Magical Mackenzie Country

After leaving my beloved banks of Diamond Harbour, I journeyed on to remote farm country-the Mackenzie district of New Zealand. Here, I soaked up the high-country farming lifestyle, spectacular night skies, and was awed by the surrounding majestic mountains. I was introduced to a new type of kiwi culture on my second day when I attended the annual Easter Mackenzie Highland Show.

This fair was worked towards all year by the local community and showcased the best sheep dogs, cattle, llamas, ponies and horses, sheep wool, best locally-grown produce, best baked goods, local art work, highland dancers, and my favorite-a log-splitting competition performed by huge, burley, New Zealand farmers I would not want to get in the way of when angry.



My host family also had 4 highland cattle, 12 chickens, and bee hives on their property, that when I wasn’t helping upkeep, I spent my time frolicking around being the city girl that I am (Ithaca constitutes a major city to NZ standards) taking pictures and soaking the splendors of simple, self-sufficient lifestyle.





I also spent a day drooling as I ventured to nearbye, Mt. Cook- New Zealand’s tallest mountain 12,316ft (still has nothing on the Rockies). Nevertheless, I was blown away by the beauty of this mountain and humbled by its continuous threat of avalanches and the loss of countless mountaineering lives taken on its summit.





MT. Cook’s base is also home to New Zealand’s biggest glacier with iceburgs and all. The Tasman Glacier extends in some places 600 metres deep, but of course is slowly melting like most glaciers in temperate climates. This was way cool, as I have never seen glaciers before (by the way kiwis say, glah-see-ers…weirdos). Also stunningly beautiful in the Mackenzie basin area, drawing hundreds of tourists and drawing myself to take hundreds of photos- was Lake Tekapo, an aqua marine, crystal clear, glacial lake perfect for taking mermaid photos (am I right?)


But PERHAPS most majestic of all for me was the unbelievable, crystal clear, night sky that loomed above each night, taunting me saying “look what you’ve missed out on your entire life.” I had never seen a night sky so beautiful and was humbled to experience such a sight so many people on the Northern Hemisphere never will.

The area around Lake Tekapo has been deemed a world heritage site for its night sky, as it has the perfect atmospheric conditions for star-gazing and is also located in the boondocks with the nearest NZ city being hours away. It was my visit here that it was confirmed to me that I really, really like stars. And even better, the Southern Hemisphere’s stars are COMPLETELY different leaving me just about speechless every time I looked up into this foreign and other-worldly, astronomical land.

I must admit I spent many of my evenings in the back paddock with the cows -camera propped up on a stool trying to capture the stars by long exposure. I don’t have a tripod and don’t have a cable release or remote control to hold my camera shutter open, so I obtained many shaky photos-but its cool. Unfortunately the one night I stayed in watching movies, the best Aurora Borealis in 7 years shined bright all night unknown to me. Oh well, you take what you can get I guess-and New Zealand is doing nothing but giving, giving, giving. It is so beautiful here, I am in a permanent state of awe.

I made my way back up from the South Island to Wanganui, and am headed next to Waiheke island off the coast of Auckland. Here I will be a nanny, get to experience island life, AND get payed! I am doing quite well on my spending, but to find a WWOOF host that pays-that’s like finding the golden ticket! Four months down, and still having an unbelievable time. Seeya on the other side of island life!!