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Kia ora koutou, Join us to celebrate our official move to the Ren Xue Retreat Centre site - a blessing ceremony and tree planting with Yuan Tze and Melissa. On 1st June 2022 Ren Xue Australasia takes ownership of the retreat centre farm in Onekaka, Golden Bay. The Bennett family who have farmed this land for 4 generations are handing it over to our care and we would like to honour this amazing time. This is a huge step towards our dream of a Retreat Centre for Ren Xue and we picture the Ren Xue family looking back on photo albums 100 years from now and smiling at the happy faces gathered together. Would you like to be there?! Also, Steve Lee our farm manager, and Jackie Blunt will be making the move to the bay from Christchurch.   So, we would like to do a few things to honour and celebrate this time: -A centre warming party on Sunday June 12th from 2pm onwards - so far we are dreaming of a simple gathering, shared kai, warm drinks, bonfires and merriment. - Monday June 13th : Farm Rambles! Visit, connect and get to know the farm. Gumboots essential! - Blessing Ceremony Tuesday June 14th - Join us and Yuan Tze and Melissa on the Retreat Centre site for a ceremony and tree planting. Accommodation From Sat June 11th - Tue June 14th Shambhala Retreat Centre is available for accommodation in the form of a big house (sleeps around 10 - with this number, the cost will be $35 each), cabins and a beautiful practice hall. We are aware that Yuan Tze's workshop falls on Sunday 12th June. We will be watching it! So if you are keen to watch this together, let us know. What you need to do now!
With gratitude Cat, Jay and the project team
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Much fun was had over the ANZAC weekend in Onekaka, with our farm research programme getting underway, and some of our new farm equipment getting a good run for it's money! Part of our planning with the Ren Xue farm is to undertake some extensive baseline data collection of both soils and water, such that as we develop the farm in a different direction (away from dairying) we'll have some good reliable data to refer back to. Rainer Hoffman at Lincoln University has been a huge part of this effort, which has led to our project being able to have the involvement of a Lincoln University honours student to collect this data. So it was that Lulu Jordan and her helpers, ably assisted by our very own Onekaka locals, got stuck into some good honest digging of holes in the name of science. See the video below for an overview on the soil sampling from Lulu  A great day out was had by all as 250 pottles of soil were collected, and shuttled back to the truck via our *brand new* electric Tuatara side by side vehicle. Boggy conditions and steep tracks kept the truck on flat ground, but proved an easy task for the Tuatara. Phew!  The team looking pretty happy to have the Tuatara around :-)
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