NZ update 2-- now with photos!

Hello Everyone!

Kia Ora and I hope you are all doing well and taking care of yourselves. I've just finished my second module and would love to update you all. When I last left off, I was sitting at a beautiful Quaker settlement in sunny and warm Wanganui. Here's what's happened since then:

After about a week in Wanganui, we took off for a trip with the Maori down the Wanganui river. This was a real treat-- we got to canoe down the aorta of Maori culture, so to speak, with their people and visit their tribes and Marae, or holy grounds.

Here is everyone in front of the second marae we stayed at.

It was absolutely fantastic. The scenery was gorgeous, and the canoes (or wakas) were fun. The tribesman who guided my waka was known as Baldy. He's the highest ordered person of his tribe, and was so much fun. He actually was one of Gandalf's horsemen in the Lord of the Rings 1-3! Anyway, he really pushed me to stretch outside my boundaries and I jumped off a 45 foot cliff into the water AND rode down rapids in my lifejacket! It was so much fun and I'm glad I went.
We then returned to Wanganui for a few days. After that, we took a day hike to Tongariro crossing. This is a huge volcano site that houses Mount Doom, also of Lord of the Rings fame. It was absolutely stunning and a fantastic day. Below, we are acting like Orks from LOTR on Tongariro.

We finished off our time at the settlement with a community dinner and then headed up the coast to Kapiti Island. Kapiti is a nature reserve that is closed off to only 50 visitors per day. Needless to say, with our group of 24, we were very lucky to get on it! We actually had the unique pleasure of staying overnight on the island (only 30 may due so) and we even took a late night hunt for Kiwi birds! My group spotted two of these rare birds that are also the New Zealand symbol. We also got to see the Takahe, a bird that there are only 226 left of in the world. Pretty cool!

A Kaka parrot also landed on my shoulder and tried to steal my granola bar... quite funny actually.

If you look closely, you can see the bite marks from the kaka's beak.

I'm trying not to ramble too much, but after that we took off for Wellington. We stayed in a wonderful hostel for that week in the nation's capital city. It was a fun city and we spent most of our time working on our midterm exams. After we turned those in on Valentine's day, we headed off for independent travel. Two girls and a guy from our program joined me and we took a night bus up to Auckland, the nation's international turnaround point. We stayed there for just under a week, and had an awesome time exploring the city and eating tons of sushi. The asian population there is phenomenal, and the food is awesome.



Since then, we traveled down to Christchurch to meet up with our host families. My host family is fantastic, they live in a suburb of chch and run a Bed and Breakfast here. I have my own suite, and it's absolutely gorgeous. I've spent time going for runs along the Avon river and strolling up the beach side in New Brighton. Last night I caught a rugby game at a local pub (Christchurch lost :( ) and then this morning my host family and I caught a surfing competition out on the sea. It's been so much fun here, and I can't wait for the next third of the program.

I hope all of you are doing well. It's sunny and warm every day here, and I feel so blessed to be here. Thank you all for your love and support!

I'll leave you with a list of things that New Zealand does not have that America does have:
1. Reeses Peanut Butter Cups
2. Raw cookie dough
3. Frosting in a can
4. Cool Whip
5. A1 sauce
6. Root Beer

And a list of things New Zealander's eat that we don't in America:
1. Beets
2. WeetBix cereal
3. Digestives (they're actually cookies! who knew?)
4. Fried Fish and Chips-- it comes wrapped up in newspaper for only 3$!
5. Marmite (odd activated yeast sandwich spread)
6. Beets. on EVERYTHING!

Love!

NZ update 1-- now with photos!

I hope you are all doing well over in the states and enjoyed the inaugeration as much as the New Zealanders did! I've been having a blast here and I just wanted to send an update on to those of you who I care for a lot.

New Zealand has been great! Kiwis (the name for native New Zealander's) are quite friendly and very fun. We arrived in Christchurch on January 6 and have been very busy since then. First off, let me say that it is mid-summer here and the weather is PERFECT! The climate is not too wet or dry because of it's island geography (close to all oceans) and the weather so far has been in the 70s with sun and a light breeze… perfect! The only thing is that the sun is VERY intense here, with nearly every day clocking in at 11/11 on the UV scale. You can get sunburned in under 10 minutes! Needless to say, we're slathering on the sunblock here.

Anyway, our group is composed of 19 students and 4 program leaders, all from Earlham. We come from different parts of the country and different fields of study, but we're all getting along very well. The leaders are all former Earlham grads, with one being a current biology professor at EC (shown below).
We stayed in Chch for a few days just getting an introduction to the city, the bird life, and the geology of NZ. We stayed in small dorms on the University of Canterbury campus and ate meals together. Soon after, we packed up all of our gear and headed south to Fjordland (land of the Southern Alps Mountain range) and hiked on the infamous Routeburn track for five days. It was pretty grueling at times. We covered 60km (45 miles?) in just over 4 days with 50-70lb backpacks on in the heat, no showers or clothes changing!

It was really intense, and the highlight for me was spending one day on the top of a mountain feeling very chilly, and the next day being down in the bog up to my knees in mud! It was a beautiful hike—we could see the glory of the Earth in many ways. NZs geology is so spectacular, we saw natural waterfalls, rock slides, plain grasslands, forests, sub-alpine areas, snowy areas, deserts, and many more types of environment all in one week.

After that, we showered and returned to Chch for two days to pack up completely and prepare to go to Wanganui. We've spent a LOT of time driving (on the wrong side of the road! That's how they do it here) in big 12-passenger vans all over NZ. Some people are carsick—so it's pretty brutal for them! We drove up the coast of the South Island and stopped in Picton for a stay in a backpacker's hostel. We then took the ferry across Cook Strait the next morning and reached the North Island of NZ. We drove to Wanganui, and that's where we are now.


I know it might not all quite make sense now, but hopefully it will soon! We've been getting our coursework and our cultural experiences in while still having a blast. So far in Wanganui, we've done a fair bit of work and had lectures. We're staying at a beautiful Quaker settlement for the next week or two. This picture is of one of the quaker settlers, named Nigel, on his birthday. He's one of the most friendly people we've met so far. Later next week, we're taking a river trip canoeing up the Wanganui river to travel through Maori iwi and undoubtedly see some haka.

So if that last sentence didn't make any sense to you, no worries! The Maori are the Polynesian decendents of the native indigenous people of New Zealand—think Native Americans in the US. While most have intermarried, some still live in settlements with their iwi, or tribe. Many of them live along the river and we will be staying in their marae, or worship buildings. NZ has many Maori influences—the signs are all in English and Maori, many towns are named in Maori, etc. In fact, Wanganui means 'land of the big wave'. Also, you pronounce Maori as follows: Mauw-ree.

Anyway, this email has gone on far too long. I'll leave you with a few fun Kiwi phrases:
Cheers!—thanks!
Sweet as!—Awesome
She'll be right, mate—it'll all work out

I miss all of you and hope this email wasn't too much. Take care and enjoy all of the Northern Hemisphere's haku (snow)!

woohoo!

welcome to the batman spaghettio blog! More updates soon!