Tami Neilson Points The Way To Her Beloved New Zealand

Twenty years ago, Canadian singer-songwriter Tami Neilson decided to board a life-changing flight from Toronto to Auckland, New Zealand. The trip led to a marriage, children and love for a new country. Now, as she celebrates the release of her new album, Neon Cowgirl, she shares her knowledge about her adopted country with American travelers.

“After a five-year long-distance relationship with my future husband, I moved across the world to New Zealand in 2005 on a one-year working holiday visa,” Neilson says. “I wanted to see how I could handle being away from my family and my home, and if I could fall in love with not only my husband but with his country, too. Twenty years later, I think it’s gonna work out!”

Musically, lots of things have worked out for Neilson. She initially was in a popular Ontario-based family band before going solo with a powerful voice that delved into country, blues, rockabilly and soul music. Three years ago, Willie Nelson guested on her Kingmaker album, and, last year, she released Neilson Sings Nelson, an album covering Nelson’s songs.

Neilson began her newlywed life on New Zealand’s North Island in the Auckland suburb of Mount Eden, home to a dormant volcano where there are great views of the metropolis. She later moved about 17 miles north to another Auckland suburb, Greenhithe on the North Shore, where her two sons were born.

Next stop was a move to the country to Waimauka—about 40 minutes from the city—where she and her husband raised two boys on 10 acres with cows, sheep and chickens. Now, it’s “a full circle moment,” she says, because the boys are beginning high school back in the city, and the family recently bought a house in Mount Eden.

“This country has a beauty like no other,” Neilson says. “In the South Island, the Remarkables mountain range in Queenstown is breathtaking. Make sure to drive 20 minutes down the road to Arrowtown where original buildings from the 19th-Century Gold Rush are preserved. I recommend reading Ribbons of Grace by New Zealand author Maxine Alterioto to accompany this trip— a historical fiction about a Chinese woman who pretends to be a man so she can mine gold to support her family back home.”

Further south in Oamaru, “colonies of penguins frolic amongst the rocks on the shore,” she says. “The Harbour & Tyne Historic Precinct is like stepping back in time to the Victorian age and one of my favorite spots in New Zealand. The grand limestone architecture of buildings from the 1800s are perfectly preserved, and many Hollywood films have used this location for their period-piece dramas.”

The Harbour & Tyne Historic Precinct was Oamaru’s original commercial district, and its highly decorated buildings were built from local limestone called Oamaru whitestone, according to Newzealand.com, the country’s official tourism board.

“Today the area is recognized as having New Zealand’s most complete collection of Victorian buildings,” the tourism board says. “As you walk around the streets, you’ll notice the Scottish Society Hall (1864), the Criterion Hotel (1877), Smith’s Grain Store (1882) and the ornate Harbour Board offices. In keeping with the Victorian theme, various interesting businesses operate in the precinct, including a bookbinder, a cobbler and curio shops. Locals in Victorian dress, or even riding a penny-farthing bike, are not unusual here.”

Visitors seeking other examples of beautiful architecture should head to the coastal city of Napier on the North Island, Neilson recommends.

“When a devastating earthquake leveled much of the city in 1931, they had to rebuild, making Napier one of the world’s most extensive collections of Art Deco buildings in the world,” she says.

Further north is the Bay of Islands, where “you absolutely must visit Te Whare Rūnanga, the carved meeting house on the Waitangi Treaty Grounds,” Beilson says. “The real taonga (precious treasure) of Aotearoa (New Zealand) are it’s indigenous peoples, the Maori. Their culture, arts and customs are what make New Zealand unique and special. If you have the chance to visit a cultural center or see a kapa haka performance, do not miss it. You will come away with a better understanding of this country and a connection to the land. It’s an incredibly moving and enriching experience.”

Swift’s favorite New Zealand destinations are the remote beaches. She particularly likes the North Island’s coastal settlement of Matapouri and its beaches.

“The village is made up of a small collection of baches (cottages) and one convenience store that sells milk, bread, ice cream and milkshakes on a hot summer day,” Neilson says. “Oh, and don’t worry about walking in fresh from the beach in sandy bare feet. No shoes, no shirt, no problem. When we aren’t on the beach, we’re kayaking down the estuary of mangroves, the kids are popping manus (jumping into water to create a large splash) off the bridge at high tide or we are doing one of the breathtaking coastal walks to Whale Bay or the Mermaid Pools.”

On the South Island, just outside Christchurch, Neilson says a trip to the port town of Lyttelton from Christchurch is a must.

“Full of fabulously eccentric artists and creators, there are beautiful shops full of locally made creations, Sunday markets, delicious cafes and concerts at the self-proclaimed ‘weirdest, coolest bar’ Wunderbar,” she says.

New Zealand’s capital city, Wellington, is also on the South Island and has its own allure.

The city “hosts some of the most colourful, offbeat creativity in the world, from Weta Workshop to the incredible World of Wearable Art extravaganza that happens every October,” Neilson says. “The Opera House is my favorite venue to play in New Zealand, and the city is always alive with incredible design, food, music and culture.”

Neilson sees a kinship between what she likes most and least about New Zealand.

“I think what I like most and least are actually the same thing!” she exclaims. “I love being tucked away, far from all the chaos of the world in this little slice of heaven at the bottom of the Earth. But, when it comes to my music career, every tour begins with a 12-36-hour flight, so, swings and roundabouts, as the Kiwis say!”