Wyn Drabble: Time to take a trip around our own backyard

Now is the time to take a road trip. Photo / File

COMMENT
We can't travel abroad, so those of us lucky enough to miss the self-isolation/self-quarantine/social distancing requirement can consider travelling in our own backyard.

It sure is a good time to forget St Tropez, Provence, Venice and Barcelona and consider the likes of Blackball, Reefton, Oamaru, Gore or Bluff.

These were five of the places mentioned in an article I've just read about New Zealand's best small towns and I've been to them all.

Now, if you'd suggested 50 years ago that I visit Reefton, I'd have chosen the self-isolation option. But change is clearly afoot.

People with vision are tarting it up and a number of the old gold-mining era buildings remain and to me that's a better option than a fake recreation called Shantytown.

Also reasonably within co-oee is Blackball which is not the most euphonious nomenclature but it seems that standing in the main street can give you palpable feelings of more prosperous coal-mining days.

If you're a Labour supporter, you can bask in the beginnings of your political affiliation. A visit to the Blackball Museum of Working Class History is apparently a must. Have a beer in the Blackball Hilton and I'm sure a local will join you and fill you in on the town's background.

Oamaru holds memories for me because that's where I started school. I didn't know about penguins in those days but they were probably there.

I remember a stony beach, turquoise sea and swirling brown kelp as well as the school bus because it was called "the biscuit tin", more a reference to rattles than arrowroot biscuits.

Wyn Drabble.

Gore and Bluff (NB oysters are one of the very few foods I don't do) are, temperature-wise, just too far south for me but that provides a perfect launching pad for a discussion of some places I would like to visit because the first two are in those very southern climes.

Everything I've read about the Catlins has been engaging. I'm sure I could be captivated by Cathedral Caves, Nugget Point, Purakaunui Falls and McLean Falls though I would have to be wrapped up snugly in a warm cardy.

And Stewart Island appeals. I'd even be willing to take bush walks (short ones). But the accommodation would have to offer fresh Foveaux Strait blue cod on the dinner menu. And there would need to be a blazing log fire.

I'm also rather intrigued by Karamea and one day I'm hoping Mrs D and I can cross the South Island on the Trans-Alpine and drive up as far as the road will take us (there, I've put it in writing). I have been as far north as Granity and Ngakawau but the overwhelming memory is of coal dust.

Parts of Golden Bay and Marlborough Sounds are alluring too but I have to hop over them or I'll run out of space to deal with anything in the northern half of the country.

Coromandel Peninsula, Bay of Islands and coastal far Northland go without saying but if you want to be away from the tourism masses and are seeking true self-isolation, my recommendation is to drive north from Gisborne.

There you will be able to choose from a number of stunning sandy surf beaches which you won't have to share with anyone – except perhaps an extremely confused Oamaru penguin (though, on closer inspection, it could be a young, wet-suited surfer).

Yes, these are tough times in all sorts of ways but let's try to pick up on the positives and provide at least some benefits for ourselves and our country by travelling domestically. We have been forced to put our own backyard first.

Sure beats stockpiling toilet paper.