When we arrived in Hokitika, dusk already started and as our GPS had some problems finding the address, our search for our next host was a bit longer. After finding the number of the house and knocking at the door of the beautiful house, nothing happened, so we made our way back to the car to call Peter (our host). But then an older man came in our direction, who figured out to be Helen’s (Peter’s wife) dad and told us to just go through the garden. A word, a blow, and we were welcomed by almost 20 kids, Missy a huge Bernard lady and Buddy a blond Border-Colli! It figured out that this evening, there was the Cricket quarter final between New Zealand and South Africa (how could we forget^^) and therefore Helen and Peter invited a few friends inclusive children. (Two of them were originally from South Africa, a fact that brought a bit of excitement into the match. Well, as long as this is possible for Cricket…)
Bethany was definitely the most active one out of the pack of kids and introduced us to all of the other kids. To be honest we have to admit that we forgot most of the names, but it was quite funny that after a Kristen and Kristy, now there was additionally a Kerstin. Then we met the parents, as already mentioned Peter and Helen our hosts, as well as David and his wife from South Africa. The first impression was directly really positive and open-minded and we helped ourselves at the dinner buffet. That evening we mainly chatted to Helen, who is originally from America, but her parents immigrated to New Zealand when she was 7 years old. Her origin is probably the reason why she is not a big fan of Cricket and so she preferred chatting with us (and being amused about the others). Both showed us our accommodation for the next days. Indeed, it wasn’t in their house as supposed, but in a school bus rebuilt as a campervan. HOW COOL IS THIS??? As Peter is a builder, he didn’t only built their house but also rebuilt the bus as a campervan and the result is really impressive.
We said good night quite early and went to our bus, as we were still quite exhausted from hiking. But the next morning, we should experience what a wonderful surrounding Peter and Helen built up. First, they live in a house comparable to a little farm consisting of two dairy cows, a few chickens, ducks, a goat and sheep. Peter works as a builder and Helen does homeschooling of their 4 children Kristen (10), Bethany (8), Daniel (6) and Joshua (5). As we didn’t know this concept before from Germany, we were quite impressed how well-structured it works. The children (mainly Kristen and Bethany, but also Daniel) got lessons in reading, writing and maths supported by didactic videos, working books and of course Helen. In addition, all of them have a certain job with the animals and an own experimenting corner in the vegetable garden. And they get swimming lessons and Kristen even piano lessons. School goes roughly from 9 until 11am, but it is clearly more intense than frontal school (how we know it from Germany) and that’s why we were quite convinced although being sceptic before.
Helen also told us how our work would look like the next couple of days, as she asked us to clean the windows in the house. As the weather wasn’t particularly good we just started and soon got company of the children who wanted to help us. This became quite funny and Tobi had one of the kids alternating on his shoulders who would clean the windows. Actually, that didn’t make it faster, but we had a lot of laughs and as we didn’t have a lot of things planned for the days we didn’t have time problems either. Helen went for swimming lessons with the kids in the afternoon and we drove to the Hokitika Gorge which is famous for its weird turquoise colour. It didn’t blow us away, just because we saw so many of these waters the last weeks, but it is still very impressive. This kind of explains our situation for the next days quite well. Even the very famous Arthurs Pass where we were two days later figured out to be quite unspectacular for us because we saw quite similar things before. That’s why we really enjoyed the time with our host family 🙂 We met them again on our way back from the Gorge when we visited them during their Scottish Country Dance lesson. It looked apparently super funny! After a short visit of the “city” of Hokitika, which is quite famous for producing Jade, and a meet-up with a German friend of Helen, the day was almost over and we drove back home where Helen was waiting for us with a delicious roasted pork. The meals were always extremely delicious and partly self-produced from the lifestyle block (e.g. milk, yoghurt, bred, vegetables and fruits). After sunset Peter drove us in the family van to a glow-worm cave and a lookout over Hokitika. The glow-worm cave was really beautiful and impressive being almost completely surrounded by glow-worms, better than in Fox Glacier.
The next day was bad weather again (which is not very surprising as the west coast gets up to 8m³ rain per year) we mainly occupied ourselves with Helen, the kids and cleaning of the windows (after a short shopping and information trip to the city in the morning). Actually, the cleaning itself could have been done quite quickly, but Helen quite often seduced us for lunch, cookies, coffee or tea including nice chats, something we gratefully accepted! Additionally, the German friend of Helen came over why we had a chat with her as well, while having coffee and cookies. You might have recognized that we were warmly welcomed and integrated in the family what we enjoyed very much.
The same evening, Peter helped us with some planning for the 3-5 days walk through the Abel Tasman Track, we wanted to do during eastern. In return, we could help them setting up an AirBnB profile for their unused guest bedroom. Helen already mentioned her plans to set up a Bed & Breakfast so we told them to try their luck with AirBnB. We could even convince them to list the bus as well. We are 100% sure that will become a great success. If one of you travels through Hokitika, this stop is an absolute must do!
As already mentioned, Arthurs Pass was on the program for the next day and we had absolutely great weather but it didn’t impress us so much either. Don’t get that wrong, the drive over the pass is an adventure by itself and the location of the national park is amazing in the middle of the alps. In addition there is a beautiful waterfall which was worth the drive by itself. We just were a bit bored of the ever same landscape and were curious to explore the north coast why we couldn’t enthuse so much. For people with an addiction for walking Arthurs Pass is definitely a great stop! Back at home we enjoyed a movie night with Captain Hook and a (of course self-made) Pizza. It was also quite funny to watch the kids while watching the quite exciting movie! The evening died away with a chat with Peter and Helen because our last evening did arrive and we started a 3-days trip to Nelson the next morning.