Tēnā Koe (Hello)

Tēnā Koe (Hello)
Went on our first field exercise yesterday, and hiked through the Hunua Falls Mountain Range. It was about a 40 minute drive from Kaiaua (the closest town to Whakatiwai). Once we arrived we took a quick glance at the falls. They were beautiful, despite the locals wading in the water, drink in hand, with either the tiniest underwear or no underwear on. Let’s just say we got a bit of a show.
Anyway, we then started hiking up the Hunua Range. Everything was a bit muddy, since in New Zealand it rains like every 10 minutes for about 3 minutes. It only rained for a little bit during the day, and the bush (a.k.a. the woods) is dense so you barely even knew it was raining. There are so many tree ferns covering the forest. Everything looks like Jurassic park! I’m beyond surprised that I didn’t see any dinosaurs-as silly as that sounds.
After our lovely hike, we were all a bit sore and a bit tired. As a treat, our field leaders booked us a reservation at the Miranda Hot Springs. It was the largest geothermal pool in the southern hemisphere. It was basically a glorified pool/hot tub, but it felt wonderful. We stayed for a while, and eventually it was even too hot.
Today we got to sleep in a bit, and headed to the Tapapakanga beach around 10:00 a.m. Unfortunately because it is just early spring, it was a bit chilly and windy. Once we got there we wondered around a bit in the tide pools. I even saw a sea star!
After walking around for a bit, we did this exercise to explore ourselves. We were asked what has influenced us in the past that made us who were are, what our core beliefs and values are, how we express our beliefs, and where we hope to be in the future. It was nice to sit and think about being here. Everything is so quickly paced that you never really get to sit and think, wow I’m actually living in New Zealand, and how incredible that is. I still can’t really believe it.
Later in the day we were split into groups of 5 and had to make a sculpture representing sustainability. My group made a sculpture of a hermit crab, “Bernard”, because hermit crabs use their shells for a period of time, leave there shells, and then a new hermit crab inhabits the shell. The entire process is circular-i.e. sustainable.
When we arrived back at camp a few of us decided to don highlighter yellow helmets and orange high visibility vest and go for a little bike ride. We biked into the town to get some delicious ice cream. I had a Memphis Meltdown Big Nuts. Basically vanilla ice cream with peanuts, caramel, and chocolate. Delicious. The best part? The warning on the back:
Warning: this is just an ice cream product, not to be used to direct air traffic, or to increase fertility
Amazing! Now we are all sitting in the Wharakai (house of food) waiting for some delicious pizza to be done.
Tuesday we are visiting a Maori!!!!!!