Whangamata Joy Weekend

This beautiful sleepy town is an ideal place to get away from the city. We were only a few minutes walk to the beach and a short drive to some stunning bush walks and water falls. Once we arrived on Saturday we decided to take to the bush, running/walking up to cascade falls. Some daring people even climbed down to the base of the waterfall and plunged into the icy water, before running the half hour back to the cars.

That evening in a large hall we had a delicious dinner followed by singing and meditation. As the night was still young - about nine o'clock, another group of girls decided to go to the beach. The moon had just disappeared leaving a beautiful clear sky with millions of stars lighting our way down to the shore. Great fun was had with the phosphorescence in the shallow water – little specks of light that you can see in the water when it is churned. When we picked up handfuls of water it was like throwing fairy dust or little beads of light that scatter in all directions. We eventually dragged ourselves out of this magical water into the cold night air feeling totally invigorated.

The next morning we all made it back to the hall for a 6am meditation and singing, followed by breakfast which included Jogyata's world famous gruel. You are never quite sure of all the ingredients but many a person was seen going for seconds and thirds!

After this hearty breakfast, we needed to burn off some of our over indulgence! A number of people went to the peninsula about 20 minutes drive from Whangamata. A group of girls then decided to swim back from the peninsula to the Whangamata beach, a half hour of solid swimming. Not to be out done by these daring few, other groups went running along the beach and swimming in the sea.

By late afternoon we knew it was time to drag ourselves away from this place we called home for the night and make our way back up to Auckland. This two hour car trip back to Auckland took quite a few more hours, with numerous stops along the way; as if we were unwilling to forget this fun weekend. One person commented when we were dropping them at their home, that she couldn't believe it had only been one night away. I had to agree it felt more like a week!