Hey what are you doing on 1 December? Why not join us for NZ Yoga Day in Auckland. We'll have a stall in the market place with 15% off all our TRIBE yoga gear and some great deals on Manduka Yoga clothing.

NZ Yoga Day is an opportunity to feel the grass under your toes, the sun on your back and experience the collective energy of doing gentle yoga poses and a meditation practice en mass – all at the beautiful lake side setting of Auckland's Western Springs park.

NZ Yoga Day will have a unique New Zealand flavour, with yoga teacher Taane Mete taking a Te Reo Maori-infused yoga class backed by DJ-powered beats.

Organiser Nikki Rhodes says: “In our modern society we are disconnecting from one another and NZ Yoga Day is designed to be inclusive, bringing everyone together, of every shape, size and ability - all stretching together and practicing the ancient ritual of unity through yoga and meditation”.

Everyone is welcome, and no prior yoga experience is necessary.

There is neither elitism nor hard poses: “The purpose is to show that yoga is for everyone. The only thing you need to bring is an open mind to experience the benefits of a group doing a healthy activity together.”

NZ Yoga Day is about more than bendy bodies; it is also about emotional well-being. In keeping with this sentiment, it has partnered with Mike King’s mental health charitable trust ‘Key to Life’ with a percentage of ticket sales going directly to the charity.

Organiser Franko, who has suffered from his own mental health issues, says meditation and yoga helped him through hard times and the partnership with Mike King’s charity felt logical given the benefits of mindfulness at alleviating anxiety and other mental health issues.

“Mental illness is not dealt with very well in New Zealand; we have the highest rate of teen suicide in the developed world. We believe that practicing yoga and meditation can help people deal better with the stress that everyday life can bring”.

The event will include a Mike King korero on mental health in Aotearoa (centre stage 1.30 pm).

Priced at only $25 for the whole day (kids under 12 are free), making it an affordable fun day out for families. The gates will open at 11am and the event runs for six hours until 4pm.

Buy an entry ticket bundled with one of our superb Tribe Earth Me 4mm Mats for just $69.95 saving you $40!

So you're thinking it's time for a new yoga mat but thinking is as far as you get because choosing one is to say the least - daunting. Who would have thought there needs to be so much choice?

Well there doesn't but hey that's the world we live in. So much choice it overwhelms and distresses us. So let me see if I can simplify the matter for you a little. I've been importing and selling yoga mats for a decade now and I've tried and tested loads of different types and researched the materials used to produce them so I'm kind of qualified to comment on this. I wouldn't say I'm a guru on the subject but I am well informed and used to teach yoga so know what qualities in a mat matter.Unfortunately there is no one mat that suits everyone because all of you amazing yogis out there have different types of skin, practice different styles of yoga in varying climates either once or twice a week or with military precision as much as 7 days a week.

Here's my Top 9 Yoga Mat Qualities (in no particular order) to consider when choosing a mat:

GRIP - You want your hands and feet to stay firmly in place in a down dog right? There is nothing worse that feeling like you are going to face plant or snap something due to slipping in a pose! (Hot tip we have a new product called Get A Grip Powder - check it out!)

STABILITY - In a standing pose do you wobble a lot? If so, a more dense, stable mat, not a soft spongy one is going to be better for you.

COMFORT - Do you need a good level of comfort or 'sponginess' under your joints or bones when putting pressure into the mat? Age or injury can factor here. Will you practice on wooden floors, tiles or carpet. The softer the flooring the less thick your mat needs to be.

WEIGHT OF THE MAT - Do you have to carry your mat a reasonable distance to class, travel often or ride a bike? The weight is going to matter to you so try to choose a mat under 2kg to make transporting it as easy as possible. Note rubber is a much heavier substance than plastic so while we as Eco Yoga Store love natural rubber mats they may not always be the best choice if you travel often. If you do want to go rubber for all it's benefits then choose a 1, 3 or 4mm mat which do weigh under 2kg.

STAYS FLAT - Will your mat stay in place and flat on the floor? You don't want to be thinking about what your mat is doing while you practice right. It should not bunch up around your hands and feet or be so flimsy you drag it with you when moving between poses.

SMELL - Let's face it your face is going to be plastered to your mat at some point in a yoga class so you don't want a mat that has either a smell you don't like or fumes coming off it that give you a headache.

DURABILITY - If you practice once a week your mat is going to last a long time so it's not so important what material it is made of. If you practice often or with lots of vigour then you will need a hardwearing mat or you'll be buying a new one far too often.

ECOLOGY - For those who really care about the environment you are going to want to consider what material your mat is made of. What distance the raw materials travelled to the factory, how much water, waste and carbon was used or generated during production and then what distance the mat travelled to you. Will it biodegrade at the end of its life or can it at least be recycled? This is a big topic so I won't go into it all here.

HYGIENE - If you sweat a lot directly on your mat then it is going to need to be cleaned often and effectively. Plastic mats (PVC, TPE, PER, PU) are easiest to clean generally speaking. Rubber, cork and microfibre towel mats should not have lots of water applied to them and are sensitive to chemical products. TRIBE eco.clean is an all natural mat cleaner that is biodegradable and can be used on any type of yoga mat.

CARRY BAG OR SLING - Do yourself a favour - Get a sling or mat bag to carry your mat in as this will stop it unrolling all the time and keep it in better condition and make carrying it so much easier.

Take our Find the Right Mat Questionnaire

We've heard there's quite some confusion out there about who TRIBE Yoga are and who Yoga Tribe are in New Zealand so I'm hoping this article will help clear that up.

TRIBE Yoga that's us, produce a full range of quality yoga products including the new generation durable rubber WARRIOR yoga mat, the new rubber and jute EARTH.ME mat, rectangle and round bolsters filled with sustainable lightweight kapok, foam and cork blocks, wool blankets, straps, carry bags, yoga towels and swings.

TRIBE is a brand name owned by Eco Yoga Limited and the domain we use is www.tribeyoga.co.nz. Our products are sold exclusively in this site and at www.ecoyogastore.co.nz and www.ecoyogastore.com.au. We are currently looking for distribution partners.

Eco Yoga Limited initiated the TRIBE logo design and registered the domain name www.tribeyoga.co in May 2013. We are based out of our warehouse in Ahuriri, Napier. We sell our range at retail and wholesale prices.

From what we can tell the good folk at Yoga Tribe® who are based in Tauranga may not have undertaken an in depth market analysis before developing their business plan. They began trading with a very similar business name and domain to ours. Their domain name www.yogatribe.co.nz was registered on 7 August 2017. Their key product is a yoga mat called the Peace Warrior which unfortunately also has a similar name to our WARRIOR mat but ours is made of durable natural tree rubber on the top surface and lightweight TPE foam on the back so is in no way similar in it's performance.

It's no wonder there is confusion out there!

So we just want the yoga community to know that our TRIBE brand and it's products are not associated or similar to Yoga Tribe® products. We have been providing yoga gear to the yoga community in New Zealand and Australia for 10 years so we really know what materials and designs work the best. We have an extensive range of products so feel free to contact Ingrid on 021 2482984 during business hours to discuss your needs.