Aro Hā was founded by Damian Chaparro with business partners Chris and Beth Madison. Damian’s journey to Aro Hā began in his twenties. Struggling to find his path and his passion he visited a retreat centre in LA. That retreat opened Damian’s eyes to a whole new world of holistic wellbeing. He ditched his corporate job, became a yoga teacher, worked at retreats in LA, New Mexico, and Europe and studied insight traditions, movement, and permaculture.

But as Damian was immersing himself in the retreat scene, he noticed a disconnect. He says, “I saw that retreat facilities didn’t have the same ethos as their programming. It was rare to see even a little bit of sustainable behaviour, let alone the values I equate to regenerative tourism. I thought, there's a real opportunity here to create something where the built form of the retreat holds hands with the guests’ inner experience. I proposed that to my business partners Chris and Beth, and that conversation led to us building Aro Hā.”

Damian Chaparro - Co-founder, Aro Hā Wellness Retreat

A Curious Encounter led Damian and Chris to Glenorchy

Choosing Glenorchy as the location for Aro Ha wasn’t an analytical exercise. Damian recalls,  “It was much more intuitive. Chris visited New Zealand and loved everything about the country, so I joined him to look for a place to put a retreat centre.”

“One morning, Chris turned to me and said, ‘Today’s going to be about the bees.’ He’d been seeing bee motifs over the past few days, and they felt significant. That day, walking around a property, we saw a beekeeper tending beehives, a beautiful man named John, from the Waitaha iwi. John sat down with us and told us to go south because the Southern Alps would be a waka for humanity – a place that sustained life. Our logo is a bee in memory of that encounter, and because bees are a canary in the coalmine of ecological collapse.”

Chris and Damian already knew they wanted to build near the mountains in untouched nature, so John’s advice made sense. Damian says, “The further south we went, the more our eyes popped at the beauty of the landscape, and when we realised Queenstown had an international airport, we knew we’d found our spot.”

The Three Pillars of Aro Hā’s Sustainable Vision

When Damian and Chris found their site in Glenorchy, they came face to face with the question what does creating a self-sustaining retreat actually mean? Damian says, “We ended up with three guiding modalities. We wanted the place to be NetZero energy and to meet our energy needs renewably. We used Passivhaus principles for efficiency and longevity, and permaculture’s holistic design philosophy guided our approach.”

Aro Hā’s off-grid power set up is impressive. Power is generated using 100% local renewable resources including a micro-hydro scheme, photovoltaic solar cells, and a boiler that uses sustainably sourced local wood. They’ve just installed one of the largest commercial grid-tied, fossil fuel free, back-up systems in the country. A custom built 750kwh battery means the retreat won’t need a generator in emergencies. Mindful design and use of building materials also means the retreat regulates temperature naturally.

Permaculture is at the heart of Aro Hā. Damian says, “Typically, architects lead design. We invited a permaculture group in first. They did in-depth analysis of the property’s potential for food production, talked to local farmers and looked at how climate influences what we grow.”

“You can see many ideas we discussed in our very first meeting with the engineers and architects as you walk around the property. Outside the kitchen door is a greenhouse where we grow the herbs and edible flowers our chefs use as garnish. The greenhouse faces north towards the sun and the southern wall and floor are made out of cement to create a large thermal mass so we’re able to grow plants from warmer climate zones. We store root vegetables in in-ground cellars using the temperature of the earth to keep cool.”

Aro Hā’s permaculture food forest covers about 4,000 square metres. They grow 300 edibles, including orchards, berries, perennials, herbs, and annual crops, and produce almost half of the fresh produce they feed their guests and staff. Almost all organic waste is composted on site and used in Aro Ha’s greenhouses, fruit forests, and gardens.

Aerial view of Aro Hā

Ripples Spread from Individual Regeneration  

Damian describes his first experience of a retreat in LA as a light going on. He says, “I didn't realise how radically the little decisions I was making each day were affecting my experience of life. As an individual, I can choose to be destructive and conflicted within myself and damage myself with unhealthy decisions that make me sleepless and anxious. I also have an incredible potential to create a different relationship to my feelings, thoughts, and fears. I can shift my energy, feel lighter, and have greater clarity and efficiency.”

“We can also choose the energy we create with the people we come in contact with. That’s the next layer that influences the impact we have on our culture. We don't have to be perfect, we never will be, but we can take little steps towards being a source of light.”

Once Damian felt that connection between personal wellbeing and societal wellbeing, he started to connect the dots. He says, “For each of us, being internally regenerative ripples out through everything we care about. That retreat in LA was my first experience of the value of an immersive experience where somebody held my feet to the fire, made me squirm, and do the work to lift my energy. Now I help create that transformative experience for others.”

Moments of reflection

Connection with Local People and Landscape

The programme at Aro Hā has changed over the years. Damian says, “The shift reflects the way our guests have evolved. People coming on retreat now are more sophisticated than when I started working at retreats 20 years ago. They know what mindfulness is. They practice yoga. Some have quite an advanced knowledge of holistic wellbeing. So, our programmes are more progressive and take people deeper.”

There’s an arc to the experience at Aro Hā. Damian explains most people come in feeling burnt out, needing nurturing. “We give them time to begin to unwind, then we start taking care of their wellbeing. We aim to take people through a peak experience. That’s different for everybody, but it often involves some fasting, periods of silence, and other practices. We're about to release a new seven-day programme. With another day we're able to hold people in deeper practice, heighten that peak, and have a gentler reintegration on the other side.”

Damian also sees a difference in the people visiting Queenstown over the 14 years since he moved here to build Aro Hā. He meets far more self-led, independent travellers, and it seems to him people are looking for more authentic experiences.

Connection with local people and landscape is built into Aro Hā. Damian says, “People are often not fully aware what will fill our hearts. We don’t see our lack of connection until we receive connection. So much healing happens in nature, yet our guests may not know they're coming for that. Our guides educate people about local ecology, place, history, and culture. People have experiences that are about slowing down and spending time in communion with nature. Sometimes I think if we just offered hiking, that would be enough.”

Connecting with nature

A Shared Journey to Becoming More Regenerative

Damian sees a parallel between Aro Hā’s evolving commitment to sustainability and Queenstown’s journey to becoming a regenerative destination. He says, “Regenerative practice is a continuum. Nearly every aspect of what we do at Aro Hā is still evolving, and it still feels like there's so much to do. We still have conversations about how we manage our waste streams. We haven't tackled auditing our suppliers. We still have to consider what vehicles we’ll choose to replace our fleet. We want to be more intentional about what we grow versus what we bring in. There’s potential to go deeper across the board.”

“To have local government support for our journey really opens up a lot of potential. Queenstown is doing a good job tackling important problems like waste from the top down. Putting time and energy into systems helps us all get to our goal of being a regenerative destination. That needs to happen all the way up to the national level.”

Damian believes stating a clear intention to move in a particular direction really can move mountains. He says, “It may look like we’re taking very small steps at first, but when the people of Queenstown look back, we’ll see the results of the compounding decisions we're making as a community. I’m incredibly excited about the journey we’re on, and here to share our learnings whenever that helps.”