Beauty in Queenstown and Arrowtown

The first week of May, I had the amazing opportunity to travel to the South Island with my teaching team to learn about nature-based programming in early childhood education from some of the best programmes in the country. My head teacher, Kylie, used to work at one of them, and had great connections with the others, as well as inside knowledge of all the places we saw, having lived there for many years. It was fabulous to have such a knowledgeable tour guide. I will write a post about the professional learning we did, but I'm devoting this post to the beauty of the places we visited. Being inspired by the beauty of the natural world is an intrinsic part of nature-based programmes, so being in such stunning places was a meaningful addition to our trip.

We flew from Wellington to Queenstown, and I spent the entire hour-long flight in raptures over the views out the window. I knew that the South Island was very mountainous, but I was amazed to see that almost every bit of it was covered in jagged peaks, some snowy and some not. I've never flown over so many mountains in my life!

Another new life acheivement, while we're at it, was that I went the furthest south I've ever been in my life. We went to Winton, which is near the bottom of the South Island, so that is pretty darn far south. Not a lot past it until you get to Antartica. 

This is Frankton Arm, a small stretch of water that connects to Lake Wakatipu. Frankton is where Kylie used to live, and it is something like a suburb of Queenstown (which is on the shores of Lake Wakatipu).

We stayed at a house in Arrowtown for two nights, and this was the view when we woke up. Queenstown and Arrowtown are surrounded by mountains, and the view in pretty much any direction is amazing, especially in combination with such interesting clouds and sun.

We were lucky to be there in autumn, so we got to see all the beautiful colours. Wellington does get colder in winter, but not enough that many trees take a lot of notice, so we don't get the fiery displays, and I do miss them.

We took a walk by a river, and I noticed that there were lots of stones with a greenish tinge (as well as many other colours). The South Island's Māori name is Te Waipounamu, which means greenstone (jade) waters. It was exciting to imagine that some of those green rocks could turn out to be precious jade.

We walked around Arrowtown for a bit. It has a quaint little downtown, and it was nice to poke around the little specialty shops. Also, I love the variety of colours on the hillside.

My favourite place, unsurprisingly, was The Remarkable Sweet Shop, named after a nearby mountain chain called The Remarkables. They had so many delicious things in there, and you could taste test all the fudge for free! I bought J two extra chocolatey kinds, although I preferred the fruity ones.

We drove up to a high lookout with these amazing views. It was frigidly cold up there in the piercing wind, but totally worth it to see the incredible topography. Queenstown is actually not in this picture but just over to the right. It was in dark shadow, as it apparently is quite a lot of the time. 

We went into Queenstown for a delicious dinner at Madam Woo, one of Kylie's favourite Queenstown restaurants. We walked along the lake for a while before dinner, and as the sun set, the light on the mountains was ethereal. 

When the sun descended a bit further, the light lingered on one single peak, which was glowingly brilliant.

Along with autumn colours, I had almost forgotten the delicate beauty of morning frost. I don't miss true cold at all, but there are things about it that I love, and the way frost forms on leaves is one of them.

This was an area where we spent time with one of the nature-based programmes, and it was such a perfect spot. Even though the day was quite cold, the sun warmed us up, and it was peaceful and serene.

I feel that I could post pictures indefinitely, because everything was so completely gorgeous, but I will stop there. J and I will be snowboarding all next weekend, but I will endeavour to get a post ready before we go. I am a bit daunted by the prospect of trying to fit all the amazingness of the nature-based programmes we saw into a blog post, but I will do my best.