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!