If you’ve not been to Piha, New Zealand, here’s a scene leaving the small west coast hamlet, driving up the narrow curving road to the lookout. The road doesn’t accommodate big trucks well. Although there is some building going on, Piha is surprisingly relaxed considering it’s about 25 minutes from New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland. We spent the NZ winter there in ’09, and this was our commute for groceries and visiting with Amanda’s sister and kids in Auckland.
Posts Tagged ‘New Zealand’
On The Road- Piha, New Zealand
10/05/2010Chimu Inka Yuks It Up
09/04/2010
Capt. Guillermo
During their last tour in the U.S., Chimu Inka had some time to check out New England, kick their feet up and have some fun. Here are some images of light moments during their stay with us in Sunapee, NH.
We stopped at a novelty shop in Portsmouth, NH. Guillermo Seminario had time to try on some of of the various headpieces that the U.S. has to offer.
Wachi Taype, stylin'
Wachi Taype also saw some sunglasses that seemed to fit him quite well. At least that’s what we thought.
When we visited the Statue or Liberty, Mario Montalvo was jumping for joy over his opportunity to visit the Big Apple. When we last saw the group in Cuzco, Wachi reflected on his U.S. experience – “Randy, our visit to the U.S. seems like dream”, adding, “Did it really happen?”
Mario, enthusiastic in NYC
I assured him it had, and with providence, it will happen again! We can’t wait to have these bright souls back in the U.S.A., and of course for a tour to New Zealand when we’re there.
New Zealand by Sustainable Travel
27/01/2010The splendours of New Zealand are best seen by rail
By Dan Poole
The Independent
TranzCoastal crosses the Waimakariri
Grand Central, St Pancras, Milano Centrale – and, er, Britomart? The main station in New Zealand’s largest city sounds as though it is named after a discount car-parts retailer. In fact, Auckland’s Britomart Transport Centre occupies a handsome Victorian building on Queen Elizabeth II Square, and is apparently named after a character from The Faerie Queene.
It is also the northern terminus of New Zealand’s longest train ride – the 12-hour haul south to the capital, Wellington – known as the Overlander. And as if to hint at the views that lie ahead, it is run by Tranz Scenic. Read the rest of this story
MSI Covered in Magazine Article
28/11/2009“Vacations with a Purpose” Cover Story writes about Mountain Spirit Institute’s work in NZ/Peru
“To Travel is to Explore, Dream, Discover”
"Vacations with a Purpose" Cover Story
An article recently appeared in New Hampshire’s Kearsarge Magazine about Mountain Spirit Institute by writer Deb McKew. It can be read on our Press Clips Webpage, as an excerpt from the magazine. Click on the first listing at the top of the page. We encourage you to purchase this good read of a magazine if you’re in the New Hampshire, USA area. Publisher Laura Jean Whitcomb does a great job with the magazine.
The article has a shot of MSI founder R. Richards doing a bit of ice climbing on a glacier in Mt. Aspiring National Park, and covered Mountain Spirit’s core mission of getting people connected “with themselves, each other and the environment”, where we “combine experiential wilderness programs with spiritual development”.
Richards near Mt. Aspiring, NZ
As the article states, “some programs are solely wilderness based while others are workshop based.”
The article informs readers of the educational programs and unique nature of MSI mission of getting people out of their native countries and into the mountains and cultures abroad. Being a non-profit organization, MSI strives to bring people of different backgrounds and countries together, to learn about new ways to work together, and to re-examine one’s role in the natural environment, and in the world community.
Technique Helps Relieve Jet Lag
02/08/2009Recently, Peru program participant, and former Mountain Spirit board President Elizabeth Sofish, PhD reminded me of a technique that seemed to help her with jet lag. I actually tried it before I left New Zealand for Peru last month. The technique along with the “No Jet Lag” homeopathic pills seemed to really do the trick. Here’s an introduction, then the technique which Betsy described to me. (more…)
The American Bedouin
05/07/2009Reconnecting with a Mentor
By R. Richards, MSI Founder
Screen Shot of "American Bedouin"
According to an excellent 2007 Aljazeera Feature video, Erga Rehns has been living the life of a Bedouin in the desert with the Bedouin tribes of Wadi Rum for seven years. I’m not sure if she still does though. I’ll have to do more research in order to contact her again. The last, (and first) time I saw her in person was in 1981, when we first met at her little art studio and home in Obidos, Portugal.
Some people are lucky enough to be a primed for a turning point in their young lives, and come across just the right person at the right time that poses questions, and challenges one’s view of the world – who plants the seed for a paradigm shift. Most people aren’t’ aware they’re ready for that change, until years later, when they realize the shift was primed by those mentors. (more…)
Traveling Lightly
27/06/2009Decisions, Decisions – Motorhomes or Going Light
" Capt'n Fast und Light"
Huge motorhomes rumbling down the Motorways and Interstates are proof that humans have entirely too many non-renewable resources at their disposal. What it takes to move these beasts of burden one kilometer in energy could light the two lightbulbs in my yurt for a week. OK, I actually owned a motorhome when living in Sedona Arizona, as an alternative to apartment living. We’d drive out into the desert at night and base there, while I led trips for Sedona Adventures. And yes, we drove it to Washington state, fully loaded for the Outward Bound summer season. If a motorhome is one’s main residence, it may be “going lighter” on the planet, (I think) – Maybe lighter than owning a MacMansion. If, however, it’s one’s vacation mode of travel, please read on. (more…)
From Mt. Hood to Russia
16/06/2009
Bob Stremba
M.S.I. VP/Board member and fellow spirit adventurer Bob Stremba, EdD, is heading for Oregon and Washington State tomorrow to take a bit of time off between semesters running the Adventure Education Department at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. He’s also headed north to climb on Mt. Hood’s southern route again. He’ll be climbing the route with fellow board members of the Association of Experiential Education. Over the years, Bob has also summited Mt. Rainer twice, as well as Mt. Baker and Mt. Adams.
After his trip to the Northwest, Bob will be flying to Russia where he’ll be going into classrooms, facilitating group team building initiatives for Russian students. When I asked how his conversational Russian was coming along, he said he’ll have a translator. However he is working on the written language a bit, I assume so he can write a bit on blackboards and flip-charts. Stremba applied for, and was selected to be the lead (and solo) facilitator for this program. At program’s end, Bob will finish in western Russian – which is only a two hour train ride to Finland, so he figured he might as well leave Russia from the western border. If we’re lucky, we’ll get some updates on this blog during his travels. We wish him the best on his program and further travels to Finland after program’s end.
Entertainment’s New Direction
07/06/2009Tolle & Carrey Headline “The Global Alliance For Transformational Entertainment”
Eckhart Tolle, Jim Carrey and Friends Opt for Consiousness-Raising over Lakers
By Los Angeles Times writer James Rainey
Some might say that spirituality and Hollywood go together like sensitivity and pro wrestling.
- Eckhart Tolle
But that’s just the kind of habitual/stereotypical thinking that more than 500 entertainment industry types vowed to vanquish at a conference Thursday night as they came together for the first meeting of the Global Alliance for Transformational Entertainment (GATE).
Spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle and movie star/seeker Jim Carrey headlined the more-than-three-hour session at an auditorium on the Fox lot in Century City. Along with singer Melissa Etheridge and several other speakers, they urged their colleagues in film, television, music and other media to transcend the tawdry and mundane with higher-minded fair.
It must have been important to those packed into the meeting. They missed the Lakers’ opening championship-round game to be there. (more…)
Mammoths and Pole Shifts
07/06/2009Is there a link between Frozen Woolly Mammoths and Pole Shift?
When I first read parts of John White’s 1980 book, Pole Shift, what left an indelible mark on me, was reading the link between the green veggies found the stomachs of frozen woolly mammoths and possibility of relatively rapid shiftings of the earth’s magnetic poles called “pole shift”. Then again, maybe I didn’t read correctly, as the excerpts from an old nhne.com article indicate below, where White is interviewed by David SunFellow.
- Pole Drift
I’m not well versed on the subject, but from what limited knowledge I do have on the subject, I find the the correlations interesting. Also, the way that the poles are “drifting” more every year, (also according to NASA scientist turned author/mystic Gregg Braden) has my attention. According to Braden, airports are having to repaint their runway compass coordinates so often, that some have stopped the procedure. (Check out his books, two of which are The Isiah Effect and Awakening to Zero Point.)
Pole Shift Torpedoed by Author
By David Sunfellow
When John White first published “Pole Shift” in 1980, his book sent re-affirming shocks waves through the earth changes community. Many (including this reporter)
- White mentions Mammoths
believed White’s book “proved” that Edgar Cayce, and a host of others, had correctly foreseen a global catastrophe that would destroy much of the planet along with major portions of the human race. White’s book was particularly powerful because it was written by a man with serious professional credentials and, perhaps more importantly, because it seamlessly wed modern scientific data with contemporary psychics and ancient myths and prophecies. While White refused to say in “Pole Shift” that he was absolutely certain that a pole shift was coming, he left no doubt that he thought one might strike sometime near the year 2000.
Now, however, White has publicly said that he doesn’t believe there is going to be a pole shift — at least the kind of cataclysmic variety envisioned by Cayce, Gordon-Michael Scallion, and others. (more…)
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