, his name is Yanai Postelnik. He grew up in NZ but moved permanently to England many years ago. He is a resident teacher at Gaia House in Devon and travels annually to teach at IMS, the center in Massachusetts where I sat three months in 2011. Alex and I both loved him. It was such a small group that we were able to get to know him personally and even got hugs when he left. This is not typical at insight retreats because they are usually much larger with more separation between students and teachers.

The retreat itself was five days in silence. We moved into the dorms and made nests in our own single bunks. Alex and I didn't so much as look each other in the eyes for the entire week, let alone speak. We were assigned several jobs throughout the day to support the retreat, but we were allowed to participate fully in the experience otherwise. It was such a treat. This was Alex's first retreat and I loved seeing him on it. He described having a profound experience of watching his mind. I, too, felt great to be in silence again for a few days.

Following the retreat we decided to move on from Te Mo and re-integrate into speaking as just us and Patty.

We went on to Thames, the "big town" about 40km from Te Moata. We did some laundry there, hit up Pac 'n' Save and paid $10 for a power spot behind the club house of the Thames Golf Course.

There we undertook our first ever yogurt-making experience. We have a tiny fridge that we don't run all the time, so we cannot keep things cold indefinitely. Being able to store "dry" yogurt that we can make fresh overnight is next to incredible. Inspired by the kitchen at Te Mo, we bought ourself an "Eaisyo" and some sachets of yogurt powder and made some delicious greek yogurt. We have eaten several kilos of yogurt since then. It's been a miracle change to our lifestyle, let me tell you.

And it's off to Wellie next for job prospects. We've already scored in this department, but I will save the details for the next post. Be well! Lots of love from us to you.