Upcoming Pilgrimages

Meet Your Guide

My name is Nicolas Lightbody, founder of Lightbody Jewellery.

For nearly forty years I have wandered the wild places of Aotearoa, learning from mountains, rivers, forests, and forgotten paths.

Lightbody began by creating meaningful jewellery rich with symbolism and story. These pilgrimages are the next step in that journey, taking people beyond the artefacts and back to the source of the lessons themselves.

Meet Your Host

Alongside Nicolas is Poppy Lightbody.

With over eight years of experience helping people explore the world through international travel, Poppy brings a wealth of knowledge in planning meaningful journeys and creating memorable experiences.

While Nicolas guides the pilgrimage itself, Poppy helps create the experience around it, ensuring each journey is welcoming, comfortable, and thoughtfully organised from beginning to end.

What Is A Pilgrimage?

A pilgrimage is a journey undertaken with purpose.

For thousands of years people travelled to mountains, forests, rivers, deserts, and sacred places seeking wisdom, meaning, guidance, and transformation.

The destination mattered.

But the journey mattered more.

Lightbody Pilgrimages continue that tradition through the sacred landscapes of Aotearoa.

What Is A Lightbody Pilgrimage?

A Lightbody Pilgrimage is not assembled. It is composed. Each journey begins with a moment in time.

A full moon.
An eclipse.
A sunrise.
A season turning.

From there the path slowly reveals itself.

The land.
The symbols.
The stories.
The teachings.
The companions who walk beside you.

For most the locations remain unknown until the day they are meant to be found.

Nothing is chosen for convenience.
Everything is chosen for resonance.

Like a talisman, many pieces are gathered and brought together in right relationship until the journey becomes something whole.

A living artefact. A journey that could not have existed at any other time, in any other place.

Once completed, it belongs to memory.

Something Has Been Forgotten

The land has not left us.
We have left the land.
And in that forgetting, rivers are poisoned, forests are littered, wildlife is displaced, sacred places fall silent and childlike wonder fades.

The deeper wound is not upon the earth.

It is within our relationship with it.

A Return To Wonder

The Lightbody dream is to help people fall back in love with the world so they naturally become its guardians once again.

Not through lectures or rules.
But through direct experience and sacred teachings.

We naturally protect what we love. And we love what we truly know.

Who This Is For

These pilgrimages are for:

Nature lovers who feel most alive outdoors.
Wanderers drawn to places with depth and history.
Deep thinkers seeking experiences that match the way they see the world.
Seekers of meaning, beauty, and wonder.
Creatives looking for inspiration rooted in the natural world.
People standing at a crossroads in life.
Anyone who feels called to explore the world more deeply.

No prior experience is required. People of all backgrounds, beliefs, and walks of life are welcome.

The Seven Lightbody Pillars

The goal is not escape from the world. The goal is learning how to truly see it again.

  • Nature | Mirror

    Nature as teacher, guide, and reflection.

  • Consciousness / Presence

    Learning to become aware of yourself and the world around you.

  • Order | Structure

    Recognising the patterns and cycles woven through life.

  • Initiation / Threshold

    Growth begins when we cross into the unknown.

  • Creation / Mark

    Bringing meaning into form and leaving something behind.

  • Union / Return

    Remembering our connection to life and each other.

  • Stewardship | Responsibility

    Caring for what has been entrusted to us.

What's Included

  • Guided experience with Nicolas Lightbody
  • Private transport to and from the mystery location
  • Small-group teachings and discussion throughout the journey
  • Refreshments during the experience
  • Lightbody Pilgrimage Gift Pack including a Limited Edition Talisman and Exclusive Scroll

What to Expect

  • Intimate small-group format, numbers vary by journey
  • Suitable for all experience levels; moderate fitness required. Ages 18+, or 16+ when accompanied by a parent or guardian by prior arrangement.
  • Mystery destination, meeting point confirmed upon booking
  • Bring warm layers, suitable footwear, water, and a light snack
  • Weather dependent, you will be contacted if conditions are unsafe
  • Full details, dates, and times listed on each individual pilgrimage

The Invitation

This path is for the wanderers.
The deep thinkers.
The nature lovers.
The artists.
The seekers.

The ones who feel there must be more to life than distraction and survival.

The path does not ask what name you give the mystery.

Only that you take the next step.

Many paths. One journey. One living world, Aotearoa.

Explore Aotearoa Pilgrimages Terms & Conditions