Wallabies may not be native to New Zealand, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t cut and fun.
 Wallabies at EnkleDooVery Korna, photo courtesy of Chuck Black Photography |
When planning a holiday for six people ranging in age from teens to septuagenarians, you have your work cut out for you. You need to find something thrilling and vigorous enough to engage teens while not being too much excitement and activity for someone two generations older. It’s not an easy balancing act, but I found the right combination in a little out-of-the-way town.
 Wallabies at EnkleDooVery Korna, photo courtesy of Chuck Black Photography |
The small town of Waimate resides halfway between Oamaru and Timaru and is about a 30-minute drive from either. In this unassuming little town, you find a larger-than-life character in the form of a dainty, older woman named Gwen Dempster-Schouten (she joked with us that she had two last names because she had two husbands and kept the names but not the husbands).
 Wallabies at EnkleDooVery Korna, photo courtesy of Chuck Black Photography |
Gwen runs EnkleDooVery Korna, a preserve for wallabies in New Zealand. Wallabies are frequently mistaken for kangaroos because they look like miniature kangaroos. Although found all over Australia, wallabies are not native to New Zealand. In fact, these cute, gentle little hoppers are considered an invasive species that New Zealand would like to rid itself of. But that hasn’t stopped Gwen from caring for them on her farmstead since a hunter brought her an orphaned joey in 1977.
Gwen told us it is a lot of work caring for baby wallabies. They live in their mother’s warm pouch and nurse regularly, so Gwen found it challenging to keep her “wee charge” warm and fed. To accomplish this, she keeps the little guy in a “pouch” made from an old jersey (sweater) and feeds them every three hours, day and night. That sounds like a sizable commitment for anyone, but Gwen has been doing this for 45 years. We have no idea how old Gwen is because she is so full of vitality and love for her paddocks full of furry family, but she is at least one-decade past retirement, if not two. Running this center is a big commitment for anyone, but it seems incredibly daunting for someone her age. Yet, she draws energy from her family of wallabies and the families that come to see them.
 Wallabies at EnkleDooVery Korna, photo courtesy of Chuck Black Photography |
Gwen gave each of us a bag of feed for the wallabies and showed us how to bend down and hold out the food, so her little friends could come to us and eat out of our hands. She talked to wallabies as she fed them, then reached around and petted them along their back. The animals are sweet and docile, and soon we fed and petted these friendly little creatures as we made our way through a dozen paddocks with multiple marsupials. You would think the fun of meeting, feeding and petting furry animals would wear off pretty quickly, especially for teens raised in the Tik Tok generation — where attention spans are measured in seconds — but we did not find that to be the case. My teens put away their phones and greeted each new creature with the same wonder as the first.
One paddock even had three juvenile wallabies about the size of house cats. These bouncing fuzz-balls were one of the cutest things we had ever seen. But they were also skittish about people, so we kept our distance and watched as they were more interested in eating grass than the pellets we tried to tempt them with.
 Wallabies at EnkleDooVery Korna, photo courtesy of Chuck Black Photography |
Back at Gwen’s house, she had one last surprise for us. She bought out what looked like a wadded up old sweatshirt. With a sparkle in her eye, like she’d stolen the Queen’s jewels and the practiced flare of a seasoned performer, she peeled back the cloth to reveal a baby wallaby. The joey was about the size of a kitten, with long velvety ears and soft downy fur. It peaked its head out and looked at us without fear. We then passed the precious parcel around, and each of us got to experience the wonder of holding a baby wallaby still too young to leave the pouch. He looked at us with big eyes, instantly winning our hearts, and left me fearing that I would return from this trip with a new pet. Even the sullenest teen in my family put down their phone and smiled as they held the joey close and protected them like an infant.
 Wallabies at EnkleDooVery Korna, photo courtesy of Chuck Black Photography |
As we passed the joey around, Gwen entertained us with stories about her life and the wallaby sanctuary she built with her two hands. She is a master storyteller and peppers her tales with jokes like a master chief seasons a good meal. The only problem was we were not sure how much of the stories were true and how much was a set up for her humor. Either way, she was immensely entertaining and enjoyable. If she wasn’t the owner, operator and sole employee of EnkleDooVery Korna, she could make a good living taking her well-practiced routine on the road.
 Wallabies at EnkleDooVery Korna, photo courtesy of Chuck Black Photography |
Gwen may look tiny and frail from a distance, but she is filled with life and enthusiasm to last her another hundred years. We found her just as engaging and delightful as her tiny charges. I could spend the day there listening to her spin yarns while I sipped a cup of tea and held a joey in my lap, but that wasn’t to be. She had new arrivals to meet and introduce to her farm of two-legged furry friends, and we had other activities planned for our day as well. However, we did make a side trip to Waimate based on Gwen’s recommendation and her urging us to spend a little money to keep the town going.
 Wallabies at EnkleDooVery Korna, photo courtesy of Chuck Black Photography |
In Waimate, we found grain silos pained with the images of local heroes Gwen had told us about. We also found quaint shops, cafes, and fruit stands selling real fruit ice cream. Real fruit ice cream is common in New Zealand, where businesses have a machine that combines fresh or frozen fruit of your choice with hard vanilla ice cream to make one of the most refreshing treats I have enjoyed. So we had ice cream all around and left with a bag of fresh fruit and vegetables to enjoy later. Gwen was right, the town was charming and likely kept alive in some part by the little wallaby lady that asked her guest to visit and spend a little money.
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