Yogis (and yoga newbies) rejoice.

A new yoga studio, FloweSpace, has opened in Ōamaru.

Yoga teacher Ally Johnston moved to town about six months ago with her partner and two young daughters, and was surprised to find there was not really any regular yoga around, she says.

With a background in fashion design, Ally used to manage womenswear for a large company in Sydney and was often working up to 60 hours a week. 

When she and her Kiwi partner Rory Lindsay started a family, they decided to move to Central Otago to be closer to his family, and bring their own children up at a slower pace.

As a builder based in Cromwell, but working between Queenstown and Wanaka as well, Rory found himself in the same position, working longer hours.

“They were just so busy, he never saw the girls,” Ally says.

The family are happy they made the move to Ōamaru. Rory works more family-friendly hours as sales manager at Placemakers, and Ally has had the chance to reconnect with her long-time passion for yoga. 

“We've been able to find that real balance in life and, yeah, it's been really beautiful. We're very lucky.” 

Ally says while she has been practising yoga for almost 20 years, teaching is relatively new to her.

She was initially drawn to it as a form of exercise, before discovering more about the philosophy behind it. 

Her own practice has changed a lot since she had her girls.

"It's slowed down a lot. It's definitely a time to relax and connect, where my practice used to be a lot faster."

This shift in her own approach infuses into her teaching style. Her classes are Vinyasa - flow yoga. She aims to build heat in the body, but always concludes with a "well-rounded cool down" and the all-important savasana, or rest, at the end, she says.

Finding a suitable space to teach her yoga was a community effort.

Ally put out a call on a local Facebook page and was met with overwhelming support. She connected with a woman who had a studio on Arun Street, used for drumming and other holistic practices, and it felt perfect.

"It's surrounded by trees, it's beautiful and quiet," Ally says of the space. "It's really somewhere that you can go and just connect and relax into your own practice."

Class sizes are kept small, with a maximum of eight people, to ensure a personal touch and allow Ally to "see what you're doing and help where needed”.

As daughters Talulah, four, and Phoebe, two, settle into childcare, Ally will be able to expand the types of classes she offers.

“While I've got little kids, I'm sort of just trying to work in around them and also just letting it organically grow . . . you know, I don't wanna be sitting in the studio with one or two people. It's nice to have a full class.”

As well as Vinyasa, Ally is also introducing foundation classes, for those completely new to yoga who might find it daunting - although people of all abilities are welcome to all classes.

Ally in her yoga studio on Arun Street. Photo: Supplied

The foundation classes involve walking people through different asanas (poses) or sequences, such as the sun salutations.

She urges people to give yoga a go, without expectations. 

"The most important thing is to meet your body where it is today on the mat," she says.

"It's not what it could be like in a couple of weeks, or what it used to be six months ago. . . It really is about where am I at now? And doing something for yourself that's going to benefit yourself."

Ally has been unable to completely leave her fashion designer side behind, and has a small knitwear label, Hiild offering one-off, handknitted garments for children and women.

“It's about making pieces that are going to last them more than just a season. So I really dive into the sizes and the quality and making sure that they're really gonna actually last in a kid's wardrobe.

She uses it as an opportunity to have conversations with her daughters around buying less. 

“Buying one thing, you know?

“Kids don't need five jumpers from Kmart, they need one good jumper that's gonna keep them warm and maybe one backup, one for when you need to wash it.”

Hiild has been Ally’s main focus for the last few years, especially during pregnancy and postpartum.

“Your ability to do too much is really limited, and I didn't want to. I wanted to be able to slow down and be with my girls and, I'm really lucky that my partner was really supportive and awesome. So lucky I was able to be home with them.”

Knitting is another form of meditation for Ally, and it’s good for her girls to have a connection with where their clothes come from, she says.

“Someone has to make it. They know that it doesn't just come from a shop and, it's beautiful, and they also see how many hours go into it. So it's like there is actually appreciation.”

Prenatal and postpartum yoga is a passion of Ally’s and she is training further in that area, so she can add it to her class schedule.

“I really want to be able to connect mothers not only to themselves, but also within the community . . . You know, there's a lot of mums who might not have family, might not know anyone else with children and finding their tribe is really important to me as well.” 

She also plans to add classes for pre-schoolers, inspired by her own children's love of yoga.

Through her classes, Ally hopes people will learn to connect their breath with their movements.

It is important to her, and important for her students to experience, she says.

“I think that's something that gets lost in the business of life. We don't find a time to just slow down and really be able to tune in and connect to your breath through your movement as well.

“Everything else just kind of disappears, you know, you stop thinking about what's on my to-do list for an hour.”

Ally holds classes on Monday evenings,Thursday lunchtimes and Saturday mornings. Bookings can be made online.