Rainbow Falls

We woke up this morning and surprise surprise our van was dead... so Erika had to call the rental company and we ended up having someone come out to look at the poor battery. While we waited I went and walked along the 90 miles of beach. Funny, four different buses came and drove up to the beach and let everyone out to take photos before continuing along to the end of the stretch. The beach on the west side is a lot more wild with strong surges and huge waves but it was still cool to walk along. We finally were able to leave around 11 and we headed to visit Kerikeri where Natalie is from. 

While the van was in the shop (because the consensus from the guy was that we needed a new battery) we had a picnic lunch, stopped by an old store called the stone store (because it's made of stones)- one of the oldest stores in the country. It was cool to walk around but that was about it. After our picnic we went and visited a Maori Pa (paw) where they built a replica of what a Maori village looked like. It was pretty cool but the houses and such look smaller than I imagined them. Last but not least we visited a really cool place called Rainbow falls that was about a 10 minute walk into the forest but the falls looked amazing! 

Finally, after stopping by a friend of Natalie's and singing I Am a Child of God and then saying good bye to Natalie we were finally on our way home. We were exhausted and ready to be home. The shower felt wonderful after the backpackers. Sara left to go hang out with Elise so I just hung out and enjoyed peace, quiet, and alone time while watching Hitch. It was a fun trip but I'm glad to be back at Julie's house. It's weird to think that there is only a week left of New Zealand! Time to make the most of it! :) 

90 mile beach! 

More of 90 mile beach! 

The stone store

Part of the Maori Pa

Rainbow Falls

More of the Rainbow Falls

Where Two Oceans Collide

We woke up, grabbed some breakfast and hit the road. The sunset was SO beautiful! Today was a day in the car. We met up with a woman named Natalie who lived in Auckland for our first month of the program and she became friends with Erika and some of the girls in the program. She knew the area that we were heading up to so she tagged along. Today was the drive up to to Cape Reinga- one of the northern most points in NZ. It's where you can see the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean come together. It was a long drive up a beach called 90 mile beach. You have two options either drive on the beach or drive up on a main road. The rental cars place doesn't allow the rental cars to drive on the beach because of the prospect of getting stuck in the sand so we took the road. 

One perk of the trip was that we had a Disney sing along in our van. Erika stopped for gas and the guy at the pump came out to help her get started. We were right in the middle of singing "I Just Can't Wait To Be King" when... the van died. The guy at the pump was chuckling at our Disney enthusiasm and then he heard the van die. He was so kind and flagged down another car to come jump us. These guys were huge and practically picked up the van full of us girls to move it away from the gas pump and closer to the other car to jump the van. After the van restarted the pump guy said maybe we had a little too much Lion King haha. 

It was a bit cramped in the car since we drove with 11 in a 10 seater van but we made it up to the tip top! There is a lighthouse marking the coastline. The water was a beautiful greenish blue and it was so cool to just look out and see nothing but water water water. It was gorgeous! The coolest part was that the Maori believe that this is a sacred part of the island where the souls of the dead cross over to the next life. We had about a five minute walk out to the lighthouse and throughout the walk there were signs talking about the Maori culture. It was so cool! 

On the drive home we stopped by some giant sand dunes where we went sand sledding! Natalie brought some boogie boards for us to slide down the dunes. We hiked up some giant dunes and slide down- super fast, super sandy, and very fun! The hike straight up was killer but the ride made up for it. 

Our last adventure of the day was stopping at a gorgeous beach for a nice well deserved dip. The water was absolutely clear- I could walk in up to my chest and still see down to my toes. The water felt great!! The waves were awesome and simply perfect! All of us splashed and swam around just cooling off after a warm, humid day. There were some gorgeous shells along the beach as well. We were just enjoying a beautiful sunset when I noticed a dark shape in the water... it was a stingray!! Just feet from where we were swimming... yes I freaked out and jumped out of the water. Funny enough everyone else followed my lead. Well, it was about time to go anyway. 

On the way back to our hostel for the night we stopped by pack and save to pick up some food. It closed at 8pm instead of the usual 10pm and we got there with 20 minutes until close. Unlike the states pack and save has no rules about shoes or well clothes so the majority of us were running around trying to get some essentials for food in just our swimsuits, towels, and bare feet (no worries I had shoes on). Lesson learned- never wear a wet bathing suit when shopping at a grocery store. It was like walking into an open refrigerator- it was absolutely freezing!! We quickly grabbed what we needed and ran to check out only to find out that the van had died again today... so Erika ran to give us money while trying to figure out a way to jump the van yet again.  In the end we settled on a bunch of tim tams and milo and then we stopped by the infamous KFC for 24 pieces of chicken, four containers of potatoes, and four containers of cole slaw. We ate so much food while watching the Count of Monte Cristo- I know a great movie to watch in a hostel with a bunch of tim tams. All in all it was an awesome, busy, exhausting day. 

The sun rise! 

More sun rise! 

Even more sun rise! 

Cape Reinga! 

Me :) 

Where the oceans come together! 

The cool sign by the lighthouse. 

Me with the oceans coming together! 

Beautiful Coastline! 

Lighthouse! 

Me on top of the giant sand dune! 

View from the top of the giant sand dune. The tiny dots at the bottom middle are the rest of the group watching from down below. 

More of the sand dune! 

American Dinner and Easter!

Happy Easter! The Easter Bunny came to visit us all the way in New Zealand and left us a trail of chocolate eggs :). I guess it was more of a chocolate egg hunt. Chocolate for breakfast- yum! Church was at 10am and we had to ride the passenger ferry to get there. I've never taken a ferry to church before. Our professor and his wife opted to come with us to sacrament meeting because recently their church closed down since there wasn't enough people going to sustain the church so now they are "shopping for a church" as we say in the South. 

It was a really small branch of maybe 30-40 people but they were all very welcoming and kind to us. They even used one of us to play the piano (not me this time). It was a good Easter service but to be completely honest we stayed in the same room for all three hours (our professor and his wife left after sacrament meeting) so things got kind of long towards the end. 

The rest of the day was pretty lazy except for the fact that we told our professor that we would cook an American dinner for his family. I some how got roped in to being in charge of it all... so what did we have? Chicken fried pork chops (which turned out very nicely thanks to Brittany), biscuits, funeral potatoes, and salad. It took a few hours to prepare and cook everything for 14 people but it turned out to be a pretty good meal. Our professor and his family said that they enjoyed it very much. After dinner we went for a nice walk on the beach and found a dead sea horse, some crabs, and some pretty cool shells. 

That night we put on a brief Easter fireside for our professor and his family. Some how I was put in charge of that as well. So I asked a few of the girls to share their testimony about Ester and then we sang How Great Thou Art. It ended with some hot apple crisp and vanilla/hokey pokey ice cream. It was a really nice way to spend our Easter holiday. 

As for sleeping arrangements we all slept in what would normally be a garage but that was converted into a room. There were couches, cushions, and whatever else we could use to sleep on... it was an adventure cramming all 9 of us together but by this point in our study abroad it didn't really matter to us. All in all it was a great day! 

A painted image of Christ outside the church. 

Our signature LDS plaque :) 

Our Easter Dinner 

More of our dinner

More of the Bay of Islands 

Treaty of Waitangi

Today was SO cool! We went to the signing grounds of the Treaty of Waitangi- their national document. We had a guided tour that took us around to various historical sites and explained who, what, when, and why behind the treaty. It was super interesting to learn about. So basically, the British (Captain Cook among others) "discovered" NZ so in order to maintain peace with the local Maori people they wrote up a treaty, well two actually- one in English and one in Maori so that they could work together and avoid war. Funny though the English version said that the Maori were sovereign to the British rule whereas the Maori version said that the British and the Maori were equals- British were under the British rule and the Maori under the Maori rule. Obviously this has caused huge political headaches for the past 170 years (it was signed Feb 6th, 1840) but welcome to politics.  

Another interesting fact that I learned is that chief Te Ruki Kawiti was the first man to invent trench warfare. He was very upset and angry with the British over the treaty and resorted to teaching his tribe how to fight the British using trench warfare tactics. They defeated the British in 4 out of the 5 battles that he had with them. Super interesting. We wandered around the historical sites for a bit and then we went and watched a Maori cultural show. They welcomed us in the traditional Maori way and then showed us a variety of dances with songs that were common to the Maori culture. My favorite part was where they spoke of their ancestors and their Heavenly Father. Their ancestors (they believe) came from Hawaii and before that the mainland and they respect that long journey that their ancestors took to cross the great waters. Hagoth anyone? :) 

After our show we then took the ferry over to Russell to our next place we were staying. This time it was with our science professor who taught us during those first few weeks that we were taking classes. He and his wife were so kind to welcome us into their home that is literally right across the road from the beach. It was perfect! We dropped off our stuff and spent the rest of the day enjoying the beach. I went exploring around the rocks and found some beautiful tide pools with fighting hermit crabs, sea urchins (called kina here), star fish and snails. 

The day ended with a delicious meal provided by our professor and his wife. i had the opportunity to talk to his wife's mother who is also living with them and I learned all about what England was like during WW2. The mother had moved to NZ to protect her children and provide a more stable environment for them to grow up in. It was so interesting to hear a personal account of the war and why she came to New Zealand. 

While living here I've realized that there are two very different worlds in New Zealand. There is the European world (Pakeha) and the Islander world. Both have distinct features and customs. It's almost similar to the states and the hispanics. There are still a lot of prejudice and cultural misunderstanding that occurs... very interesting to experience both sides of the spectrum. 

This is the longest/biggest war canoe (waka) around NZ. It was hand crafted and is over 35 meters long. It's name: Ngā Toki Matawhaorua of Pewhairangi (not something you say every day) is in honor of the first ancestor who built a boat and sailed to NZ. The face on the front is in tribute of him. This canoe can hold up to 80 paddlers and 50 others on reserve. Women are not allowed to board war canoes (unless they are royalty) because they are held in sacred honor in the Maori culture and the Maori do not want the sins of the parents to affect the upcoming generation.  

Some of the original art decorating the side of the canoe- the eyes are made from Paua shells. 

NZ is the only country in the world with two registered flags. This is one of them. It was created to open trade routes before NZ officially became New Zealand. Because the crown declared it a flag only the crown can take it away and so here it still stands. The four squares represent the four directions of the wind and the stars represent navigation. 

Starfish! 

Views from our professor's house. 

This flag post represents where the treaty was signed. Up top is the NZ flag, the far right is the British flag, and the left is the other NZ flag. 

Hitting the road

Erika rented a van and started picking us up for our last trip exploring NZ around 9:30. In NZ they have a five day weekend over Easter- Friday through Tuesday. Because of that long holiday people leave to go visit family etc so the roads were absolutely horrible. We were in stand still traffic for over an hour just trying to get through a tunnel... because of the delay we had to rearrange our plans for the day. So we ended up just driving up to the Bay of Islands- Paihia to be exact and spending the night in our hostel. We mostly just walked around the cute little tourist town and did a little shopping and walking along the beach.  It was a bit stormy looking but the weather held out for us to enjoy the town and surrounding area for the evening. 

To be completely honest, the start off today was hard. Some of the girls didn't get internships and some did, making it a very awkward car topic. Plus everyone was still really tired from teaching. Then add the frustration of traffic and well, it was a bit of a mess... I was just glad to get out of the van and walk around the town. Tomorrow we'll be back on track with plans so hopefully it will be better. 

Last day of praticum :(

What a day! It's so hard to believe that five weeks are over. Today was the last day. The normally five minute walk to the school took an unusually long time today because of the many platters of food (one tray of veggies, three pumpkin pies, a cake, and some cookies) that we had to bring for our shared lunches and morning tea. As soon as I walked into the class I was mobbed by my kids. They gave me chocolate bunnies and eggs and regular chocolate, flax flowers that they helped to make, flowers for my hair, and lots of little cards that they made just for me. All of this before the bell even rang.

Then it was time for roll and my last time of saying good morning to the students. Here it is tradition to call roll by saying good morning to each student and they say good morning back. Since I've been taking over the roll I've been using Spanish phrases that mean good morning. They all sat up so straight this morning and really worked to impress me with their accents.

The rest of the day was a blur. We had sport and then since it is good Friday tomorrow and there's no school we baked today. We made something I'll probably never make again just because it was way too sweet. It's called coconut ice and it's made with powdered sugar, coconut, jello, and sweetened condensed milk. As Mrs. Rihari was deciding the groups she originally put me with a group of girls but then a few of the boys acted pretty disappointed so she put them with me instead. While baking the boys tried to ask me every question they could possibly think of about America. :)

After cooking was morning tea. And since it was our last day we decided to "put on" morning tea meaning we brought some things for the whole staff as a thank you from us. Most of the staff had never tried pumpkin pie before and by the end of morning tea I had to start and email list so I could send out the recipe. Mr. Coromanski came and in front of the staff he personally congratulated us and thanked us for our positive contribution to the school. Then each of our teachers individually stood up and in front of everyone talked about how great we were and that they wished us all the best as we continued on to become teachers of our own classrooms.

The best part of the day happened during our "shared lunch" as they call it here. The coconut ice had to sit in the fridge for a little while to harden so before lunch we pulled it out to sample our handy work and it was one crazy sugar rush. I also cut the pies I made for class and gave each student an opportunity to taste pumpkin pie.  Some loved it and a few didn't but it was a cool experience to introduce them to something so commonplace for me.

At lunch I just had to check my email because today was also internship announcements. It was the whole should I check it or should I leave it until later but I had to know so I checked my email. There it was sitting in my inbox- the email letting me know that I got an internship!!! Seriously the best feeling in the world. All of that hard work and planning paid off. I don't know the grade level yet but I'm just excited by the fact that I'm really going to be a teacher starting in August!

The last part of the day ended with me announcing to my NZ class that I will be a real teacher starting in August. They were all super excited and we have already made a skype date so that my two classes can meet each other. It was then that the class also presented me with a few gifts- a Pomaria hat, letters from each student, and a green stone necklace that each of them touched. It was SO cool and special!

The end of the day was the hardest. Mrs. Rihari left a few minutes early to go help with road patrol so I got to end the day with my class. We played one last Spanish game and then the bell rang. I told them how much I loved them and will miss them and yes I started getting teary eyed... one of the boys asked me if I was crying and I of course I denied it. :) They gave me so many hugs as they headed out of the door. Ug... they were such a great class!! Why does NZ have to be SO far away from the states?!

The rest of the day was pretty chill. I said bye to Mr. Rihari- of course we're going to keep in contact and bye to a few other people before heading home. When I got home I opened up the letters from my class and to my surprise they were mostly in Spanish! My students had looked up a bunch of Spanish words and wrote me letters! It was SO cool :).

Our spread for morning tea

American Pumpkin Pie! Made from scratch :) 

My fabulous mentor and myself :)