quick update...

Sorry guys I have been slacking a bit. It seems like forever since i have been home. The two weeks have gone by slowly (in a very good way). The Australearn program is over now, but I met some amazing people that I hope I never forget. I have had a blast. Ok for the update....
We had another lecture about authentic leadership and how you are a leader in everything you do not just when you are up front. We drove to Rotorua and on our way we passed through Hamilton where I will be at school for the next bit of time. I became very excited when we made it through hamilton, my school was pointed out to me and it looks like a beautiful place. Some rolling hills, trees everywhere large pastures with sheep and cows... I'm going to get a bike.
We stayed at a place called Kiwi Paka and played some games even got into ultimate Frisbee. We also soaked in the hot springs pool they have and created a whirl pool with some of the others in there.
The next day we went lugging! So much fun. Basically you have a plastic cart with handle bars. You take this thing down a paved hill really fast. You can break with the handle bars but if you let them go forward you will fly off. No I did not fly off, but I did race some of the people in the group. We also went Zorbing. Zorbing is a sport that was invented to get across the hot beaches that you couldn't stand on. You are in a giant hamster wheel (can be filled with water) and you go spinning down the hill. If you make it all the way down without falling you get a free ride... it's really hard to balance especially with water. Oh and if you have a group you can lay flat on the ground and have a zorb roll over you! Really fun. We also learned the Haka today as well as went to the Tamaki Maori village to learn more about the culture. I'll explain the haka later, but the All Blacks (Rugby team of NZ) chant it before their games.
We left early the next day and drove through the country side stopping at waterfalls and mud pools. I went bungy jumping with a lot of other people from the group as well. I'm not going to lie I got a little freaked out at first. When the straps are around your ankles they are tight and when you stand up at the edge the rope pulls you forward. The jump is so worth it though. Took the wind right out of me, but such a great adrenalin rush. Loved every minute of it. We made it to Taupo today at a place called OPC (Outdoor pursuit center). We were debriefed and found things to entertain ourselves for the night. We played charades... it was fun. We also played some touch rugby before the sun went down (goes down around 8:30 we got a lot of light).
We met our OPC guides the next day. Our group had Keith Robinson for our leader, our group name is "Sweet as (Gavin Merdoc later changed to Keith Robinson)" We gathered things we needed to hike and stay warm in. We were repeatedly warned not to have Cotton, I understood after the first day. It was sunny out in the morning, but showers came off and on. My long johns proved very useful for this trip. And the rain jacket I got for Christmas. Our group navigated with compass and map to a cl earning. We found our way to a ropes course of logs surrounded by water and our group had to make it from one platform to the next with three planks and two blind people... lets say it was a good working together experience. We then navigated our way to a river, which we walked all the way up to a waterfall. The water was cold and came all the way up to our waist at times, but after the first minute you didn't mind the water anymore. The rocks were tricky because they were a bit slippery. We made it back to OPC a little bit before dinner. Our entire group played some games with another guide called buddy up and buddy down as well as a game called the orange game. I think they were trying to keep us out of trouble. The games were fun.
The next day was caving. We walked through a cave, similar to one I did with FUOC (Furman University Outdoors Club). It was really cool. I didn't have a light (no batteries), but I took the challenge to follow a couple other people in the group. We had this guy named Steve in our group who was claustrophobic, but he did amazing. We went through some small openings including the panini maker, and the diamond cutter. We also took a challenge of making it out of the cave with only one light between the eight of us. We were successful despite the darkness. When we got out we got suited up for wetsuits and kayaks. Our four groups came together and we were competing against each other to create a raft and take it around an island and through a canal and under a bridge to a landing. We had one canoe a kayak, ten ores, and 4 inner tubes. "Sweet as" were very lucky and we had Tylor in our group. And he helped us build a super awesome raft. We set the kayak next to the canoe and finished in no time flat. We sang songs and passed through a giant area of mating dragon flies. When we dismantled the boats we jumped off the bridge we had passed around the time when the other team was winding around the corner. Lets say it was a great day, but I was so tired. We stay up late because we want to take advantage of everything, but we get up at 6:30 to do chores and make sandwiches for lunch. Long days.
Alright we lucked out this day. The sun was out, but the clouds helped keep us kinda cool as we climbed Mt. Ngauruhoe. This mountain is very large and was up in the clouds the other day because it was raining all day. Today is sunny and we planed on taking all day to climb this beast we even asked the cook to save us food, because we didn't know if we would make it back in time for dinner. If you don't know Lord of the Rings was filmed in New Zealand and Ngauruhoe happens to be Mt. Doom from those films. And yes we role played and yes I was gollum, oh and I was leader for the day and I got to throw a ring into the middle of the crater! Made my day. The footing is sleet and not fun to climb, but really fun to ski down. One of the girls, Julie had an asthma attack half way up, but she impressed me by finishing the mountain and making it down. It was very impressive. It was an amazing view from the top though. just beautiful. By this day I was really tired and welcomed sleep with open arms
Last day at OPC we did a challenge called shawshank redemption. They tailored this challenge from the movie. We had to "escape prison" by getting our entire team over the wall and then we had to help our team over cords that were set up to be "laser beams" and last but not least we had to shimmy our way through a "sewer" trail which was actually a drain pipe, but very small nontheless. We dried off for a while then did what the kiwi's call a flying fox we call a zip line. We ended the day with some high ropes climbing the giant's ladder and climbing a wall to a giant swing. My skills from learning the Furman ropes course came in handy I got to help set up some of them. We then collected our camping stuff and made our way to our camp site. We were a little late so we car camped, drove to our site and unpacked. We were near a river so were able to make a fire. A couple of us slept under the stars. The stars here are so bright, especially with no lights from the city. I have never seen Orion's belt so brightly displayed. We had some great talks around the fire, perfect ending to an amazing stay. Oh before we set up camp we jumped in the water (the really cold one I was telling you about before that we hiked through to get to the waterfall) One of the boys almost wimped out, held that over his head for a while.
We had to clean up OPC before we left in the morning, many of us do not want to leave OPC. The nature mixed with adventure and great company will be greatly missed. Things kinda felt like they fell apart when we got to Wellington a couple hours later. We were left to ourselves for dinner so we didn't really get connected with anyone and everyone seemed to congregate to the bars for their first night back. We had a free day the next day.
The free day i went to the library with a small group then to the zoo to see a kiwi and a really cool lizard I can't remember the name of Taurangi? It lives for over 100 years. There were also kangaroos and giraffes, baboons and such. Kevin and Tylor and I made a pasta dinner and later got a bigger group to go bowling and to an Irish pub. My bowling is less than impressive.
We gathered the next day for an early breakfast and went to a school to do a service project. We helped build a path through this hill. Hard work, but we didn't want to stop until we were done, sadly we didn't complete the bridge, but we did get a lot of the rubbish cleared and made the land more level. We also had a tour of Parliament, which was interesting but just made me believe I don't know that much about my own goverment. Think I'll take an intro course on it next year. Tylor, Kate and I walked to St. Paul's cathedral and watched the old me ringing the bells. They told us we could learn on Tuesdays but didn't seem interested when we told them we wouldn't be staying very long. We got some pizza for dinner and wandered around some Irish bars later that night. Irish music is fun to dance too.
We had a lecture by Ms. Deborah Gilbertson who explained how we chose our future. Um not sure how to describe this lecture, but it was pretty crazy. She seemed a little too into what she was doing. I ran out of time will finish this another day.

Promise to get pictures later.

Jamee