John Ogilvie is a teacher who challenges and cajoles his students into things they’ve never thought they could do before – and their practice is greatly enhanced in the process. His recent course at the beginning of June had every student doing a handstand by the end of the week – some with his help and some without. Initially nervous, the students worked their way into the posture and found its reward in new confidence. And that’s the way John’s week worked – he introduced new and demanding asanas to the class, helping everyone through with humour, encouragement and, where necessary, a helping hand.

New possibilities opened up. He spent an entire session focussing on Virabhradrasana III, using the wall and the floor to attempt the pose at different angles, encouraging a thorough exploration and understanding of it.

He taught the class how to help partners into poses that stretched the back, working feet into shoulders and pushing in and up. It was quite uncomfortable, but afterwards everyone – and particularly those who had sore backs – found their back muscles relaxed and their overall posture far more comfortable.

One of the students was 5 months pregnant and inevitably John had to adjust the poses for her. It became a lesson in letting go for her, as she realised that her usual command of her body had to be softened and she had to give in gracefully to the demands of the baby.

There were two practices a day, one as the sun rose and one in the evening as it set. In between there was time for all the good things Fiji has to offer – swimming, snorkelling, kayaking, visiting local villages, having a spa massage and just relaxing.

He’ll be back same time next year!

Sydney Yoga Instructor, Tara Er, who led an Iyengar Yoga retreat at Daku this August entitled “Discover Yourself” shares her experience of the retreat with us below.

It was an early morning start Saturday to embark for departure on an 8:10am flight from Sydney to Nadi. At the airport I excitingly met my students as they arrived. We made our way through customs and regrouped with each other at the gate. Our journey had begun.

Tara and the view from the Yoga Shala

The flight from Sydney to Nadi went well, watching 11/2 movies ensures time passes quickly.
We arrived in Nadi to the beautiful heat of Fiji and I was in heaven. Here we had less than an hour to change planes for Savusavu. We very quickly learned the meaning of Fiji time, which is quite different to Sydney time. Our 3pm flight to Savusavu didn’t depart until around 5pm, an interesting way to be pulled out of Sydney time and introduced to Fiji time.

The plane to Savusavu was a 20 seater and the flight was only one hour. So around 6:30-7pm we arrived at Savusavu airport and then took a shuttle bus to Daku Resort, the sun was just setting and we were ready to unpack our bags, change and reconnect for dinner.

The Fijian staff welcomed us as family. We shared our week with a creative writing group and so joined them at the Dining Table. This meant dinner usually commenced at 7pm, and found us still sitting at the table chatting until 9pm. For lunch and dinner we were summoned by the kitchen drum.

Early Morning Yoga

We began the retreat with a Welcome gathering circle to introduce ourselves to each other and familiarize ourselves with the venue and how the retreat was to run. It was up to the individual of how much she/he wanted to obtain from the retreat. Classes started at 6am for a Silent sitting Meditation followed up by a 6:30-7am Pranayama class, followed up by a 7-9am active asana class, with the focus changing daily. If one arose early enough one could watch the moon setting, it was a beautiful full moon setting over the water, just magic. I had never seen anything like it. It was nature at her best.

After our morning practice we would have some time to ourselves before we reconnected over breakfast. Each day unfolded a little differently with rest or activities taking up our time. We would then gather at the Yoga Shala for our afternoon Restorative practice to recharge our batteries. There was then a short break of free time before we would again gather for dinner.

The Resort had organized some activities for us between our yoga classes and we added a few other activities onto our timetable. Throughout the week we rested, snorkeled, swam, scuba dived, hired a couple of scooters to venture around the island, received a massage, shopped, walked, watched Tapa being made, visited the local village and heard their choir sing – they sounded like Angels, had a meal in Town, checked out a waterfall. Before we knew it our week had come to an end.

It was such a wonderful week and I found myself to be a little sad to have left this exquisite island of paradise. I’ve been encouraged by the responses from the students who participated, assuring me that they will return next year.

Tara’s 2011 course will run from 6 – 13 August next year. You can read more about the retreat at Paradise Courses or Yoga in Fiji. Read more about Tara and her practice at Cronulla Yoga Centre.

Last week artist Leonie Norton led a group of artists in a botanical art and holiday sketching retreat. The week was spent at a slow and leisurely pace, painting, sketching and drawing in various locations around Daku Resort and Savusavu in general. The yoga shala again proved its impressive versatility providing a fabulously cool and shaded place to paint, with some wonderfully inspiring views – and with lush plant life all around.

The group visited a few beaches around Savusavu in order just to sit and take sketches of the scenery – and here are just a few pictures of the group at work…

Last week Elena Parashko lead a group of artists at Daku Resort. Karen (attending her second art and painting retreat at Daku) writes below:

“This is my second time to Daku Resort to combine some learning with pleasure. I left with some concern as to whether the memories I had retained so vividly from last visit in September 2009 would actually set me up for a disappointment as my benchmark was already set so high.

Painting on the beach

Keni and Raj greeted me back to the ‘family’ as if I had returned home. And part of the Tadulala family we were, from the minute we arrived until it was time to leave. Mereoni made sure that we were well fed and combined Western, Asian and traditional Fijian food to ensure that we did not go hungry. It was delicious and healthy. Who’d of thought that seaweed could taste so good – really! The entertainment provided by the Tadulala children was presented with genuine warmth and an eagerness to please. The accommodation was very clean with bucketfuls of charm.

Despite my initial concerns, I was all the more pleasantly surprised when this trip was even better than the last.

Another day hard at work

Elena Parashko was our art teacher for this course and her teaching skills and ability transformed us all (she had 10 eager students of differing abilities) into artists with greater skills and far more confidence than when we arrived. It surely helped that the pick of locations would be the envy of anyone – paintbrush in hand or not. If the weather chose to spring a tropical storm upon us we also had the new purpose built Yoga Shala to set up our easels and paint away.

In the beautiful Yoga Shala

While there we had the pleasure of meeting another group who were there to appreciate classical music under the guidance of Mike Smith. Mike so very clearly loved his subject matter that he has inspired me to explore this music genre further.

So now it seems that I have presented myself with a real problem now that I have set my benchmark even higher. A challenge I shall gladly rise up to and return again in 2011.

Thank you Daku for being a little piece of paradise.

Karen McAllister

Tony and Demo with my painting

The group in the yoga shala

Through the Good Morning Show on TVNZ (New Zealand) we offered two places on DeidreLee Allen’s PureBalance YogaPilates course in the first week of June. The winner was Dannette who brought along her sister – and subsequently wrote this lovely letter of appreciation for the week:

I was the winner of the 7-night Yoga Pilates retreat at Daku Resort, Fiji, with Deidre-Lee Allen. I returned home from Fiji on Sunday night, what can I say…thank you SO much, what an absolutely amazing life changing week it was, both for myself and for my sister who I took with me.

The staff at Daku Resort are so wonderful, they welcomed us with open arms as part of their family. Our bure was beautiful, looking straight out onto the ocean, surrounded by gorgeous tropical gardens. The food..wow…from the fresh tropical fruit to the outstanding kokoda, our tastebuds were fully sated.

Purebalance Yoga Pilates with Deidre-Lee Allen… each morning we would be in the yoga shala by 7am, set up on a hill, surrounded by coconut palms and looking out to the ocean, a beautiful tranquil space to start our day. Deidre-Lee is a wonderful teacher and was such an inspiration, her passion for Yoga Pilates shines and somehow she managed to make all of us stretch or bend just that little bit further, or hold that pose for just a few more seconds… magical! We walked away from each session feeling refreshed, relaxed & oh so happy & fortunate to be there, living in the moment.

Our days were filled with snorkelling, visiting local villages, a boat trip, beach picnic, swimming… or just lazing around the pool drinking pina coladas, ahh, bliss! It was fabulous to have a week with my sister Linda, she & the others doing the course are all amazing strong women whom I feel very lucky to have shared a week in paradise with.

Daku Resort now has a small piece of my heart, magical memories made.

Thank you Good Morning, if I could’ve taken you all with me I would’ve!

Arohanui

Dannette

The yoga shala at Daku has been a work in progress for the last few months, and we completed it in time for Mark Whitwell’s Heart of Yoga course in December. Mark himself conducted an opening ceremony and blessed the shala, in particular thanking the men who had built it – Tomi, Samu, Rupeni, Jorgi and others. It’s a fantastic structure, set back into the hill behind Daku, with a soaring view over the bay. The main support poles have been cut from the raintrees on Daku land, carried by hand and shoulder up the hill and levered into the ground. The shala has a wonderful feeling of space and tranquility, and Mark and his yogis loved it.

Mark is an exceptional teacher and his week was very successful. The morning practice started relatively late, around 8.30 am, and the evening practice usually ran late as he explored all sorts of ideas with his students – life, health, sex, whatever affects your living. I wasn’t at his course which I was really disappointed to miss – I’ll be there next year. However, I’ve been going up to the shala most days to do my own practice, enjoying the views of the sea to the west, the coconut palms directly in front and the green hillsides to the east. We’re also using it for our spa massages – and even, rather more casually, for card games and a couple of parties.