Blog

As the Hummingbird prepared for her long flight home she looked back on her journey and all that she had learned from all of her new animal friends. She was sad to go back home, but in order to survive the transition back to normal life and live happily ever after, she was going to have to make some changes! Usually in her downtime before the trip, the hummingbird would sit on her phone, working on her next hilarious tweet. But the hummingbird has no desire to do that a… Read more

Koto matou waka Ko te rangimarie Te hoi o runga Kopuna o te aroha Heoi ano ra I haere mai ai Ko te ara whanaunga Kei mamao rawa ei We sang this song for a local Maori preschool (kohunga) after being traditionally welcomed to their community yesterday. After a week of service at Mimiwhangata Coastal Park, it was beautiful to meet those who keep the native culture alive. They have so much to give, yet we would never have had that opportunity if we were traveling j… Read more

Hello lovelies! I hope you are getting excited, not long now until we finally get to meet each other and go on an incredible journey through New Zealand and the Yasawa islands of Fiji. I just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. I'm Kim, and I'm really looking forward to meeting you all. I am a smiley, spontaneous, bad-car-singing Australian who has never met a person I didn't like. I have been traveling the world and leading small group adventures for the la… Read more

"Are you excited?" I ask Suma, who's geared up in a wetsuit sitting next to me on our small motor boat. "I'm nervous" she says with a soft giggle that doesn't quite reach her nervous eyes. "I'm nervous about breathing," she confesses. "It'll be awesome," I say, reassuring myself just as much as her. "I'm sure we'll get the hang of it quickly." What I don't mention is how my stomach is doing flips, or how my heart race increases with every meter we draw closer to our de… Read more

As I walked out of the Te Papa National museum, I couldn't help but think that it's serendipitous moments like these that make me believe in fate and the deterministic tendencies of our universe. Or in other words, life can be really friggin awesome sometimes. Upon arriving at the Te Papa museum in Wellington, admittedly the stoke factor was low (to me museums do not really compare to sky diving and swimming with dolphins). After meeting our warm and welcoming local to… Read more

Welcome to Te Kakaho, the ‘hardcore’ island, population 5. 
Hardcore defined as: the most active, committed, or doctrinaire members of a group or movement. As we stepped off the boat that day onto the small and rugged island of Te Kakaho, hardcore is what we felt and over the course of 5 days in the wilderness, hardcore is what we became. “We did not choose the hardcore life, the hardcore life chose us.” The first thing I (Jacob, the male island representative) noticed… Read more

Kia Ora! Since our arrival in New Zealand on June 10th, our group has had the privilege to meet and interact with local people who have been so kind to welcome us into their communities and teach us about their culture and history. On Thursday, we visited a local school where we continued our volunteer work in a Northland community. We were greeted by Matua Jamie one of the teachers who lives in a house by the school with his wife and six kids. His children are the 5t… Read more

Heya team and a big kia ora from NZ! Vacava tiko? How y'all doing?? I'm sure you have all had some quality time with friends and family over the last few months and are now (like myself) chomping at the bit to get this NZ/Fiji trip started! I'm super excited to introduce myself to you all. My name is Andy and I was born and raised in a small rural area on the West Coast of the North Island in good old Aotearoa/NZ. Whenever I had a spare moment growing up, you would ha… Read more

The past week in Mimiwhangata was a perfect introduction to New Zealand. It was filled with excitement, hard work, and also some much needed relaxation. Our group spent the morning uprooting weeds, taking down old fences, fixing up houses, etc. After work (and sometimes before) we could explore the pristine beaches, rocky cliffs, and windy hills that make up Mimiwhangata. I personally found excitement in a few surprise kayak surfing sessions, but found that the most mem… Read more

It was a rough and early start to the day at 5:15am in Auckland. We began our journey to the Waitomo caves in the dark, and everyone but Josh slept for the first leg of the journey. Once we had arrived, we split into three groups and descended into the rocky Ruakura caves. Equipped with spelunking gear consisting of a harness, a jumpsuit, a helmet, and a lamp, we began a five hour journey into another dimension. We saw glow worms, heard an underground river, crawled thro… Read more