Another Visit

The last week has been spent with family visiting from Australia.  We have been to Akaroa rocking on boats, Hanmer Springs wallowing in hot rock pools, and the Antarctica Centre watching penguins and riding in military style buggies! It has been a wonderful week and we were sad to see our our brother and sister and law, niece and nephew leave.

I have had gastroenteritis for 5 days so this afternoon am having a rest and cleaning the house while Sergeant is testing two new co-operative games at our friends house with the children.  

I am very fortunate to have made a few close friends in Christchurch who share similar conclusions in parenting and education, one of which was a nanny previously.  Whilst I have yet to find any research which states that mass childcare is beneficial to the development of a child in terms of social or emotional well-being, I have seen much evidence that if a child is bonded with alternative caregivers the experience can be positive so employment is restrained by the hours my friend can offer as a nanny and what flexibility the role offers.

While I love the theory of democratic schooling, if under-resourced both in terms of the input of fellow parents and in terms of support and actual resources, I prefer whole-life learning as a more holistic and nurturing education.  Subsequently I have been asked frequently if I would consider Sonic going to a “normal” school. I do not accept the social norm – children are natural learners and mainstream school does not work for millions of children, (certainly not my son) and learner centred education does; so I would rather support alternative means of education – let’s support a revolution!

 

 

The Journey of the baby seals – Kaikoura & Hanmer Springs

Two trips courtesy of my kind and generous parents were to Kaikoura and Hanmer Springs. These locations are situated north of Christchurch and I would estimate a 1 hour 45 minutes drive to Kaikoura which took us 2-3 times as long due to rest stops, and promptly deleted our anticipated trip to Queenstown 😉

The drive to Kaikoura was absolutely stunning, and we travelled north of Kaikoura, aiming to get to Ohau waterfalls but went too far and ended up at a turning point only to realise there were plenty of seals sat on a rock:

Kaikoura

We went back to do the Ohau waterfall walk featured n the following link:
http://trampingtracks.co.nz/Ohau-Waterfall-Walk.html

Here are some of the pictures, you can see at the waterfall there are many baby seals frolicking awaiting the arrival of adults bearing food. As we walked down we saw some adult seals climbing up to the waterfall and I crept down the bank and waited to take some close up pictures:

Ohau Waterfall with baby seals playing!

Walking back

He caught me looking!

Walking under the old bridge

CUCHSHINE PETTING FARM, Kaikoura

Are you pleased to see us Peacock?

Gorgeous piggy

We were cornered by the goats and other animals wanting feeding

My parents shower at the Aspen Spa Hotel (what?? it seems noteworthy.)

Spa shower

A glimpse of the sea in Kaikoura

The bitch box and other stories

The Outskirts of Christchurch

It is clear that the earthquakes have devastated areas of Christchurch and there are few people untouched by the events. However there is so much human spirit – and an eery beauty in the devastation.  These people have experienced so much loss, not only losing the surroundings that they know but some their loved ones too. I don’t know – I hope I won’t – ever know that sadness and loss.  We were driving through the outskirts and I saw this wall, and I thought it was so full of hope that I am sharing it here. It was a wall with the word repeated – before I die I want to….. and people wrote their response..

The Bitch Box and the Wildlife Park

We spent an afternoon at Willowbank Wildlife Park. We are able in the future to get the bus there, so ended up getting a year membership for a very reasonable price.  The park was set up in the 80s by a man whose childhood dream was to have an animal park. Over the years he and his wife have built it up to a good size.  All the animals are extremely well looked after and the setting is very homely and close to nature.

This is a bitch box – apparently they were used when a bitch went into season. She was placed into the box to prevent unwanted pregnancies. I can think of better forms of contraception…

Travels over the Mountain

We drove through Dyers Pass up the mountain and down to the bays on the others side. We stopped in Lyttleton for food. I went into a Himalayan clothing shop and the woman who ran it was so friendly, she seemed to know everyone that came in and chatted with me giving me the coffee she’d just bought for a perk up because she couldn’t stand it, uck she said. Good for me!  Then we went onto the beach.  Corsair bay is a delight.  Before you go down the slope to the beach there is this playground, see if you can spot the girl with the curly hair and straight hair?  The picture to the right is the bay which we swam in. I honestly, usually have panic attacks when swimming in natural water but I managed to swim out alone. It was so beautiful I quite forgot my usual fears and was just enjoying being there.  Ahead in the middle, you can see the former leper colony Quail Island.

Lyttleton harbour had me thinking of the song I learnt at school – little houses on the hillside. 

A Last Note…

We have been very fortunate so far to have had some playdates for Sonic Blue in the last few days and he has enjoyed meeting some new friends, although struggling a bit with it too.  We have a few appointments this week to see houses, so hopefully one of them will be suitable and gained. With love x x x