|
From Caverns to Cloud-Piercing Mountains
By Junior Kindergarten teacher, Mimi Aiston
At the end of the 2007–2008 school year I was fortunate to receive the Charles E. Leake Master Teacher Award which enabled me to travel this spring to New Zealand for an amazing sabbatical experience. My itinerary included group tours of the North Island and the South Island as well as time to travel on my own.
On the first two days of the North Island Kauri Tour, we hiked up Mt. Manganui, an extinct volcano, viewed geothermal activity in Rotorua, and hiked through indigenous forest along Lake Okataina to explore the site of an ancient Maori settlement. One evening we took part in a hangi, a traditional Maori feast, prepared by the Ngati Rongamai tribe. We then traveled to the Whakarewarewa Forest for mountain biking and to the Waikato River, New Zealand’s longest, for a hike to beautiful Huka Falls. The most challenging day of this tour for me was the hike in Tongariro National Park, New Zealand’s oldest park and the fourth oldest national park in the world. The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is considered the best mountain day-hike in the country. This unguided hike took me seven hours to complete and traversed remarkable lava flows, active craters, steam vents and emerald crater lakes. On the final day of this tour we were fitted with wet suits, helmets, headlamps, and a flotation device for spelunking in Waitomo Caves, where we swam down a subterranean stream, slid down waterfalls, and saw hundreds of glow worms that live on the limestone ceiling of the caverns.
Following the Kauri Tour, I flew to the South Island to begin the fourteen-day Rimu Tour. Highlights of this tour included hiking out to the Kaikoura Peninsula to view seal colonies, a backpacking trip in Nelson Lakes National Park, hiking the Inland Pack Track through sheer limestone canyons in the Punakaiki Rainforest, and sea kayaking on the Okarito Lagoon. As an option during this tour I chose to take a heli-hike glacier trip. The helicopter flight afforded views of some of the highest peaks in the Southern Alps and landed on the Franz Joseph Glacier. We were fitted with crampons and ice axes and led by a guide over crevasses, around seracs, and through ice tunnels. I also hiked the famous Routeburn Track, mountain biked in the Hollyford Valley, and sea kayaked in the Milford Sound. The scenery in Milford Sound is awesome, with cascading waterfalls and sheer rocks walls plunging thousands of feet to the Tasman Sea. Seals and dolphins swam up to our kayaks as we paddled along.
The highlight of the Rimu Tour for me was the visit to Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park. In the Maori language, Mt. Cook is known as Aoraki, which translates as “Cloud Piercer”. It is the highest mountain in New Zealand. Fortunately, on the day we visited the clouds cleared. We climbed a steep trail to a windy ridge above Mueller Glacier where we had stunning views of Mt. Cook. I will never forget it!
Following the tours, I visited the cities of Queenstown, Dunedin, Christchurch, and Auckland, where I walked through botanic gardens, visited museums and the Antarctic Center, viewed albatrosses with a naturalist on the Otago Peninsula, and hiked down cliffs to observe seals, sea lions, and rare Yellow-eyed Penguins. I found that by traveling alone I met many interesting people with amazing stories. During my travels I also visited a number of schools where I learned about educational practices in this unique island culture. This trip has inspired me in so many ways—personally and professionally. I am enjoying sharing my experiences with the JKers and my colleagues and am preparing a New Zealand unit of study for our next world journey in Junior Kindergarten.
|
