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)!
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