In November of 2017, we had the great fortune to spend a month tramping around the South Island, discovering both her natural wonders and quirky present. These are our greatest hits:
- Swimming with the Dolphins
- Spontaneous play dates between our kids and the others of the campgrounds. Our kids met penpals from New Zealand, China and the US. Some campgrounds like the Top10’s have state-of-the-art play spaces and others have downhome, sweet ones. But kids just love a playground and the ice, broken easily between kids, can build bridges to parents connecting and talking the way that parents do. Parenting is universal.
Our home for a month. Room to sleep six humans, a guitar, cello, violin and viola.
- Watching the Blue Penguins ascend from the Oamaru coast in “rafts”. Hundreds came in wave after wave of rafts – a mosh pit of tiny blue torpedoes. They land, shake it off and toddle up the rocks, unknowingly on display in front of bleacher seats of spectators. The hushed voices of the commentators, educate and make certain there are no flashes or loud noises… in English and Mandarin.
- Oamaru – coolest place we almost didn’t visit. There’s a hip retro vibe with the Steampunk HQ and the Michael O’Brien Bookbinders shop. The pristine Victorian architecture and nostalgic museums lent an element of time travel to the journey.
Oamaru and the wacky Steampunk World HQ. Sometimes mini blue penguins walk by.
- Glow Worm Caves We didn’t go for the fancy tour but instead walked through the mining tunnels of an old gold mine in Charleston, just south of Westport, on the West Coast. In the early evening, we panned for gold and learned about the West Coast’s mining history. (Roadschooling “mining history”, check!) With this price of admission we could camp in the parking lot for free AND the owner took us on a tour of the glow worm caves. In a tour of just nine people, we held hips as if we were doing the bunny hop and walked through pitch dark tunnels save the glowing of the worms on the ceilings.
Lorna communing with nature in Milford Sound.
- Milford Sound It’s the top destination in the South Island for a reason. The grand scale of its glacial bank cuts are humbling – Mother Nature’s perspective shift that cannot be captured in a photo, reminding us that humans are but a blip in the history of this earth. We saw a sleeping whale, crested penguins and seals.
- Fox Glacier There are so many fantastic and fantastically expensive experiences in New Zealand that we didn’t do. But we did splurge on the heli-hike trip up Fox Glacier, reasoning that there’s a chance these won’t be around in another generation. Maybe our kids will be spinning yarns to their grandkids about that helicopter ride up to the glacier to tramp around with crampons. You can explain it to me scientifically all you want, but the color blue of a glacier just feels beyond logic.
Exploring Caves on Fox Glacier with crampons. No waiver signed.
- Fern tree forests So many tramps and hikes through the dense forest of fern are awe-inspiring; the birdsong; the prehistoric riff on a rare rainforest; the moss and lichens catching the light just so; the peek-a-boo of the turquoise waters; the veil of sandflies when you stop to admire. (You only notice them when you stand still – so don’t stop.)
The Giant’s House in Akaroa. Great place to practice piano.
- We expected the natural beauty and the friendly Kiwi people, but we did not expect the quirky, lively art scene and rich culture. We loved the “Giant’s House” in Akaroa, the cardboard cathedral and public art of Christchurch, the Puzzling World and wines of Wanaka, the Scottish architecture and Cadbury factory tour in Dunedin and the shark boat and sheepdogs of Queenstown.
