World Tai Chi day this Saturday marks the opening of the Wu Kwan Tai Chi Studio in Judea.

The studio in London Place off Waihi Road, has had new life breathed into it with amazing internal artwork by a mysterious but well known street artist.

'About six or seven months ago I decided to convert the double garage into a tai chi studio. A quite well known artist decided to come in and do murals on the walls,” says Instructor Richard Johnson.

'I thought World Tai Chi day would be a good day to open it up.”

The studio will be open Saturday and Sunday from 9am, with Richard on hand for free lessons in Chen style Tai Chi.

While other forms of tai chi are characterised by their slow motion movement, Chen tai chi is not always done in slow motion.

The style includes a number of fast, explosive moves - jumping kicks, cannon fists, and thundering stomps.

'Our school the Chen family tai chi and another part of that is the chi gung, so I'm part of a larger school, I've been doing it for like 30 years,” says Richard.

He came across Chen tai chi while learning Shaolin Kempo with Robert Gemmel in the 1990s.

He actually met grandmaster Chen when Robert brought him out to New Zealand in the 1990s, says Richard.

'To actually be able to come out and do my own thing now is very exciting for me.

'It was just supposed to be a sneak preview this weekend.”

The wall murals which are incomplete, have fluorescent paint mixed with the colours.

'Put the black light on and it completely transforms into another scenario,” says Richard. 'It's going to be amazing. I'll hire it out to groups, play groups, things like that. It will be just like an enchanted forest in there.”

He's rushing to get the carpet down before the weekend.

In the world of tai chi, instructors Chen style teachers make up one per cent of the tai chi world.

Chen is the oldest known style of tai chi, originating from the Chen village in 17th century China. It is also one of the more mysterious styles.

The Chen villagers were amazingly successful at defending their homes, crops, and families from bandit gangs and invading war lords.

They were also highly secretive, guarding their Chen tai chi secrets for over a century, refusing to teach it to any outsider.