God of the forest

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Every time we find ourselves north of Auckland, we make a point of visiting the Waipoua Forest – a truly awe-inspiring place famous for its living giants, including Tane Mahuta (God of the Forest), the biggest kauri tree in New Zealand. It’s 51 metres tall, about 14 metres around and somewhere between 1250 and 2500 years old. Unfortunately, the girls are more interested in the chocolates we have bribed them with to make the short walk into the forest … but Doog and I are totally charmed. This forest is often overlooked when time-pressed tourists are making up their itinerary and maybe that’s part of the attraction. In my experience, the fewer the people, the better the experience.

Gems of the rainforest

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Skookumchuck Narrows on B.C.’s Sunshine Coast is an awe-inspiring place to explore the rainforest, where the slugs are as long as my hand, and the ferns, moss and giant trees offer endless possibilities for exploration. The girls are fascinated, asking questions, picking up leaves, touching slugs, tasting moss. Their curiosity is natural, and it’s a beautiful thing.

I love that by immersing them in a new environment every few days, their sponge-like little minds lap it up. I also love that I can always find something to use for a school lesson. (Granted, those lessons are getting more and more slack with every passing day but what the hell - how much learning would they do in a real classroom, where even if they started at nine and finished at three, there’d still be 27 kids other kids clamouring for attention or goofing off?)

It must be a tall order for a real teacher to keep order let alone actually teach.

I wonder if, like me, real teachers ever use gummy worms as incentive.