First week in New Zealand
Kia Ora!
New Zealand is awesome. Here's the breakdown of what we're done so far...
The group met up on Friday and had a great time getting to know each other with a scavenger hunt throughout Auckland before heading north of the Bay of Islands. We started heading to the Bay of Islands on Saturday and stopped at a couple places along the way. One place we went was the Waitangi National Reserve which is where New Zealand's Founding Document was signed. We also got to see this sweet Maori dance, the haka, which was the male war dance, and the poi, which was a dance that the women did. Alex got chosen to be the chief of our group and had to rub noses with the main guy performing the dances. The whole performance was intense and emotional with a lot of yelling, slapping of arms, and the guys sticking their tongues out (apparently it's just way for guys to intimidate each other). It was a cool way to see some of the traditions of native New Zealanders, especially when, in appreciation, a guy from the audience stood up at the end and started dancing alone. It was impressive and left us all speechless. The next day we went to Urupukapuka Island to get set up for our conservation work. It was breathtakingly beautiful. We took a boat out to the island and got to see a lot of the other islands along the way. New Zealand is very hilly and very green. It tends to rain quite a bit but with sunshine too so rainbows are frequent. Once on the island we had to get used to living with no electricity and no hot water which was quite a feat for some of us. We had a lot of fun cooking over the stove we made out of cement blocks and had many laughs while playing Cranium. There was also the greatest climbing tree ever on the island which was definitely my favorite part. This place is really beautiful and the people are great. Everyone is friendly, and I love learning their new words. My favorite so far is chilly bin for cooler...what a logical name. We're back in Auckland now and heading off to caving tomorrow. I'm excited for the upcoming adventures!!!
Love,
Kate {and Nicole}
The group met up on Friday and had a great time getting to know each other with a scavenger hunt throughout Auckland before heading north of the Bay of Islands. We started heading to the Bay of Islands on Saturday and stopped at a couple places along the way. One place we went was the Waitangi National Reserve which is where New Zealand's Founding Document was signed. We also got to see this sweet Maori dance, the haka, which was the male war dance, and the poi, which was a dance that the women did. Alex got chosen to be the chief of our group and had to rub noses with the main guy performing the dances. The whole performance was intense and emotional with a lot of yelling, slapping of arms, and the guys sticking their tongues out (apparently it's just way for guys to intimidate each other). It was a cool way to see some of the traditions of native New Zealanders, especially when, in appreciation, a guy from the audience stood up at the end and started dancing alone. It was impressive and left us all speechless. The next day we went to Urupukapuka Island to get set up for our conservation work. It was breathtakingly beautiful. We took a boat out to the island and got to see a lot of the other islands along the way. New Zealand is very hilly and very green. It tends to rain quite a bit but with sunshine too so rainbows are frequent. Once on the island we had to get used to living with no electricity and no hot water which was quite a feat for some of us. We had a lot of fun cooking over the stove we made out of cement blocks and had many laughs while playing Cranium. There was also the greatest climbing tree ever on the island which was definitely my favorite part. This place is really beautiful and the people are great. Everyone is friendly, and I love learning their new words. My favorite so far is chilly bin for cooler...what a logical name. We're back in Auckland now and heading off to caving tomorrow. I'm excited for the upcoming adventures!!!
Love,
Kate {and Nicole}
posted by Pacific Discovery at
11:19 PM
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