Haast Pass 21 Yoga We have practised yoga together as a family for nearly twenty years now. We find it absolutely invaluable as a technique for daily living. We like to do a 50-minute session first thing every weekday, usually starting soon after 6 am. We recommend it warmly to all our friends and clients. A magnificent range of mountains runs the length of the South Island, culminating in New Zealand's highest peak, Mount Cook. The prevailing westerly winds bring warm air from Australia across a thousand miles of the Tasman Sea, which falls as rain particularly on the western slopes of these mountains, leaving the western side of the island mild, humid and damp - with sand flies that bite! We decided to explore the west coast, so we crossed over the Haast Pass.