Welcome Kaya and Ethan! 

A very warm invitation to a welcome gathering for our new Caretakers, Kaya and Ethan!

10am – 12pm
Saturday 15th February
Jane and Graham’s place
4 Mickell Road, Brooklyn
Enquiries : graham.sandlant@wangapeka.org

The plan is to gather and share a hearty morning tea together (contributions welcome), followed by time to sit and share any stories, inspirations, wisdom (and warnings haha!) that might be wanting to be shared.

It is Kaya and Ethan’s wish and request to hear, receive and understand more of the whakapapa of Wangapeka and its community – to know more of the lineage and river of Dharma that they are stepping into and representing, through our stories, history and unique experiences. Please have a ponder and come with your “thread” to weave into this collective cloth of many colours and expressions, so that our Caretakers and all beings may benefit from its strength, protection and beauty.

If you can’t be there in person but would like to share something to contribute, please send it in to Graham Sandlant before the 15th. 

The Caretaker Transmission

On Sunday January 5th a group of about 15 sangha members gathered at Jane and Graham’s to offer Tracy a warm and fitting send-off. A very moving circle sharing was held, and Tracy very graciously received our gifts and the verbal and energetic offerings of all those present, honouring the many wonderful qualities she brought to the role, and the changes she had gone through in her time at Wangapeka. This photo of our new Caretaker Kaya with Tracy captures beautifully the transmission from one caretaker to another! Thank you once again Tracy, we hope you and your camper van will find your way back to Wangapeka again one of these days!

Thank you Iain Verigin!

by Jane Hobday and Graham Sandlant

After almost 7 years of quiet and vital service to the Wangapeka Iain Verigin has recently stepped down from the Comms Team to concentrate more on activities nearer his home in Vancouver, Canada.

Despite the physical distance Iain has been a key player in the highly functional team making up Wangapeka Communications. This team is responsible for all our communications to the community through the website, mailouts like Newsphere, Upcoming events and Kumanu. Upcoming Events was Iain’s idea for a regular (2 weekly) email that just listed events at Wangapeka for the next period of time. It proved to be a very effective communication channel, reminding people to go to the website and sign up for the retreat they had been thinking about! Iain also took over and maintained all the social media accounts providing regular content for them with others providing suitable photos. Iain’s strategic mind helped to map and carry out the vision of how Wangapeka Communications could function, and supported the collaborative team approach we still have.

We will miss Iain’s humour, his calm logical and highly creative approach to solving all manner of problems, especially those involving technical systems. Iain has been so reliable; doing whatever he set out to do, willing to get stuck in boots and all and with a smile on his face most of the time. Iain led the team that created the publicity to raise money to build The Hermitage of Vast Expanse.

The passing of Rob Westerman

by John Massey

Dear friends and Sangha, especially those friends of Rob Westerman and those who knew Rob well.

Rob passed on on the 29th December 2024 at the Golden Bay community hospital where he received much kindness and care in the last few weeks of his life.

Rob was a friend of Tarchin and Mary, James Mathieson, Mike Elliot, Ray Caird and most probably many others of the Sangha, a student of Namgyal Rinpoche, a student of Dharma.

As an aborist Rob gave a lot of Dana and care to the Centre and particularly to the trees of the Centre. Rob was a kind and gentle man with a great interest in people and life

With the help of another Golden Bay friend of Rob, Ginny Stocker we were able to bring Rob to the Centre for a few days around September 2023. It was a great joy for him.

Sarva Mangalam.