Wellness: Barefoot Retreats’ Angus McLean

Earlier this year, I wrote in these pages about the concept of the day retreat, and how much just a day here and there spent focusing on your wellbeing can actually impact your everyday life.

Well, I say forget about all that and embrace some of the options we have quite literally on our doorstep, many of which are just a day in length but can be really transformative. Sattva Soul holds regular half-day retreats at venues like the Sapphire Room at Ponsonby Central, whilst I was lucky enough to attend the inaugural Barefoot Retreat at Te Henga earlier this year. Helmed by local vegan chef and yogi Angus McLean, it was a day away that helped set me well up for the year, and I’ve been singing its praises ever since.

When I first met Barefoot Retreats’ founder, Angus, many years ago, he was in the kitchen of a newly opened Queenie’s, having created the innovative and downright delicious menu that the Freemans Bay cafe kicked off with.

He was working around the clock in the kitchen and often playing hard after hours to decompress, nourishing everyone but himself. Something had to change, and serendipitously, his increasing feeling of being “run ragged” coincided with a trip to prestigious Australian wellness retreat Gwinganna with his sister. “It was the first time I’d ever done anything like that,” he tells me, “and I loved it - especially the way I felt after it. I knew it was the sort of thing I wanted to be involved with, and not just as a yoga teacher but so much more.”

He had begun practising yoga in his university days and had used it over the years as “my little safe place” after he moved to London and threw himself into the demanding life of a chef. Over the years he trained with prestigious names Peter Gordon and Yotam Ottolenghi, before taking some time out to travel and eventually settling in New Zealand. He proceeded to help set up cafes like Queenie’s, Seabreeze and, most recently, The Butcher’s Son, before throwing himself fully into the creation of Barefoot Retreats. “I’ve always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with cheffing,” he admits with a smile, “in that I love doing it but had long wanted to do it in a different way. A way that wasn't so highly stressed.”

In the midst of all that he also found the time to spend a year working as a retreat leader at world-renowned Aro H-a retreat in Queenstown, so had a real feel for how a great day of self-care should flow. “I wanted to create something that was easily accessible to busy people,” he says, “as well as being totally unique. Many of us would find it hard to drop everything and disappear for a week or more to some far-flung destination, so what we have created is a day experience that takes you away from modern life and digital devices, immerses you in nature and leaves you feeling deeply relaxed and connected.” It incorporates delicious food, mindfulness and yoga, as well as barefoot hiking and wild swimming, “and is the antithesis of the fast-paced modern life most of us lead.”

He collaborates on each retreat with colleagues from the yoga world like Taane Mete, Katy Carter and Kylie Rook, and acknowledges that the piece of land where the experience takes place is also vital to the Barefoot Retreats’ USP. It’s where he lives and is also home to HeartSong Dance Temple, a very special structure that really does have the most amazing vibe. Built lovingly by Joy Lake, who was involved in building The Matrimandir in Auroville, India, it is built from non-toxic, sustainable materials and is based on sacred geometry principals.

It is symbolically positioned in between three large totara, representing self-empowerment, self-love and perfect self-expression. Apart from yoga in the temple, all of the rest of the Barefoot activities - including meals - take place outside, which means that the retreats take a sabbatical over the winter months. “It’s all about immersing yourself in nature as much as possible,” says Angus, and the warmer, drier months are certainly more conducive to that. Angus himself will be spending the Southern Hemisphere winter months in much warmer climes - Greece first, then playing a key role in a week-long retreat in Cambodia with Kylie Rook.

Weekly and fortnightly Barefoot Retreats are planned up until the end of May though, and you can also catch Angus teaching at EastWest in Ponsonby and Studio Red at CityWorks Depot. He also shares his recipes on Instagram under the moniker @thebarefootchefnz, along with plenty of photos of his beautiful rescue dog, Elsie. “She plays a key role in the retreats,” says Angus with a smile, “and loves sneaking into yoga classes, taking long beach walks and helping me out with the goats on the property. She’s definitely a real spirit animal, in every sense of the word.”

If you want to experience something very special with the backdrop of our beautiful country as an added extra, I can’t recommend spending time with Angus at Te Henga enough. You deserve it! (HELENE RAVLICH)

www.barefootretreats.earth