A Sunkissed Christmas

Been spending the last few days in Blenheim with Penny Fletcher and her family. Met Penny on the 23rd in Christchurch and drove up to Blenheim (the top of the South Island). Absolutely beautiful country side. I took lots of photos that I have put up on facebook. The first day I was here we went for a walk up in the hills.


The next day we drove around looking at the sights. We went to the Marlborough Sounds to get some icecream and take a lot of pictures. One of the places we went was an old Pa sight for Maori. Really beautiful day. Really. Really. Really windy.

Later that night I actually went to church with Penny and her grandmother. It was the midnight mass (or service really since it was Anglican and not Catholic). I had a nice time. I just wanted to do something that was Christmas-y because being about 80 degrees, it doesn't much feel like Christmas. Sang a lot of carols, most of which I didn't know or had new words (kiwi words). Strange.

The next day was Christmas. We woke up and went for a walk again through the hills. It was lovely weather, and nice to get some exercise because we would be eating our hearts out later in the day. Friends of Penny's sister were over as well. Caspar and his father Claus are from Denmark but Caspar works with Penny's sister in London. Lovely people. Dinner was delicious, and very filling. We then sat around for about 4 hours just talking about politics and traveling. A few glasses of wine later and all talked out, Penny and I went for a nice walk around the river. It felt so good to get up and walk around. Returned home and ate tea (real dinner) later in the evening. Also delicious. I am so stuffed you would think that it was Thanksgiving.

Leaving Blenheim tomorrow. Going for another walk through the hills for some final exercise, then off to meet Sam in Picton at the foreshore. We are taking the ferry across the Cook Straight to Wellington.

Home in 3-4 days with the time difference. Getting really excited. Happy Christmas to those in the states. Love you!

WWOOFing

Been a busy traveler lately. December 10^th through the 12^th I was hanging out in Auckland, getting ready to start traveling on my own. December 10^th Paul, Sarah, Anna, Valerie, Drew and I walked around Auckland. Visited the museum and the Auckland Domain, then on the 11^th we said goodbye to Sarah and we went to Mt. Eden and to Christmas in the Park at the Auckland Domain that evening. It was fun, though a little weird because it was a Christmas celebration and I was in a tank top and shorts. On the 12^th Paul and I said goodbye to Anna and Valerie at the bus, and said goodbye to Drew who was meeting up with his parents. Then Paul and I wandered around Auckland and ended up hanging out at Café Tusca (the same one I first went to in Auckland) for a few hours.

We said our goodbyes and I headed off to the Britomart station to meet up with Mark and Andrew from camp. We went to the Kelly Tarlton Aquarium. It was fun, but certainly not worth the $33 to get in. Ouch! Then we walked down to Mission Bay, with a quick stop at the Michael Joseph memorial. Hung out at the beach at Mission Bay while eating gelato. Yum! Then it was time to say goodbye to Andrew. Mark asked me back to his house to meet his entire family (all of his sisters and brothers). It was really nice to be in a large group of people again. I was really missing the EcoQuest noise. Ate some pizza and caught up with Chris (from camp) and his girlfriend who were also traveling around New Zealand. Then Marc and his sister Lara drove me around town to see some of the sights. The first place we went was back to Mt. Eden to see the “edge of the world.” We laid upside-down on a large platform with our feet wrapped around the iron fencing while leaning our heads off the edge. The city looked beautiful at night. Then they drove me to the Telecom Christmas tree. It was amazing!

Then we walked up and down Franklin Street looking at the decorated houses.

The next morning around 4:00 a.m. I woke up to catch my flight to Christchurch. The flight was bumpy and there was a little drama about my bags being too heavy, but I arrived safely later that morning. Then I wandered around Christchurch for about 5 hours before I had to catch my bus to Dunsandel. I took pictures of the city and some of the earthquake damage.

I sat in a few cafes and pretty much just wandered around Christchurch until about 1:00 when I went to the bus station. The bus ride was very short and it dropped me off right in front of the Dunsandel Store where Honey Andersen, my WWOOF (willing workers on organic farms) host, works. She is a lovely woman, so generous and a great cook too.

We headed to her house (a short walk from the store) where I met Mara, another WWOOFer from New York City who would be WWOOFing with me. The next day we started work. Honey has obtained a pile of bricks from someone’s chimney that fell over in the earthquake and she wants to build a pizza oven with them. So Mara and I spent a few days cleaning the bricks and power-washing them. There were so many but they are all finished now. Some other things we did were plants things in the garden such as corn, cucumbers, basil, lettuce, and spinach. We would take care of the chickens (or chooks as everyone here calls them). Pick strawberries and raspberries for dessert and general maintenance such as watering and weeding.

They days I have spent here have been really nice. Sure it’s been some tough work, but it’s been pretty mindless which has given me the opportunity to just relax and think about life. I’m so glad that I decided to WWOOF and even happier at having WWOOFed at Honey’s lovely place. Just going to leave you with a picture of Honey’s dog. His name is Tama which means boy in Maori.

Now I'm back off to Christchurch tomorrow for two days. Meeting up with Sara, Holliday, and Sam. Then meeting Penny (from camp) on the 23rd for Christmas in Blenheim. Then to Picton to meet Sam and catch the ferry on the 26th. Wellington for the 26th and 27th then flying back to Auckland on the 28th and out to LAX later that afternoon, then to North Carolina, and finally New Hampshire. It will be so nice to be home. 8 more days!

End of the Semester

I can't believe it's already December, and the 8th to be exact. Today started the dreadful packing (which actually needs to finish tonight...actually restart and finish tonight...we'll see what happens). We are returning all of our gear, and papers, and saying our goodbyes. It's hard to believe that I have been here for 99 days! Where have the 3 months gone? They have gone into my memory forever. I will never forget the amazing days I spent here at EcoQuest, and traveling with EcoQuest. These people became my friends and then my family. I love you all.

Friday we leave this amazing place, and the traveling begins.

December 10-12 Auckland
December 13 Fly to Christchurch
December 13-21 WWOOFing in Dunsandel
December 21-22 Christchurch
December 23-26 Blenheim with Penny for Christmas
December 26 Ferry from Picton to Wellington
December 26-27 Wellington
December 28 Fly from Wellington to Auckland, Auckland to LA, LA to North Carolina, North Carolina to New Hampshire...Finally!!!!

As much as I absolutely love it here, it will be nice to be home.

Blogging might take a back seat, but we'll see. I'll be sure to recap all that happens in the next 20 days.

Celebration

Saturday was our hand in date for the directed research projects that we have constantly been working on for the past 4+ weeks. We have been cooped up in Granny's in cold rooms, with a potential lost centipede...

Okay that needs it's own paragraph. A few weeks ago the education team, Me, Hope, Emily, Amanda, Kate, and Kim went on a night hike with Dr. Pete to catch some invertebrates for our directed research project. One of the invertebrates that we caught was a centipede. Not just your average centipede either. It was about 10 cm long. And as we were catching it, Dr. Pete enlightened us to the fact that if you get bitten you could end up in the hospital. In fact, you can count on it. Great. So one day we go to feed it, and Dr. Pete tells us that we need to put mess on the top along with the lid because it can squeeze through the air holes. We do this, mind you, and the next day we go to feed it, there are 6 live bugs (it's food) and no centipede. So it may or may not be wandering around Granny's.

...resuming to the dungeon of Granny's. All the time we were working on our projects it was nice and sunny outside. Figures. But it's over. We have all successfully turned in our directed research projects!

For the rest of Saturday we drove around to support Maree Limpus. She is one of our field leaders here and is such an inspiring woman. She is a runner, and to raise money for Canteen (teens with cancer) she decided to run 100km! For those of you still state side, that's 62 miles! She left Saturday morning at 4:00 a.m.. A few of us decided to wake up with her and see her off. Some people even ran the first 40 minutes with her. She is just incredible. So later in the day, Kim, Kirsten, Kelsey, Ria, Lanette, and I drove out to see her. We gave her water and threw flowers for her. She had already run 70+km and still smiling.

We returned to EcoQuest and made her a poster, started dinner, then drove down to town to see her finish. She finished around 5:00 p.m. with all of us greeting her at the finish line.



Right after she finished it was the start of the Kaiaua Boat race. The kids in the town made boats out of all sorts of materials. Dale, Beck, and Paul built a raft with Keegan and Ash from the town. Ash is Joy's daughter and Keegan is one of the students we taught at the Kaiaua Primary School. There was some stiff competition from the local kids.



Throughout the race the competitors were allowed to throw projectiles to distract the other boats. Projectiles included rotten food, eggs, seaweed, and even some flour bombs and ice cream.



When the race finished. The boys smelt like rotten eggs. They ran around hugging all of us. Next they caught Dale, and threw him into the ocean. Drew was next, then Denny. Crazy few minutes.


After the boat race, there was a party at the Kaiaua Boat Club. We quickly headed back for dinner before the party. At the boat club, Sean Kelly, Maree's partner, and his friend played music. Some classics, and some Irish folk music. It was such a great evening. A few Isaac's hard cider, music, and lots of dancing. The dancing picked up throughout the evening. It was weird too because a few of the students from the school were there dancing with us. We even met some cute guys from the town, but figures it's on December 4th and we leave in 6 days. Figures.

"Be humble for you are made of earth. Be noble for you are made of stars" -Serbian Proverb

Last night was the last day of November and consequently also the last day of spring here in New Zealand. To celebrate the start of summer and the first of December, we slept outside under the stars. A bunch of people set up their tents and dragged out their mattresses to put inside their tents. However, a few of us decided just to sleep under the sky. We rolled out sleeping pads, grabbed out warm clothes, sleeping bags, and sipped home-made mochas (half hot chocolate half black coffee).

We chatted for awhile, reminiscing about the first few days we were here. We talked about Opoutere and the shell fish survey and how unbearably cold and wet those mornings were. Despite how miserable we were, we all remembered those days fondly.

All the while we were watching shooting stars. Then the real show began. Valerie went to get her computer. She wants to be an astronaut and has this planetary program on her computer. All night she told us stories about the constellations, and nebulae, and the shape of galaxies, and the ever expanding ever accelerating universe. It was a magical night. The shooting stars were beautiful.

Happy December!!!

A Kiwi Thanksgiving

This weekend we celebrated Thanksgiving here at EcoQuest. It was such a lovely day. The weather was beautiful, and we all wore sun dresses. Cooking started three days before, and continued early that morning around 7:00 a.m. until after 5:00 p.m.. We had three roasted chickens (so tender and moist), three roasts of lamb (fresh from down the road), glazed carrots, asparagus, traditional stuffing, my mom's famous corn bread stuffing (which turned out great!), sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, corn bread, home made rolls, mussels, cocktail shrimp, brie, crackers and cheese, cranberry, walnut, and apple salad, and mashed potatoes. I'm sure there was more, I just can't remember.






Dinner went beautifully. Before we started, we stood in a circle (all 48 of us) and Denny said a prayer written by Wi (the man who started the Tangikaroro Reserve where we did the vegetation survey) and Janet read a poem about giving thanks. Then a few people chimed in and said what they were thankful for. I cried. So did other people. It really hit me that I will be leaving here soon.

After dinner, it was time for dessert. Boy did we have a spread.

Three pavlova (amazing! I will be making these when I get home), four pumpkin pies, four chocolate hazelnut pies with hazelnuts from Dale's family's farm, chocolate pavlova, berry cake that Ria made, and an apple crisp. Everything tasted amazing! I even enjoyed my first slice of pumpkin pie.
It was a lovely day. Everyone got a little sunburned. When am I ever going to be able to say I got sunburned on Thanksgiving ever again? Honestly it felt like the fourth of July. A big barbeque with lots of friends and family. I'll be sad to leave this place, but this was a nice memory I'll always keep.

Tomorrow is December 1st! Home in 28 days.

Kaiaua Primary School Day 1

Today we went to the Kaiaua Primary School to teach the children about biodiversity and invertebrates. We boarded our bikes and headed out around 8:30. It felt like I was back in middle school, riding my bike to school.

Once we arrived things quickly started. It was strange, because when I was in school things seemed to take forever before we could even start the day. We had attendance, settling into our seats, morning announcements, and the pledge of allegiance. None of this happened today. Granted the school has three classes, and this class only has 20 students (though only 15 today).

We started the day off with an icebreaker game. You had to say your name, where you were from, what you want to be when you grow up, if you could be one animal what would it be, and what super-hero power you would want. It went well even though it was really long. Next we played two truths and a lie. The kids flew through the game. Normally it takes forever. Then it was on to real teaching.

Our first activity had the kids separating a group of cards into any grouping they wanted. Most of them grouped the cards by where they live. Next I taught them the difference between a vertebrate and an invertebrate (no back-bone). Then the students separated the cards into these two groups. Third we taught them about the six basic phylum of invertebrates (cnidarian, mollusca, echinoderms, annelids, porifera, and anthropods). It was really funny trying to get the kids to pronounce echinoderm and cnidarian. They were so cute
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Then it was lunch time, after which we took the kids outside for a walk around the campus. We were hunting down invertebrates. They loved it. We saw tons of monarch caterpillars and chrysalis all over the garden. We also found rolly-pollies (slate bugs), centipedes, slugs, spiders, and tons of ants. We lifted logs, dug in the dirt, turned the compost, and tramped through the garden.

Later in the day we did a camouflage game with the kids where they had to decorate/color a cut-out of a moth and hide it somewhere in the room. Can you find them?

One of the students' projects from the day before was to write haiku poems about the tragedy at the Pike River Mine down on the south island. They were beautifully written, and terribly sad.



When school ended, we biked down to the Kaiaua Store for some icecream. Yum!

Working on more directed research project stuff tomorrow, then thanksgiving is on Sunday!!! Weird, I know. Then back to the school on Monday. Two people from the Ministry for Education will be there too! I have to admit it's exciting but a little intimidating.

Working on DRPs

Been a busy few days here at EcoQuest. My group and I have been working about 10 hour days creating activities and creating worksheets. It's exhausting. Sadly this leaves little time for other things in my day. We have been watching movies and such after dinner to relieve some stress.



I did get a pet caterpillar! His name is Marvin and he will soon be a monarch butterfly. Currently he is pupating (he has made a chrysalis). Now we just need to wait for him to emerge. So excited. I always wanted to be a girl scout as a girl because my old friend Mackenzie got to spend the night at the science museum and she came home with a monarch butterfly caterpillar. Well now my days of envy are over. I have Marvin now. Here he is.

Watching "Flight of the Concords" currently. So funny. Not sure what we are doing tomorrow. Allergies are plaguing me at the moment. Let's hope this ends soon.

Need to buy another plane ticket tomorrow...which sucks.

A Few Days at EcoQuest

Been a slow few days here at EcoQuest...hard to believe I know. We started working on our directed research projects (DRPs) last week. All of us have been split up into groups, two groups counting bird populations, one group measuring frogs, one group counting and studying invertebrates, and one group looking at lizards, then there is us (Emily, Kim, Amanda, Kate, Hope, and Me) the education for sustainability group.

We are working with the Kaiaua Primary School to create a learning module for 10 weeks to teach them about invertebrates and biodiversity. Daunting task really, though it's a chance to get really creative about activities for the kids to do. We actually go to the school tomorrow to meet some of the kids. Should be fun.

Ever since we got back from Northland, we had been working on our introductions for our DRPs. I had to research the New Zealand curriculum and try to write about it. I feel like a teacher. There is so much information about the curriculum, and its all woven into each other. Hard to explain. Just trust me. Anyways we wrote our introductions (first drafts at least) and they came back with very few corrections to be made. Apparently we are on track, and maybe even a little ahead of the game. Sweet As!

On our day off (Sunday) we woke up late, ate breakfast, and then walked over to the marae for the tukutuku. Tukutuku are the woven panels between the carvings in the Wharenui. Each tukutuku is made from woven flax and has a multitude of colors. Unfortunately we missed the actual weaving process, but went anyway. We met a bunch of adorable children outside the Wharekai who captured our attention for quite some time. They were so gregarious. They were quick to memorize our names. After that they started singing us songs. Some of the girls even sang us the song "Billionaire" in Maori. That I have to admit was really cool. Then we met up with Hermoine who showed us the weavings, and we got to see the new carvings that were put up in the wharenui. Later in the day we sat down and talked with a traditional carver. He was interesting but talked a lot and filled (rather crammed) our heads with information. Interesting fact: New Zealand was named by Abel Tasman (who has a national park named after him...where I spent my 5 day break on the south island) who thought he was in Chile. Turns out, he wasn't. So they named it New Zeeland after Old Zeeland a peninsula off the coast of Denmark. Then James Cook spelled it wrong, naming this beautiful country New Zealand.

Came home and made friendship bracelets out of harakeke, a broad leaf grass endemic to New Zealand. Tough work, but they are pretty cool. A game of scrabble then commenced. I love scrabble, truly I do. That night we made stirfry for dinner. Yum!

Celebrated Hope's birthday with mamosas and Cinderella.

Monday we had to turn in our papers...ew. Then we spent the entire day sorting invertebrates. Frozen invertebrates. For like 6 hours. Didn't find much, but got to listen to some awesome music and talked about movies. Pretty sweet day. It was Hope's birthday so we made a delicious meal of homemade meatballs (my first time, and they came out amazing. Watch out mom you have competition) and spaghetti. We also made a rainbow cake. It came out a little thin, but still tasted delicious.

Today we went to the Auckland Museum! It was incredible. Part science museum, part natural history museum. We did not spend nearly enough time there. Oh well, I'll be in Auckland for a few days before leaving for Fiji so I'll just have to go back. Here are some pictures.

Northland

Last post from this past week. After our last snorkel dive in the Poor Knights we headed back to land for our time off.

We jumped in the vans (my group had the living saloon! a very plush van) and headed to Whangarei for dinner. Ate a delicious plate of nachos and then headed for the Kauri Forest. Unfortunately the other group's van started smoking and smelling really bad. We decided it would be better if we just stayed the night in Whangarei. Crawled into a nearby holiday park and stayed the night.

The next morning we split ways, as the other group waited for a tow truck. Our group headed out to Dargaville (the kumera (a.k.a. sweet potato) capital of New Zealand). Nothing was there basically, and we got lost after driving down a gravel road for what seemed like ages. At the end of the road we found a beach.


Drove back to Dargaville for some fish and chips and then headed in the right direction for the Kauri Forest. Kauri trees are the largest in New Zealand and are rare because they were used for ship's masts in the early 1800s. Some of the trees we saw in the forest were from 600 to 2000 years old. The oldest (the picture of me in front of the tree) is called Tane Mahuta. An old Maori legend says that Tane Mahuta was the son of mother earth and father sky and tried to split them apart.

After the Kauri Forest we started heading up to Ahipara. When we were about 45 km outside the town our gas tank read empty. We kept driving. Before boarding a little ferry we stopped at a gas station. It was closed. Boarded the ferry and decided to get gas at the next town. Gas station found and closed. Kept driving. At this point I started judging the houses that we were passing to see where the best place to stop would be. We figured that we would just ask the friendly townspeople if we could sleep in their backyard. Luckily we pulled into Ahipara (still on empty!). Stayed the night at another holiday park.

At this point we were starving and decided to walk downtown to get some food. Everything was closed. Figures. But it was Guy Fawkes Day so all the people in the town were setting off fireworks and playing with sparklers. I love fireworks!

Made it back to the holiday park and found out that the third group of EcoQuesters was staying there. What are the odds?

Next day we drove around looking for the gigantic sand dunes.



We climbed the dunes for what seemed like forever. They were incredible! Sadly the pictures just don't do it justice. They were so vast and so tall. Awesome. We had a fun time running down the dunes.

Then we started the long drive home. Ate some delicious falafel in Whangarei. Yum. The drive home was cool, especially through Auckland, because there were fireworks going off everywhere. Now I have to start researching for my two papers that are due Tuesday. Final exam on Tuesday too! Oh and work journals due Thursday, AND a paper due Friday. Probably wont blog for the next week. See you next week.