One of the toys kiwi children made in the post-war era - the flaxwood outrigger canoe. Photo supplie
FOR a kid, the struggle to truly enjoy one’s school holidays has been around a while. Us older King Country residents well remember our own school holidays, and if I accurately recall mine – spent in New Plymouth they went something like this:
Fine and dandy if I had friends available to play “war” or go cycling or snorkelling with, but if everyone was away, or just plain didn’t want to hang out with me, school holidays were a real drag.
Yet even when cast on my resources there was a huge waterfront to explore, public pools to visit in season and a range of toys to make with my own hands.
With varying degrees of success, I made myself outrigger canoes out of flax stems, so-called “tanks” (some called them “tractors”), out of a cotton reel, a wax washer and a rubber band, bows and arrows and range of other stuff, mainly by nailing scraps of wood together. And if I wasn’t doing anything like that, I was probably inn my room reading Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.
Of course, today far more than in my day, the adults in the house may have to work through the holidays. So where to go, what to do and how to spend your holidays just got more challenging for a kid. And no easy answers for that.
Here in the King Country, I’m aware that many children live on farms and lifestyle blocks, and so they will have chores to do and likely animals to care for, which will surely helps them pass time well.
But mainly of course, today’s children play computer games. And I don’t disparage that fact one bit. In my view these can be wonderful things; potentially transporting a child into realms of fantasy far beyond their humdrum daily existence.
Let’s be honest, if today’s middle aged to elderly adults had Minecraft, Roblox, Rocket League or Planet Coaster to play with, we would have loved it. I’m no gamer but the little I’ve seen of this world convinces me it’s a splendid place to visit. But as for living there, no thanks.
The world of computer games is too passive a place for me to be a contented long-term resident in. I’m happier recalling active childhood days spent exploring the New Plymouth sea-front, diving into the murky waters around the Lee Breakwater, making toys and going for long bike rides.
For me this nostalgia is well summed up in a poem by renown Kiwi writer Bill Manhire, who listed toys of his era in a poem called: 1950s
‘My cricket bat. My football boots.
My fishing rod. My hula hoop.
My cowboy chaps. My scooter.
Draughts. Happy families. Euchre.
Ludo. Snap. My Davy Crockett hat.
My bicycle. My bow and arrow.
My puncture kit. My cat. The straight and narrow.
Fancy that.
You may not be into reminiscing about the golden era of the 50s and you may not even approve of computer games. But if so, take heart.
If your child has a bit too much time on their hands these school holiday, libraries at Taumarunui, Te Kūiti and Ōtorohanga are offering some very creative and positive holiday activities for local children.
