Toddler Under Canvas – A Camping Adventure in New Zealand’s South Island PT 1
Warning: This is a very long winded post, thus I have separated it into two parts to spare you a marathon eye glazing session of words and images.
Although I’m only getting around to posting this now, during the UK winter our little family spent 2 months in New Zealand visiting friends and family and enjoying the great outdoors in the only way you can truly savour it, camping. If you are planning to visit the land of the long white cloud during the southern hemisphere summer months, now’s a good time to start planning. Typically the best weather is in late January through February, but you can always expect sudden downpours and changeable conditions much like the UK so always take your rain jacket!
Squigglet nonchalantly trying out her new camping chair…….
New Zealand is a great place to camp, whichever way you choose to do it. There is a choice of fully equipped ‘holiday parks’ which offer tent, caravan and campervan sites along with basic cabins or more upscale lodge rooms, communal kitchens (with fridges and freezers), games/tv room and shower/toliets and the quite often spa/swimming pools/tennis courts. At the time of writing these average between $18 – $24 per night per adult for a tent pitch, most places don’t charge for under 2′s.
For a more back to nature experience, the Department of Conservation (DOC) has basic camping sites all over the country, usually in stunning locations but with little more than a fresh water tap and a long drop toilet. These sites are well maintained and cheap at around $6 per night per person and are really the best way to get a feel for the country, you can also pick up free booklet featuring all sites from any DOC office.Freedom camping is also entirely possible, although only self-contained vehicles can camp in areas where there are no toilet facilities and there are often ‘No Camping’ signs in popular tourist carparks.
Postcard perfect if I do say so myself…Lake Ohau, our first camping spot
Our initial plan was to hire or borrow some sort of campervan or at least large vehicle that we could sleep in for those days we just wanted to park up in the wilderness and stay overnight. Friends kindly lent us a minivan with seats that folded down which would have comfortably sleep all three of us, if it weren’t for an under-inflated airbed and no curtains to block out the streaming morning sun. Still we had a pretty awesome first night of camping along with a insect netted gazebo, we parked up in the grounds of the Lake Ohau Lodge in the Mount Cook area which also does awesome food and has heaps of activities for kids. A big thank-you to chef Brad Alty and owner Mike for making us feel so welcome and letting us share the amazing wild venison stew! We were the only campers so had the pick of spots in a sheltered clearing amongst the pine trees over looking the lake….check out this view:
Sweet camping spot!
Whilst it was a pretty sweet set-up we decided to grab a cheap tent from the Warehouse (Large NZ discount store) so that at least we could set up Rhiannon’s cot in the evenings and have a bit more space to store things. The gazebo was an impulse buy from Mitre 10 and we did feel a bit ridiculous setting up this huge apparatus for just the 3 of us, but it proved invaluable as a contained outdoor play area for Rhi and protection from the mosquitos and sandflies, especially when enjoying a glass of wine after the sun had set.
From Lake Ohau we headed North to Hamner Springs and decided to take a night off from camping as Rhi wasn’t feeling too well, still we were on a budget so we checked into the YHA’s Kakapo Lodge and got a good deal on a triple room for $75 NZD. The facilities were pretty good, as they tend to be with YHA – it wasn’t all backpackers and party animals, there was a real cross section of mature travellers, NZ families and international nomads. Hanmer Springs hot pools make a great 1/2 day activity for families with toddlers and full day with older kids. After a recent refurbishment, the complex now includes quite a number of both natural hot springs at different temperatures, swimming pools, waterslides/toys, a restaurant and bar and of course day spa. Be aware that the hottest pools aren’t suitable for small kids and the attendants recommend babies and toddlers spend no longer than 10 minutes in some of the warmer pools. There are some great camping grounds in Hamner though, so if you are sticking to tenting you won’t be disappointed.
Kahurangi National Park, top of the South Island
The gorgeous Mapua Estuary viewed from the holiday park restaurant
Onwards to the small town of Mapua, not far from Nelson. This time we were staying with family for 10 days at the Mapua Chalets – a lovely little spot tucked away in the hills behind the town, with views out over the bay, a wonderful swimming pool and spa. The Nelson Lakes and Abel Tasman area is one of the most beautiful and relaxed parts of the South Island, there are golden beaches and rivers to swim in, beautiful native forests, a thriving arts scene and wonderful food and wine. My idea of paradise.
The golden sands of Kaiteriteri Beach – a childhood favourite
Mapua also has a lovely holiday park right on the estuary with sites for tenting, caravans, campervans and a range of self catering chalets, motel rooms, recreational facilities and a beachside restaurant and bar. You might want to take note of your travelling dates however as the park is ‘clothing optional’ during the months of February and March for those who like to get a little closer to nature. The rest of the year its business as usual. The broader area has plenty of gorgeous little camping spots on beachfront reserves or DOC sites so check out the DOC website or guides.
How to camp Hippie style….groovy house buses near Ruby Bay
The New Year arrived and we headed for the West Coast via the Lewis Pass and then the Buller Gorge, which is rated at one of NZ’s most scenic drives……you’ll get pretty close to the scenery at Hawks Crag where the road narrows to one lane with a cliff overhang above and a drop the river on one side!
Westport was our first stop, purely because I had never been there and was curious. The Westport Holiday Park was a pleasant surprise, welcoming staff, lovely soft grass pitches and camp-wide wifi. There were plenty of families staying here and they even had something close to a toddler bath in the ladies shower block. Westport itself was a bit like an outpost town with one main street but its a great base for exploring the surrounding areas and trying out a few adventure activites (perhaps not with the toddler in tow). We visited the ominously named Cape Foul Wind, which turned out to be a gorgeous area of wild beaches and seal colonies. I still want to have a holiday home down the Tauranga Bay Road some day.
One of the local residents of the Cape Foulwind Seal Colony
Tauranga Bay Rd…..idyllic isolation
Moving South we made our way to Hokitika, home of the famed Wild Food Festival and centre for all things greenstone in the South Island. Between Westport and Hokitika the scenery is nothing short of breath-taking, even for a Kiwi like me who has seen alot of stunning vistas in my travels. There’s something a bit Jurassic Park about the West Coast and as we had to stop every hour or so to let Rhiannon run off some energy, there are plenty of great picnic and sightseeing spots like the beach at Charleston (pictured below), Fox River Mouth and caves & Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki. Greymouth is not much of a tourist town except that the Tranz Alpine Express train to Christchurch leaves from here, although it is the first large town on the coast after Westport so handy for stocking up on supplies or if anyone needs to see a doctor.
An almost secret beach at Charlestown….perfect pinic spot
The spectacular Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki
Somewhat surprisingly, Hokitika is rather lacking in decent camping facilities – especially if you’re tenting. We checked out 3-4 spots which were listed in the AA guide book and online and none of them were particularly inspiring. Among these the Top 10 Holiday Park, which is a chain and usually pretty reliable was in the shadow of a gigantic milk factory and was pretty run down, another place called ‘Seaview Lodge’ claimed to be luxurious but in fact it is a former pyschiatric hospital with only a small lawn to pitch tents on, or rooms within the complex which still very much resembles its former designation, its just a little creepy. ‘Shining Star’ looked really nice, but they didn’t have areas for tents and are more geared to those looking for chalet-type accommodation.
After 2 hours of searching we were at a bit of a loss & Rhiannon was getting pretty grumpy, luckily Ioan spotted a listing in one of our brochures for the Riverview Cottage and Cabins, just outside of Hokitika and after a quick phone call they offered us their lawn to camp on, saved! Set on a small holding just off Kaniere Rd and a short walk to the Hokitika River, Riverview is a great little spot with all sorts of farm animals, a very friendly Labrador and resident cats to keep kids amused. The Kiwi/Brit couple that run the place are very helpful and down to earth, they even let us bath Rhiannon in their personal bathroom and hung out our washing! There’s a small vege garden that guests can take produce from as well. Highly recommend giving this place a try if you’re ever in Hokitika and on a budget.
The surreal blue waters of Hokitika Gorge
Things to do with a family in Hokitika? Well if its not Wild Foods Festival time, then have a wander around the town centre to check out the Pounamu (Jade) carvers at work or have a go yourself, Hokitika Beach can be good for a dip on calm days and kids can make sculptures or dens out of the tons of twisted driftwood strewn along the sands, then there’s always the intriguingly name Sock Machine Museum. We drove up to Hokitika Gorge (above) and went for a stroll down to the unbelievably blue riverside – well worth a visit but remember the insect repellant.
2 nights later it was time to move on, this time we were bound for the Glacier town of Franz Josef. Planning wasn’t our strong point on this day, as by the time we pulled into the township at 5pm, it was pouring with the particularly wet blend of West Coast rain and we weren’t savouring the thought of pitching a tent in standing water amongst the downpour. There are a few options for campers in Franz, but most are a short drive outside the actual town such as the Top 10 Holiday Park here, which looked pretty decent and you can also camp in the grounds of some of the backpacker lodges, but we opted for one of the last and cheapest motel rooms which was also outside the township and apparently not on the net as far I as I can see…..anyways it was comfortable and clean and dry!
My secret Shangri-la – Lake Mapourika
Kureru (native wood pigeon) drunk on berries
We awoke to brilliant sunshine the following day, stocked up on supplies and headed for my secret spot….Lake Mapourika, just North of Franz town – signposted Ottos Corner or MacDonalds at the North end of the lake. The carpark had certainly expanded since I last visited, when I lived on the West Coast in my early 20′s, but the lake was as magical as ever with a gorgeous grassy campsite encircled by native trees just up from the lake foreshore. We pitched up and spent 3 blissful nights there, swimming, reading and going for day trips to the wonderful Okarito Lagoon and beach nearby and of course the Franz Josef Glacier. As its a DOC campsite, there was only a well-maintained but mosquito and sandfly magnet long drop toilet a short walk from the camp and a fresh water tap in the way of facilities but the location more than makes up for any inconvenience. Some other not so responsible travellers were using this pristine lake as a bath, washing themselves with soaps, shampoos and shower gels which inevitably harms the delicate eco system of places such as this. Be prepared with some eco-friendly toiletries such as Faith in Nature or pop into any health food store or pharmacy and they usually stock plant based natural alternatives.
DOC campsite at Otto’s Corner…our little set up
Squigglet and I post dip in Lake Mapourika
Finally we managed to prize ourselves away and continue down the South Westland coast, with a plan to take our time en-route and camp in Haast for a day or two. The journey itself was magnificent, although famed for its damp climate which feeds the lush rainforest year-round, when the sun shines on the coast it is up there with the most beautiful places in the world. We stopped off at Lake Mathieson, the subject of many a tourist postcard with its glazed mirror surface reflecting the vista in a perfect mirror image. There’s a relatively easy loop track around the lake that takes about 35-40 mins return, but its not suitable for buggies so best get out the baby carrier, we bought a second hand version of this Kathmandu carrier and it was ideal. At the entrance to the lake there is a nice cafe, gift shop and gallery where you can sit and take in the views over an ice cream. With that I’ll sign off and continue with part 2 over the weekend……..
Just another stunning day at Lake Mathieson
Treasure Box Tuesday
Happy Treasure Box Tuesday! I’ve been on the ball this week and started writing this post on Monday, when I should have been packing boxes and sorting out our flat, but procrastination won over and so here I am.
This week I’ve dug out a book we bought or Squigglet last year at a poetry reading, don’t go assuming that we’re all highbrow and cultured and everything, as that totally isn’t the case, but a friend was hosting a local poet evening and so we popped along to support her and came away with this lovely collection ‘A Child’s Book of Poems: All Throughout the Year’ which features works from various Welsh poets and beautiful illustrations with a seasonal theme. I remember loving poetry as a kid, especially those of Australian poet Banjo Patterson and in particular his poem Mulga Bills Bycycle along with silly limericks that kept us entertained on long car journeys. I still like writing poems in secret but don’t often share them out of embarrassment, but perhaps I will get up the courage to some day soon. As we’ve just hit July, I thought I’d share one of the July poems in the book here:
Summer Storm by Phil Carradice
The night the storm came, dragons roared outside our window; their breath – bright lightening flashes – forked the far horizon. The old house trembled, flinching under each and every bang.
‘Come on’, said Dad and led us to the garden. We sat on the veranda, gasping as the rain fell in torrents like a waterfall.
‘Remember this’, Dad Said, It’s nature at her best.’ We sat on in the rain. Thunder crashed and Dad was never closer as summer slipped between my fingers.
The night the storm came and dragons roared outside our window.
As I was thinking back to the toys we used to play with as kids I suddenly remember hours of fun with Pick Up Sticks, such a simple premise but totally absorbing to the point it would stop me and my brother constantly bugging each other as we quietly concentrated on winning the game. I’ll have to remember that for when Squigglet gets to the ‘I’m bored’ stage. In fact, I reckon I might get a set for me and Io to play for evenings when Bananagrams are proving too challenging, which happens quite frequently after a glass or two of Pinot Noir.
Hours of fun for the whole family….or maybe more so mum and dad
Lastly a bit of homeware eye candy that the Eden Project shop sells in our soon to be home of Cornwall. I’ve been coveting these lacquered bamboo and coconut shell bowls for a while now, they are stylish, fairtrade and come in a range of fun bright colours that will add flare to any dinner table or party setting. They are a little on the pricey side (salad bowls £34 small bowls £17.50) but I’ve spotted similar products in Sainsburys for about half the amount, although not sure about the fairtrade credentials of those ones.
Lacquered Bamboo Bowls
Funky coconut bowls
I think these may be making an appearance in our new place at some point over the coming months, just have decide which colour!
Over and out for another Tuesday….
Inspiration Of Motherhood: One Mom's Wish For Her Dying Son
By Pamela Sitt
Moms and dads all over the world are serving banana splits for dinner in the sweetest of tributes to a dying child and the mother who's determined to find the joy in his last days.
Two weeks ago, doctors told Erik and Diane Roberts that nothing more could be done to save their 21-month-old son, Ryan, who was born with Down syndrome and a heart defect.
What do you want to be now you’re a grown up?
Do we ever stop asking ourselves this question? People are changing careers and lifestyle more than ever these days, whether that is due to the knock-on effects of the recession or just personal epiphanies, but when it comes down to it which of us ever truly feels like a proper grown up inside?
Remember careers day at primary school? (elementary). There were always a lot of firemen, teachers, doctors, nurses, the odd journalist, secretary and perhaps a train driver or two on the aspiration list, mainly because this is what we found as examples in children’s books or were part of our everyday lives in the 70′s and early 80′s. Nowadays it wouldn’t be untoward to have a nuclear physicist, internet tycoon and plastic surgeon in the mix, depending on where you live!
Personally I wanted to own a sweet shop, lollies! But then what kid doesn’t? By my tween years I was tossing up between an Artist, Architect or Archaeologist…..and seemingly had an obssesion with professions beginning with A. 16 came along and I was dead set on hotel management as it seemed like a glamorous world of fancy dinners and high-flying guests.
By the time I was due to leave school and enter tertiary education I had no idea what I wanted to be anymore, so I went to teachers college. I lasted exactly 1 year. Don’t get me wrong I loved the actual teaching practise part, interacting with kids and helping them learn and grow. It was more the thought of life-long homework for me, marking, writing reports, planning extracurricular activities that had me hanging up my white-board marker.
And so it went on for most of my 20′s, dallying along different career paths and taking courses on whichever new passion I stumbled upon, which have included but by no means limited to:
Waitress, bartender, wilderness lodge assistant, ski lodge assistant, homeopathy, Japanese gas station attendant, door to door salesperson, caterer, newspaper columnist, cosmetics counter manager, editorial assistant, massage therapist and spa trainer, English as a foreign language teacher, rafting photographer, bar hostess, Internet marketing and PR consultant – not in that order!
I often read stories in magazines about how *Frank, 41 gave up his life as a city banker to run a surf shop or organic bakery in small town Cornwall or *Mary, 32 left her high-flying career as a fashion buyer for Harrods to start a Yoga studio in Thailand etc etc, and rather churlishly I think ‘twats’ as they gaze smugly back from the page, radiating health and happiness. Actually I am just jealous that A: they had the means to follow their dreams and B: they could decide which one to follow!
These tales leave me twitching impatiently, waiting for my own lightbulb moment and hoping I have the gumption to follow it through, if and when it comes along. Well truth be told, I am incessantly hatching cunning plans to start one business or another and have a stockpile of ideas stored in my mental library which may well be unleashed one day in the future…..if only I can combat the equally long list of cons that accompanies it. It’s the same with would-be hobbies, the list is long and I never seem to make much headway on it. Although I guess starting a blog has ticked one thing off for the time-being and I have been kind of busy with this whole being a mum thing, which is way more challenging and rewarding than any professional role I’ve held.
There’s some new research into the way humans continue to learn in middle and later life, even languages and musical instruments can still be mastered with just a little more effort and immersion than we usually allocate to new interests in our increasingly overloaded lives. Apparently you still can teach an old dog new tricks. I’m not sure if the same can be said for learnt personality traits however, so it looks like my annoying habit of constantly being contrary could be doomed to remain with me, although maybe not 
As the age of retirement becomes higher and higher, it means that on average someone in their late 30′s – early 40′s isn’t even halfway through their expected productive working life, so surely a change in career and entrance into a new field should be well-recieved in a person of maturity and experience? Something tells me this is just not often the case and as a first-time mum in my mid 30′s with the possibility of another child joining the ranks some time in the next few years, I do wonder how this will affect my chances of re-entering the full-time workforce later down the track.
But all of this considered I guess the main thing I want to be now that I’ve grown up is happy, and whilst work choices play a large part, I have come to realise that a stable loving relationship and motherhood have bestowed this on me, and believe me it’s taken a while to get here.
But hey, at least I can still daydream about being a fabric designer…..Osteopath….. Astronomer….see it always comes back to the A’s, which is why I know Io is a great match for me as he wanted to be an Artist… Acrobat….Actor….Activist. There’s gotta be something in that.
Random note: speaking of careers, don’t you hate those work-related personality tests alot of companies and recruiters use these days? There are all these scenarios, many of them repeated with a slightly different sentence structure and I know I quite often answer these differently based on the sentence structure alone. Aside from this I start over-thinking the scenario based on my rather diverse employment background which I’m pretty sure doesn’t fit into most corporate cookie cutter moulds of personnel. The most annoying part is, you never get the results so are left feeling like you’ve outed yourself as either some kind of paranoid control freak or a timid no hoper. Are they really an accurate indicator of the diverse way in which humans interact and behave in the workplace?
Right, I’m off to pack boxes for our Cornwall chapter of life…..let’s see what opportunities that move brings.
What about you? Do you harbour a secret desire to reinvent yourself or try out a completely different line of work?
Treasure Box Tuesday
Fail! Sheesh I may have bitten off a little more than I can handle committing to a weekly Tuesday post as although I have plenty of things to share, I am struggling a little to get the motivation to sit down and write about it this week as I’ve just started reading 50 Shades of Grey by E L James and I must say it is consuming any spare attention/time that I have, quite a racey story ala modern take on Mills and Boons. Aside from that we’ve been pretty busy with various outings and meeting up with friends this week, as me and Squigglet will be off back down to Wales this weekend to begin packing for our move to Cornwall, fingers crossed our lease comes through tomorrow!
Anyhoo, another random assortment of delights this week so lets start with Sqigglets latest toy obsession: train sets!
These Bigjigs wooden train sets are all the rage in London toy shops and after browsing the catalogue it seems you can start with the basics and build up with additional bits and pieces or themed sets as your child gets older, its also compatible with Brio. Squigglet got the My First Train Set when we got to London and it has been a good piece of kit to keep her entertained every day and its pretty reasonable at £9.99.
Look mum I can fit inside it!
This next treasure is a bit random but completely in line with our plans to move to Cornwall and set up a new home in the next month. I do a good line in obsessing about singular things I like/want and for some reason these coat hooks I’ve discovered recently from Oliver Bonas (a new find for me) are my latest passion. Perhaps it’s something to do with the thick stone walled houses we’ve been looking at renting, but I can just see these hanging on the back of the bedroom door or porch with our initials for jackets, dressing gowns or towels – I have a thing about people using my towel, just as Io who has been the bewildered victim of my wrath when he mistakenly picks up mine instead of his. I’m getting over it, slowly. Never mind essentials like washing machines and freezers, vintage style coat hangers are obviously the key to a well-appointed home….mmm see my perspective can get a little skewed when it comes to pretty things.
Oliver Bonas Alphabet Hooks…and no this is not a sponsored post
Last but not least is a little something frivolous that I bought on a whim at the Wholefood Market this week. I’ve been looking for a new summery perfume for a while now but not really wanting to shell out for a big brand variety, so I was happy to come across this lovely range of scents from Pacifica, which I’ve never seen before but strikes a chord with me being from Kiwiland way down in the Pacific Ocean. There is quite a range of smells from the flowery to fruity and they come in EDT or solid perfume style. I got the Tahitian Gardenia which is reminscent of a stroll through a tropical flower garden on a warm humid night…..mmmm.
Mmmm Tahitian Gardenia…tropical flowery divine
Anyways, better late than never I guess Treasure Box Tuesday over and out till next week.
