Eric Watson stretches body and budget on guru's ski trip

Vincent Bolletta called yoga 'stretching' when he started out teaching Eric Watson. Photo / Chris Loufte

Rich-lister Eric Watson has become such a yoga convert he's flying his yoga teacher to his $80 million ski chalet in Switzerland for two weeks.

The Warriors co-owner took up the practice about a month ago.

Vincent Bolletta, who runs Yoga Ground in Grey Lynn, got an out-of-the-blue call asking if he could work with another private client named Lisa. A friend had recommended him.

It turned out Lisa was Lisa Henrekson, Mr Watson's wife, who loves doing yoga in Europe. Mr Bolletta, who has helped bend the bodies of All Blacks Dan Carter and Ma'a Nonu, found himself at the family's South Auckland mansion working regularly with the couple, a son, and friends over the past month.

Mr Watson - who has a fortune estimated at $400 million - said he hurt his back a few years ago and subsequently had 15cm of titanium inserted and several fused vertebrae, which causes tightness.

Mr Bolletta could stretch the muscles "rather painfully".

"I have called him some names that are not what zen-type yoga people might use ... but the after-effect is worth some of the pain he puts me through," Mr Watson said.

He said Mr Bolletta "is pretty special" at his expertise and "so he's coming to St Moritz" with the family for two weeks soon.

Mr Watson, his wife and four sons are frequent flyers, jetting in private planes between their homes across Europe and the Atlantic.

"I haven't quite found anyone as good as [Mr Bolletta] is," Mr Watson said. "I'm a bit concerned too about advertising his skills in the newspaper ... because the price I'm getting him at is very competitive and I don't want [it] to go up.

"We've got a contra deal. He's going to stop me from injuring myself from skiing and I'm going to help him to injure himself while skiing.

"I'm going to teach him to ski, for sure. He'll be starting up right at the top of the mountain ... I'll introduce him to skiing the same way he introduced me to stretching ... it's going to be a very big day."

He said Mr Bolletta had managed "to put me into various yoga positions that I could never accomplish on my own" and that he looks all of his 55 years thanks to not having taken up yoga earlier. He said his wife had been doing it for many years "and is quite proficient and very good at it".

Mr Bolletta, 47, won't say how much he's earning, but "it's a good wage".

He lives in Parnell with his yoga-teaching wife and their two young children. He does yoga teacher training at the Kawai Purapura centre in Auckland, runs yoga retreats overseas and in the South Island and teaches in China.

Initially, Mr Watson was not convinced about yoga so Mr Bolletta said he called it "stretching" instead.

He said of Watson: "He's witty, smart and committed to his health, which is good. He works hard."

Yoga is rising in popularity. An annual four-day yoga festival, Wanderlust, attracted 4000 people in Taupo last month.