Luminate Festival and Back to it in NZ

After being overseas for a good few months now, I was ready to just get back down to earth and have the dreaded reality check all travellers get after being ‘on holiday’ for so long!
I arrived back in to Auckland City and have been straight back into working, writing, writing and more writing! The busyness of everyday life – I mean hell my life is busy as is! After all my dramas with food poisoning, the underlying tensions in America and the other countries I had been after Trump was elected – I felt I needed a little space, a little air, a little down time too. Then something wonderful popped up one day. The Luminate Festival in New Zealand.
I hadn’t been before but I jumped on good old google and was sold. It was exactly the kind of thing I needed, to get back into the swing of things, rekindle my love of New Zealand and relax with like-minded people.
Luminate Festival is a family-community grounded event, live music, yoga and environmentally friendly. A gathering of down-to earth spiritual people from all over the world. Although before I got on the plan and headed there I was totally unaware it had such a large overseas following. While some might immediately jump to the idea of a typical hippy, tree-hugging woman and men in long shirts and skirts kind of festival– it was a lot more than that.
So I found myself on a plane from Auckland to Nelson, perched on the top of New Zealand’s South Island. The flight was great; I got beautiful views out over Taranaki and Ruapehu, mountains in the North Island.

Mount Taranaki, Richmond Ranges and Mount Ruapehu from the plane

When I got to Nelson I would have to drive further up for about 2 hours to a spiritual mountain area called, Canaan Downs, Pikikirunga near to the nationally famous Golden Bay. The area itself is known from its dramatic scenery, beautiful beaches and pristine forests used for an abundance of outdoor activities.
There were workshops on waste minimisation, presentations and group discussions on environmental issues, live music and a chill out lounge. There was even a circus where they had fire performances and dancing – I loved seeing that!

Range of activities, live music and performances
There was a Healing hub or Hauora, an electronic zone dedicated to that particular genre of music and authentic music played in the chill lounge and on the live stage. It was great and when I heard a good band play I would listen to them in both areas because you get a different perspective on their music. They would perform different songs in each area, to flow with the vibe.
As always I got absorbed into the festival, the people, the music, the environment – we were all one and the same, enjoying everything together. I realised this was exactly what I needed, a bit of time out from everything – including work. I met many interesting people from all over which was great too!





The Live Stage
There were a lot of Celtic themes I noticed in the festival, so that got me interested in its history – of course! I found out the modern day Luminate Festival is held in Scotland during October between summer solstice and autumn equinox. It is based on the First Harvest Festival that was held in Ireland (Lamma) and Scotland (Lughnasadh), with links to the ancient Druid festival called.
It was interesting because the festivals back then were held in mountains or atop hills, much the one in New Zealand. Canaan Downs is part of the Abel Tasman National Park, an area run by the Department of Conservation, so it’s no glam campground! Just the basics which was great!


Yoga at Luminate


What felt like on the other side of the world, which turned out to be just down the road, there was a beaching of 650 Pilot Whales at Farewell Spit an hour’s drive North East from the Festival. There is the idea that techniques used to find oil such as seismic surveying can affect the whale’s navigation. Interestingly there was some oil related exploration going on around New Zealand’s coast 6 days before the first pod beached themselves. National Geographic published this finding in 2014, and although some experts have said it is unlikely – it makes me wonder – it is a HUGE number of whales. It is the third biggest stranding in New Zealand history, topped by 1000 whales in 1918 in the Chatham Islands.
No one really found out about any of it until after the festival, when we all got back on to our phones and connected back up to the internet. It was a bit of a pity, as I was in the area and had a car – I would have gone to help in some way or another.
On another environmental note here, I found out that dairying is moving into the area of Takaka. I have some serious issues with this – pollution is the main one. Earlier this year there were concerns over the polluting of the Te Waikoropupu Spring, New Zealand’s largest fresh water springs in Golden Bay not far from where the festival was being held.
The Te Waikoropupu Springs hold significant cultural and spiritual significance to the locals and are unique in that they hold Stygofauna that live in the Arthur Marble Aquifer. The environmental concern for the springs is completely substantiated and I just hope they get some kind of plan together to prevent the polluting of the springs from dairy farming.