On New Zealand’s South Island, rugged coastlines meet peaceful sounds and rain forests encounter active glaciers and icy fjords. ©Candice Gaukel Andrews

When you first start exploring beyond your home ground, you tend to see everything in relation to where you live: what’s different, what’s similar, what’s unheard of and what’s exactly the same. I suppose it’s our way of getting a grip on new surroundings and beginning to have them make sense. And so it was for me when I traveled to New Zealand.

I assumed that going to New Zealand would be a good choice for one of my first forays far away from my home state of Wisconsin; pictures of the place showed green meadows and lots of cows and sheep. At first glance, the country looked a lot like the Midwest—with the addition of mountains and an ocean. And, I thought thankfully, at least there they speak the same language I do.

Nine geese

But I began to think I was mistaken the minute I landed on the South Island. Fresh off the plane and going through customs, communications began to break down. The man at the desk asked me if I had a “tint.”

“S’cuse me?” I replied in my best, nasalized, American Midwestern accent.

There are more sheep than people in New Zealand. The population is estimated to be 4.5 million and sheep number about 29.6 million. ©Candice Gaukel Andrews

“Do you have a tint?” he repeated in a louder voice. My only understanding of his sentence was that he had to be asking me about my hair, which I thought was rather bold of him. Then I thought: That can’t be right, can it? So, I asked one more time if he would restate his question.

“DO YOU HAVE A TINT?” he almost yelled. Seeing that I was only succeeding in making him more frustrated, I finally just shook my head “no” and then quickly left his station.

It wasn’t until the next day when I met two travelers from Michigan that I received some illumination on my bizarre, first human encounter in this new land. My fellow Midwesterners were able to interpret for me because they had had a similar experience shortly after they arrived in New Zealand. At their hotel, the concierge gave them cryptic directions to their room. They were told to walk down the hall, look for the “nine geese” and turn left. They thought that meant they would pass a painting or a wall mural with nine geese in it. It wasn’t until several hours later that they realized they were supposed to pass the “main desk.”

As foreign seeds and pests often hide on Velcro and in pockets of camping and sporting equipment, these items are inspected at entry points to protect native wildlife, horticulture and agriculture. We surmised my customs official was asking me if I had a tent.

Dripping green and spongy, New Zealand’s forests made me think of Wisconsin’s Northwoods after a rainstorm. ©Candice Gaukel Andrews

One sheepherder

Despite this initial language barrier, the New Zealand forests spoke to me in a way I could comprehend. Dripping green and spongy, they reminded me of Wisconsin’s Northwoods after a rainstorm. Yet there was one big difference: there is nothing in New Zealand’s forests that can hurt you. No megafauna, no predators, no poisonous snakes or spiders. Because I come from the United States, I suppose, I kept missing a danger in the woods, the wild heartbeat of a nation. The wolf. The bear.

But what New Zealand lacks in woodland creatures it makes up for in its birdlife. The country is rich with avian songs, and I wondered what the poets of New Zealand had to say about their tuneful land. I looked for their works in bookstores, but I couldn’t find any. Then I met an actual poet, a 90-year-old sheep rancher—known as a musterer in New Zealand—named Donald.

Our travel group met with Donald’s family on the ranch where they had lived in the Hector Mountains for 125 years. Donald consented to take a short ride with us in our van, and I was privileged to accompany him up into the foothills surrounding his land so that we could get a sweeping look at his holdings and hear his stories about a life spent sheepherding.

What New Zealand lacks in woodland creatures it makes up for in its varied and numerous birds. ©Candice Gaukel Andrews

Up and up on a narrow, gravel road we went, as Donald talked of his grandfather who came to New Zealand from Scotland.

“Mustering was good work as long as you had good dogs,” he stated, as if it were a long-remembered, natural law.

Higher and higher we climbed. At 5,000 feet, Donald said, “This has always been and always will be a young man’s country. I would have to get in a chopper to see all this land now. Mostly, I just stand down below and look up.”

A chill ran down my spine and I shuddered. Here, on this mountain in New Zealand, positioned next to a sheep rancher almost as old as the modern nation itself, I heard the wistfulness that comes to speak to us all eventually—a common language that spreads across oceans, across countries and across human minds and spirits.

The wild heartbeat of New Zealand can be found in an old musterer and his sheep dogs. ©Candice Gaukel Andrews

On the drive back down the mountain, Donald talked about the region’s history. As we pulled into his driveway, he noted quietly, “As William Cullen Bryant said, ‘It is the spot I came to seek. My father’s ancient burial place.’”

Two poets

After a picnic lunch on the ranch, we were treated to a demonstration of the skills of the family’s sheep dogs. I watched as these four-footed herders expertly drove the sheep in all directions and even around in circles. The dogs could stop a group of sheep on a dime and did so right in front of me. It was an amazing feat they performed.

It occurred to me then that the wild heartbeat of New Zealand that I thought was missing was right here in front of me, in the beating chests of those smart, little dogs and in the language of an old musterer who still stops to look up.

Here’s to finding your true places and natural habitats,

Candy

New Zealand is filled with spectacular waterfalls, snowcapped peaks and stunning fjords. ©Candice Gaukel Andrews

 

In the fishing village of Kaikoura, our group visited with a local Maori family. ©Candice Gaukel Andrews

 

Found only in the wild, southwest corner of New Zealand, tawakis (Fiordland crested penguins) are unique among penguins because they build their nests deep in lush rain forests. ©Candice Gaukel Andrews

 

At sea, Fiordland crested penguins are at risk from fishing bycatch and oil spills. On land, introduced predators, dogs and cars pose the main threats. The conservation status of this species was changed from nationally vulnerable to nationally endangered in 2013. ©Candice Gaukel Andrews

 

Polynesians and Europeans hunted the New Zealand fur seal for centuries and nearly to extinction by the 19th century. The country’s Marine Mammals Protection Act now safeguards them. ©Candice Gaukel Andrews

 

High in the mountains, one can find stories—told and untold. ©Candice Gaukel Andrews

 

We visited a sheep ranch in the Hector Mountains that has been in Donald’s family for 125 years. ©Candice Gaukel Andrews

 

Luckily, Donald consented to take a short ride with us up into the foothills surrounding his land. We got a sweeping look at his holdings and heard his tales. ©Candice Gaukel Andrews

 

After a picnic lunch on the ranch, we were treated to a demonstration of the family’s sheep dogs’ skills. ©Candice Gaukel Andrews

 

The dogs could stop a group of sheep on a dime and did so right in front of me. ©Candice Gaukel Andrews

 

A rainbow bisects a mountain range unnoticed by some of the country’s abundant sheep. ©Candice Gaukel Andrews