We have a 'travelling yoga teacher' here at the moment doing a 5 day workshop. 630am practices, a full room and lovely sunny mornings to welcome us out afterwards.

The yoga teacher seems pretty focused on making sure no one is hurting their knees – I mean really making sure. He is also doing a bit of chanting while folk get through the first part of the standing sequence. It’s in Sanskrit so I obviously can’t understand it. But I don’t think that is the point. It sounds very beautiful however, which is perhaps the best way to understand it. Thanks mate.

On Saturday night there is to be a little dinner – bring a dish – for which I am going to cook my two favourite Indian dishes; paneer tikka and mutter paneer. Tried to find the paneer in the local supermarkets but to no avail. No problem though, it’s easy to make – just boil some milk up and add lemon juice to curdle, then strain the curds from the whey and there you have it. Very nice of the local Indian restaurant to oblige and make me about a kilo which is now sitting, round, pressed and slightly creamy in colour, in the fridge.

In other news, still looking for somewhere to call my own round here – almost sealed the deal twice over the weekend only for unforeseen circumstances to crop up and ruin the party in both cases. Back to square one, ads in the paper and so on. No drama though as I have a month so go so should be plenty of time – plus the fact that at least two people have offered me rooms in their houses should the need arise.

Life is getting more transient by the minute anyway – all my junk is now stored in one of those self storage facilities where it has air con, security and all for just $30 per month. I really did not miss any of it for 5 months and don’t yet need it day to day here.

Latest ipod acquisitions are the new albums from Shapeshifter, the NZ drum and bass act, and British Soul artist Amy Winehouse. Both spanking albums. Also, I can heartily recommend George FM - this Auckland radio station plays an uplifting range of music - and I mean range, unlike the rock based drivel which intersperses the ads on most local NZ stations - which is a true sound for sore ears at these verdant, warm and seductively barren latitudes.

Funky, jazzy reggae

Its the best. I love The Black Seeds - a really great NZ band. I know I'm repeating myself but I enjoyed their gig the other day in Napier so much.

Rolling, flowing lyrical reggae.

They have just released a new album - Into the Dojo. Their previous release, On the Sun, is a mini classic in my view.

Did a last early morning effort at Ashtanga Yoga Space this morning. 630am. I have to say that morning practice has rarely felt this good. Sometimes injuries help to slow things down a bit and allow more focus on a mindful approach to the asana. Perhaps the slightly higher temps here help a little, plus the bus ride is a chance to wake up, drink some water and let the hamstrings loosen a bit.

Showered at the shala, walked out the door to a perfect morning. Sydney is definitely a place one would be happy to return to time and again. Not sure about actually living here though.

Get the flight to Bangalore tomorrow around midday. Have decided to stay at the Hotel Empire for the one night there before heading to Mysore and starting to get things sorted there on Saturday. Apparently Sharath now has his own rooms, separate to the AYRI although not far away. The handover would seem to be progressing.

Napier Film Festival

Saw a beautifully made film from India yesterday evening at the Napier Film Festival, by writer/producer Deepa Mehta. Water is beautifully filmed with a lovely young protagonist who lends immense charm and sensitivity to the whole story. In some ways it reminded me of Midnight Express - the dour, crushing weight of religious and cultural institutions bearing down on individuals in both films nags at your very soul. A young and innocent main character caught up and tossed around by forces so immense and overpowering that escape seems impossible as well as the faithfully rendered influence of interpersonal relationships as they develop over time and peoples' lives intersect, each touching the other briefly whilst at the same time firmly locked into their own individual fates, all this makes Water compelling and the moments of true darkness bearable. In the end, with the coming of Ghandi and the end of British rule comes emancipation for little Churyia and we are so happy to see her clasped into the arms of the peaceful revolution.

Had a blast on Limewire/iTunes (you know how it works.....) the other day and unearthed this beauty of an album - Boogie Angst - by Kraak & Smaak which is super funky dance stuff now being overplayed on my iPod.

On the subject of yoga I am pleased to report that Padmasana has just become possible again after an absence of several weeks due to previously mentioned knee injury - cool.

snow and lakes

Just had a fabulous weekend skiing/snowboarding on Mt Ruapehu, clubbing in Ohakune and lazing by Lake Taupo. I kept seeing great snow reports all week and so decided that with Friday still looking good I would sneak in a weekday on the slopes. Headed up there on Thursday evening and struggled to find somewhere to stay on arrival since the good weather and mid season rush meant Ohakune was fit to burst. Still, got a good old dorm bed at Ohakune YHA and sweated the night away in the superheated room - luckily no snorers, which was a small mercy. After a very sluggish start, mainly due to dehydration I think, I got up the car park. A small dilemma was presented since I had imagined getting in a second day's snowboarding, but with conditions so good the attractions of a whole day on the learner slopes were somewhat outshone by the seductive upper reaches of the snow clad mountain - which won out after a brief tussle with my conscience. As it happened Saturday turned out to be the day for snowboarding as by then I was at Whakapapa on the other side of the mountain. Thus Friday ended up as an almost faultless day of skiing. Blue skies, plenty of space on the slopes, beautiful snow and loads of really friendly people - having compared the two stations now I can say that Turoa definitely has a better vibe - much more fun to be had! Maybe it's because of the fact that there are fewer Aucklanders and more Wellingtonians.

After that I headed over to Pukawa Ba y on the southern shores of the Lake to meet up at a friend's batch where a few of us stayed. Lake views from the kitchen/dining room and lots of Tuis with their lovely morning song in the surrounding trees. Very Kiwi.

Saturday was snowboarding at Whakapapa, very busy and not such an appealing ski field. Having said that, by about midday I did start to feel like I was getting the hang of boarding which was pretty satisfying - still a little awkward turning onto the back edge but even this would probably get ironed out after a 3rd day so looks like I have nearly, unexpectedly, learned to snowboard this winter! Everyone else had a good day too. In the evening we had a roast at the bach then I headed over to Ohakune again, with S who was the only other person who wanted to go clubbing, to check out the dance party for which I had seen a flyer the other week. We had a lot of fun but the music wasn't really up to scratch. Made me realise how much I want to go and get into that stuff again. Will it win out in India I wonder at some point?....perhaps!

Sunday was another good day - a little bit stiff from a couple of jarring bales on Saturday but nothing serious. Having got to bed at 3am I slept in until 1030 then munched some toast, had a bit of yarn with everyone and then went to the hot pools at Tokaanu where we lounged for 20 mins in the very hot water - it was actually my first visit to thermal pools in NZ and I've been here nearly 4 years. We had a private pool to ourselves. You could easily seat 8 people in one of them. In fact it reminded me of the big communal baths you have after playing rugby - but in a good way. Feeling somewhat soothed and refreshed we headed back to the bach and had a spot of lunch then chatted and read by the fire. I started to feel like I was really enjoying a proper life in NZ perhaps for the first time ever. Don't know why that came up, but it did.

One thing I forgot to mention was that on Wednesday evening I went to a gig by the Black Seeds that turned out to be a really great night of funky reggae. They are superb live - just great to dance to and a really good crowd to. They are touring Europe in September.

Stiff shoulders today made me think that practice might hurt but it was fine, an much appreciated as for some reason had actually felt pretty flat all day. Amazing what ashtanga and Thai food can do for one's state of mind!