What’s in your yoga lunchbox?

Michelle from TGY interviewed Kara-Leah Grant, the founder of The Yoga Lunchbox; a popular online magazine about yoga in New Zealand that publishes lots of interesting articles about yoga as well as publicizing NZ yoga events.

Firstly would you say that yoga is equally as popular in NZ as it is in places like North America and Australia?

The short answer – not yet. But I’m on a mission to change that, or at least be part of the vanguard making yoga more accessible, more visible, and more happening in New Zealand.

I really got into yoga when I was living in Canada around 2000 – 2004. That was when yoga was starting to explode over in North American. I was living in Whistiler, a ski resort with a year-round population on 10,000. There had been a couple of yoga teachers in town for years teaching Ashtanga and Vinyasa Yoga. Then we got a Bikram Studio and people I knew were heading to LA to do the 9 weeks training. Suddenly it felt like yoga was everywhere, and everyone I knew was getting into it.

I came back to New Zealand at the end of 2004 and it was like being dropped into a yoga desert! There were some teachers around teaching out of community halls, but no studios ( was living in another mountain resort, Queenstown). Plus the standard of teaching I encountered was in no way as deep or powerful as what I’d experienced in Canada.

This is changing, slowly. But as New Zealand has a smaller population base to start with, which means a smaller market, I don’t know if we’ll ever see the level of saturation the American market’s experiencing. And that may be a good thing! What we do have is more people trying yoga, practicing yoga, and getting great results from yoga.

I want to help that grow – my mission statement for The Yoga Lunchbox (YLB) is to make yoga a part of daily life in New Zealand. It’s already a part of my daily life, and the daily life of many of my friends. Through the website, I’m putting a spotlight on yoga, people practicing and teaching yoga, and ways to make it part of everyday.

The challenge in New Zealand for yoga teachers and studios is how to make yoga pay a living wage.

Can you tell me a bit about yoga retreats and teacher trainings in NZ? Do you have many international visitors coming specifically to do yoga retreats or trainings in NZ?

I don’t think New Zealand is perceived as a yoga destination yet. I doubt there are very many travelers who think “I want toy go to NZ and do a yoga retreat.” However, we are getting more international teachers coming here to teach yoga retreats because of the natural beauty of NZ – people like Senior Iyengar teacher Carrie Owerko. Because teachers like these already have a reputation and students willing to travel to spend time with them, these teachers will bring international visitors to NZ to practice yoga.

YogaPass, which has been running successfully in Australia for awhile, is being launched in NZ right now. I know part of their strategy is to get tourism marketing bodies online to help spread the word about YogaPass. This is the kind of thing we need to see more of in NZ. We’re got great national-level marketing, there’s a niche market for yoga travelers, I’d love to see those marketing bodies look at attracting that market to New Zealand.

Like anything, it’s about having time to research the market, build the relationships, put a strategy into place, and take action!

Could you recommend any retreat centres or meditation centres worth a visit in NZ for TGY readers who may be thinking about a trip over there?

Oh great question… and one I can’t answer from personal experience as I haven’t yet been to any retreat centers or meditation centers in New Zealand. However, I have experienced the teachers from Anahata Yoga Retreat down in Takaka when they’ve been traveling through Wellington delivering workshops. That taste has got me excited about heading down to Anahata this year, hopefully in March.

Given the size of the NZ population, would you say that the yoga community is better connected there than other places?

It’s starting to happen that way, particularly in Wellington where there’s been an cross-pollination of yoga teachers and styles largely through the even Global Mala and regular Kirtan evenings at studios and in personal homes. The Dunedin yoga community is also well-connected, through the efforts of some of the teachers down there, like Emma Furness who currently owns The Dunedin Yoga Studio.

I’ve lived in both these towns in the last few years, so have experienced this firsthand. I can’t vouch for the other cities, but through YLB, it feels like there is closer connection up and down the country between yoga teachers, studios and practitioners. There’s more awareness of who’s who, and who’s doing what.

How did you come to start the Yoga Lunchbox website?

I did my first Prana Flow Teacher Training workshop with Twee Merrigan, and that inspired me to start a personal blog about yoga and life called Prana Flow NZ. Writing and yoga are my two passions, so it was a spontaneous marriage of the two. Over time, the blog became more and more about yoga in general and about what was happening in the NZ yoga community, so a week oafter my son was born, I rebranded the website to The Yoga Lunchbox.

How has Yoga Lunchbox helped in connecting the NZ yoga community online – do you have many instances of people meeting and connecting thanks to your website?

The YLB has definitely made the yoga community visible. I’ve met many yoga practitioners and teachers through the website, and I know it’s often people’s first point of contact when they’re thinking about starting yoga in New Zealand. It’s become the go-to-place for all things yoga here in New Zealand, which is awesome!