Lifestyle gurus are eyeing up New Zealand as the next emerging yoga market.

It's led one Kiwi couple to take on a big financial risk and introduce the country's first ever yoga festival, Wanderlust, which kicks off on Sunday at Western Springs in Auckland.

Wanderlust is the spiritual home of thousands of yoga fans. Every year they gather at the International Yoga Festival to practice, hike and cook, all while trying to find their "true north", or inner peace.

"Wanderlust Festival started in 2009 in northern California in the States, and it's grown very rapidly over the last seven years to include about 13 festivals," says director Jonnie Halstead.

And now it's coming to New Zealand for the first time.

Jonnie and Jacque Halstead have bought the franchise rights for here and Australia on an eight-year term.

"They already had their sights set on Australia and New Zealand, and were looking for partners down under," says Mr Halstead. "It was a little bit like, where have you been? Because they definitely have been watching Australia and New Zealand."

After organising classic Kiwi music festivals like Homegrown and Coromandel Gold, Mr Halstead says the idea didn't sit so well with him at first.

"I asked what it is and she said a yoga festival, and I instantly poo-pooed it, and thought "Yoga? That's my wife's business."

But New Zealand is starting to be seen as a yoga market with room to stretch. The most recent study on yoga participation levels in New Zealand is seven years old. It found 9 percent of adults had done yoga or Pilates in the previous year, but that number is thought to have increased since then.

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Yoga festival Wanderlust comes to Auckland