Interpreting landscapes for children

Abstract

When I was a child our family used to take an annual holiday every May. For a week we would tour the South Island, one year exploring the top of the South Island, the next the West Coast, while another, the Southern Lakes area. The year I was nine, we visited Te Anau, far south in mountainous Fiordland, and I hated it. It rained, it was cold and there was nothing to do. The only fun thing about the trip was making snowballs at the entrance of the Homer Tunnel, but for the rest of the time it was dreary and cold and boring. Sure, there were lakes and forests and mountains and things, but it didn't mean much to me, and I'd much rather have been home riding my pony than looking at lots of dull trees and being molested by sandflies at Milford Sound.

Fifteen years later, as an adult, I'm the one responsible for imparting some enthusiasm and understanding to thirty-odd children a day over a two week period, as part of Fiordland National Park's Summer nature Programme. Because I now understand some of the unique things about Fiordland's landscape, its flora and fauna, I value it highly as part of our heritage, and I'd like to be able to pass that value on to a younger generation.

The children's sessions on the nature programme aim to do this by making the park a fun place to be, a place where it's easy to learn more. As an interpreter, I only have two short weeks to achieve this, but the landscape architect has the opportunity, through design and planning, to broaden interpretation of landscapes in a way which will make it more exciting, effective and accessible for children.