Your body is extraordinary.

But no one ever really taught you how it works.

August 21-23 is the weekend that changes.

Whether you’re running a business, training for sport, raising a family, building something, or simply committed to being strong and well for the long game — understanding how your body actually works is the most powerful investment you can make in everything else you do.

Women's Coastal reset is where this will happen.

This retreat is for women who are curious, growth-oriented, and ready to understand themselves better. Women who are active in their lives — in whatever form that takes — and want a framework for doing it better, for longer.

Is this weekend for you?

Are you:

•  Training for sport or chasing fitness goals and wondering why some weeks feel incredible and others feel impossible?

•  Running a business or household at full tilt and wanting to understand how to sustain that without burning yourself out?

•  Noticing your body changing in ways nobody fully warned you about and wanting to understand what’s actually happening?

•  Already healthy and active, and ready to go deeper — to learn the ‘why’ behind how you feel, move, eat and recover?

•  Simply wanting to invest a weekend in yourself that pays dividends in every other area of your life?

 

You don’t need to be exhausted to be here. You just need to be interested in understanding yourself better.

August 21 - 23, 2026

Mangamaunu Retreat

A weekend where you recalibrate completely.

This is an education and embodiment weekend. You’ll learn, deeply, about your body — your nutrition, your movement, your cycles and rhythms, your nervous system — and then you’ll actually put that learning into practice so that when you return to "normal" life, you'll know how to apply what you've learned.

 

That’s what makes a weekend like this different from a book, a podcast, or even a course. You can’t fully absorb new ways of understanding yourself while you’re still in the middle of your normal life. The retreat environment — the space, the stillness, the right people around you — is what makes the learning actually stick.

Your weekend rests on four pillars:

NOURISH

Understanding nutrition for the body you have now, not the body you had at 25. You’ll eat extraordinarily well — meals crafted by a private chef using real, intentional ingredients — and you’ll learn why certain foods support your energy, hormones, and recovery in ways generic nutrition advice never accounts for. Herbal teas, cacao ceremony, and a new relationship with what it means to feed yourself well.

RESTORE

Real restoration isn’t passive — it’s a skill. You’ll learn how your nervous system responds to the demands you place on it, and how to work with it so your body can repair, recover, and reset. Yoga, breathwork, sauna, coastal walks, and the deeply restorative power of laughter and connection will all be part of this.

REFLECT

Coming home to yourself through journalling, expert-led education sessions, and honest conversations that give you real frameworks for understanding your body, your cycles, your energy patterns, and your next chapter. You’ll leave with knowledge you can actually use — not inspiration that fades on Monday morning.

RECONNECT

There is something that happens when women who are genuinely curious, capable, and kind get together in a room without their phones, their roles, and their to-do lists. Connection that is real, fast, and with a surprising amount of laughter.. You’ll return home with women in your corner who understand exactly where you are — because they were just there with you.

You'll leave with...

•       A genuine understanding of how your hormonal rhythms affect your energy, mood, strength, and focus — and practical ways to work with them instead of against them

•       A nutritional framework designed for where your body actually is right now — not generic advice built for someone half your age

•       Movement principles that build you up rather than grind you down, whether you’re a seasoned athlete or just starting

•       Tools to recognise when your nervous system is overwhelmed, and how to resource yourself quickly — in real life, not just on retreat

•       A clearer sense of what rest, recovery, and restoration actually look like for your body — not a one-size-fits-all prescription

•       Women in your corner who get it — and the kind of laughter you didn’t know you were missing

Your retreat leaders

Chai:

Chai co-founded Kindred Studio in Nelson, where he teaches Yoga, Meditation and Breathwork, runs Yoga Teacher Trainings, and works one to one as a therapeutic massage therapist. He has been practising for over thirty years.

He specialises in applied anatomy, the anatomy of movement. More than two decades of therapeutic and sports massage have taught him to read bodies closely, and he teaches from one plain starting point: bodies are built differently. Your hip is not his hip, and there is no single shape everyone is meant to reach.

Chai teaches from inside a body that has never been naturally bendy, so the work isn't about how it looks but how it feels from the inside. Across the weekend he will guide Yin, Hatha, breath and meditation, with plenty of room to slow down and let the nervous system settle. You do not need experience, and you do not need to be flexible. You only need to arrive as you are.

Kathy:

Kathy guides yoga, yin yoga, reformer Pilates and mat Pilates with a warm and grounded approach, creating spaces where people can slow down, reconnect and simply exhale. Her sessions blend movement, breathwork, meditation, mindful stillness, and moments of both gentle challenge and strengthening, supporting people to build strength, move well, and work from where they are at, helping them feel stronger, calmer, and more connected in both body and mind. With a background in nutrition, Kathy is passionate about supporting wellbeing through practical, natural, and evidence-based approaches to health, creating experiences that feel supportive, restorative, and realistic for everyday life.

Sarah:

Sarah is an intuitive coach, speaker, and writer who specialises in helping women understand and work with the intelligence of their own bodies. Her approach honours the full complexity of the human experience - physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and energetic - and she has spent years developing frameworks that help women navigate their life seasons, cycle awareness, and the mind-body connection in ways that are grounded, practical, and genuinely transformative.

 

She has a gift for making women feel seen without making them feel fixed and providing insights that are both practical and intuitive.

Your choice of accommodation

Single occupancy or twin share | Mangamaunu Retreat or Manakau Lodge

Please see all accommodation and pricing options below.

Payment plans are available - please enquire.

Single occupancy | Mangamaunu Retreat

Ocean views

Super King sized bed

Private ensuite

All meals, drinks, and sessions included

SOLD OUT

Single occupancy | Mangamaunu Retreat

Ocean views

King sized bed

Shared bathroom

All meals, drinks, and sessions included

$2,400

Single occupancy | Mangamaunu Retreat

Queen sized bed

Shared bathroom

All meals, drinks, and sessions included

$2,200

Single occupancy | Mangamaunu Retreat

Queen sized bed

Private bathroom

Outdoor bath

All meals, drinks, and sessions included

$2,300

Twin Share | Mangamaunu Retreat

King single bed

Ocean views

Private ensuite

All meals, drinks, and sessions included

$2,000pp

Twin Share | Mangamaunu Retreat

Single bed

Shared bathroom

All meals, drinks, and sessions included

$1,750pp

Single Occupancy | Manakau Lodge

Ocean or mountain view

King sized bed

Ensuite

All meals, drinks, and sessions included, along with transport to and from Mangaumanu Retreat

$2,400

Twin share | Manakau Lodge

Ocean or mountain view

Twin beds

Ensuite

All meals, drinks, and sessions included, along with transport to and from Mangaumanu Retreat

$1,900pp

If something in you is saying yes, then book now. Spots are limited.

Your weekend reset includes:

• private chef

• luxury accommodation

• yoga sessions

• education sessions covering nutrition, women's cycles, q&a session, optional workshops

• nature walks, sauna, journalling

• herbal teas, cacao ceremony, sound bath

• curated gift bag

FAQ

I'm not really a yoga person - is this weekend for me?

Absolutely! While yoga is one of the tools we'll be drawing on over the weekend, this is far from a yoga retreat. It's a full holistic reset, and yoga is just one small piece of a much bigger experience.

There are 4 yoga sessions in total across the weekend. Two of them are yin yoga — a deeply restorative, slow practice that is essentially lying down, resting, and breathing. The other two will be completely tailored to the level of the group, whether you've never stepped on a mat before or whether you have a regular practice.

The rest of the weekend is packed with movement, education, conversation, laughter, food and time in nature. If yoga isn't your thing, you'll still find so much here that is.

Will this be a weekend of sharing problems and emotional venting?

Not at all! This retreat is intentionally designed to be a positive, forward-focused experience — not a group therapy session.

There will be plenty of space for self-reflection and journalling, which are powerful personal practices, but these are private. There are no group sharing circles or open sessions where participants are expected to air their challenges or emotions. Strong boundaries are held across the weekend to ensure the space stays clear, uplifting, and focused.

Of course, connection happens naturally over a weekend like this, and you may find yourself having meaningful conversations with other women one-on-one — but that's entirely on your own terms. Nothing is ever required or prompted.

This weekend is about resetting, restoring, and filling your cup — not emptying it out.

I already live in Kaikoura — is it really a retreat if it's in my own backyard?

Yes, and honestly, that's one of the best things about it! A retreat isn't about how far you travel — it's about stepping away from your normal life, your routine, your to-do list, and your everyday environment. And you get to do all of that without the stress of a long journey.

You get to see your own backyard through completely fresh eyes, slow down in a place you perhaps take for granted, and come home feeling like a different person — without the long car travel, the luggage, or the travel fatigue.

Is this for women at a particular life stage?

The retreat is designed with women in their mid 30s to 50s in mind — women who are navigating the particular terrain of midlife: changing bodies, shifting hormones, evolving roles, and the question of what comes next. That said, the knowledge and tools you’ll gain are relevant to any woman who wants to understand her body better and live and move in it more intelligently. If that’s you, this is for you.