Tang of the Tasman Sea (Cry of the Kiwi: A Family's New Zealand Adventure)

As a writer, naturalist, and homeschooling parent, Magi Nams had dreamed of travelling with her family to far-away countries to hike through landscapes inhabited by exotic animals and plants. In the summer of 2000, her dream came true when she, her scientist husband, and two sons left their home in Canada to spend ten months in New Zealand. Tang of the Tasman Sea is the third volume of Nams’s trilogy, Cry of the Kiwi: A Family’s New Zealand Adventure, a captivating chronicle of her family’s travel dream fulfilled in a land of volcanoes, giant trees, and endangered flightless birds. Back on South Island after the excitement of tracking and live-trapping stoats on North Island, the Nams battle adventure inertia and homeschool tensions. They rebound to explore a honeydew ecosystem, backpack Abel Tasman Coast Track, one of New Zealand’s Great Walks, and climb to the summit of Little Mount Peel, where the Aurora Australis displays a spectacular light show in the night. After an Easter vacation in New South Wales, Australia, the family hikes to brooding Cave Creek, with its history of disaster. They follow flashlights deep into Fox River Cave and kayak a tidal river that empties into the Tasman Sea. Between winter storms, the Nams hike a rain-drenched West Coast beach at Okarito and through dank rainforest and over icy bedrock to a spectacular lookoff over Franz Josef Glacier. Along the way, Nams reflects on her family's growing immersion in Kiwi life, on lessons learned, and on the impact of invasive species on native ecosystems. As the foursome's adventure of a lifetime draws to a close, it becomes clear that the heart of New Zealand lies in more than its riveting landscapes and intriguing flora and fauna.