Australearn to Waikato

8-2-10
Last night in Picton town
We made the coolest fort last night. There was mattresses, pillows, and pillow cases everywhere. We used ropes to keep some of the stuff up and had a ton of people sitting on the inside. We had small torches and told ghost stories and lots of jokes. Ask someone a little Johnny joke someone has to know about them. I guess it is an American thing. I went to the sea plane operations down by the ferry hoping to catch the guy that runs the place and swap stories. He flew in Alaska, Fiji and around here and Canada. Maybe he knows Vern? He wasn't there when I got there so I went to watch the super bowl around 12pm at an Irish bar. Super bowl Mondays... go saints!!
At half time I went to find the sea plane guy again and met up with Shantel who came with me. She is one of the girls working at Atlantis Backpackers. I got to exchange some stories, but atlas he didn't know Vern.
I played some Bocce ball and made dinner with Shantel beans and rice and some nice spice. I also made some sweet cookies!! It was Andrew's last night in Picton town and everyone was sad to see him go. He ended up playing the guitar and singing songs about all the things he loves. It was a great way to end my time in Picton town.

9-2-10
To Wellington via Ferry
So the ferry left pretty early 8am and we had to be there an hour early... I stayed up late I was tired. We got to Wellington and I was under the impression we would be hitching, but atlas we got a bus... It got us to Taupo with some daylight to spare to find ourselves a hostel. Stayed at Birkenhoff, pretty good, I like BBH they all have their own little charm. We wanted to keep it a relaxing night and didn't want to do to much so we watched O Brother Where art Thou and headed for bed.

10-2-10
Taupo adventure
Pretty sure we are not hitching at all, but maybe I will get to do it sometime during school with someone else I trust. We wanted to meet Dean, Gavin's (a leader from the first australearn trip) friend. Didn't know what to expect, but he said he would be coming back today. So we got some breckie, hot pies and the like, wandered around Taupo. Eventually around 4 we met up with Dean.
Now we didn't really know what to do around Taupo and our time was pretty much spent walking streets and trying to get a tennis ball (didn't work just in case you were wondering) so we were hoping for something fun to happen. Right off the bat Dean was a great guy. He took us to our hostel to grab our stuff and asked us if we wanted to go on a mission. Now a mission, I have come to learn, means that you are going on a semi difficult adventure that may require a lot of effort. To the mission
We were going gorging around where Dean works as a rafting guide. He asked us if we are keen (want to) do some waterfall jumps and I was immediately excited. Couldn't tell you exactly how tall these were, but one was at least 12-15meters high. We even jumped from behind a waterfall and were not crushed by the streaming water. We had wetsuits and I was wearing my only pair of closed toe shoes. We were following the creek down to a dam that has been built. The rocks were slippery, but for the most part you could see through the clear water. The water was cold, but the wetsuits did their job. Dean was a really cool guy to be doing this with and we got heaps of stories and just had a great time. Climbing down ropes to check the water before we jump and taking a long look at how far the drop is. Lets just say this was amazing!
Dean took us to burger fuel and then we went to find a natural hot springs. definitely around 42 Celsius. Before we got there we tried to help NZ with their possum problem. :)

11-2-10
Auckland
Wish I could have spent more time in Taupo, but our naked bus was departing early and we were booked on it. We got to Auckland a really long time afterward. Cory (friend from Furman) had arrived early for the Australearn cultural program. We hung out with him until Will (family friend who kindly took us in) picked us up. Will kindly allowed us into his house for three nights. And it was so nice to have a bed and a safe place to leave all my stuff. Cory came over for dinner and stayed the night too. We had amazing stir fry. We watched cricket and learned the rules... really boring worse then baseball (no offense).

12-2-10
So my confusion of when my cultural program will start was finally addressed today. I had two emails both telling to show up at 9am on the 12th and the 13th? I don't know what day I was really supposed to come to and the emergency number I called for australearn didn't pick up...
Lets just say I arrived the wrong day. But I didn't really want to start it yet so that was alright. I would like to continue traveling around the south island, I was really enjoying that very much. Andrew and I stayed for the sausage feast then went back to do some laundry. Quick bus ride is all it took to get back to where we were staying. It was great to see people from Furman though. I hung out with Chris, Cory and Matthew we all went to Davenport for their free afternoon. Andrew came too. Davenport is a cute little down a ferry ride away. They had these old caves from a war back in the day. Pretty dark, sorta abandoned halls and stuff. They also had cannons and machine guns. Fun to explore the caves. And had a great view of Auckland city, seeing the large buildings and the small houses on the hills. Reminded me of looking at SFO from angle island.
Will picked us up after work and toured us around a bit. I can't tell you how much I appreciate Will's kindness. We played kick around with the rugby ball, made me wish I was still playing but made me realize how long it has been since I have played. It was nice and relaxing to kick around and play around with the Frisbee. We watched the sun set and made some dinner and had another easy night.
ok ran out of time you will get other updates when I make it to school... maybe tomorrow... hope you guys are watching the Olympics go USA
Jamee

13-2-10
Surfing in Piha

So this is when the cultural program for australearn starts, I have done the lecture the first day that I was in NZ not so long ago so I decided I would get a better cultural experience by going to the beach with Will and his girlfriend Jo. We packed up the boards and loaded the car and off we went. Didn’t take us too long, but we were warned that the surf was no good today, the sky pretty much looks like it is going to fall. Piha beach is one of the most dangerous beaches on NZ or maybe it is just the north island. Lots of people get swept away by the current because it has such massive rip tide. That wasn’t going to stop us! Breath easy we were being safe we went in-between the flags (where the life guards watch you) and we only played in the white water. Me and Jo sat on towels on the black sand beach and watched Andrew get coached on the ways of surfing. He had some good tries and he got up. He plans to buy a surf board when he gets to Australia in New Castle for his semester abroad. He came back and it was my turn to go out and be coached by Will.

Will walked out with me and helped me turn the board around. I had the strap attached to my ankle so when I bit it the board wouldn’t go to far away. I waited for Will to tell me to hop on and he gave me a nice push and I waited until I felt the wave under my board and jumped up. I was up! Then the wave died and I fell off without the pressure of the wave pushing me forward. That was fun. For the rest of the time though I was pretty much falling off left to right, will be working on my balance next time I go out. I got pretty tired fighting the waves to get out far enough to wait for a wave and headed in and we waited for Will to come back.

Jo, Andrew and I went to Bunnings (a wearhouse of you can do everything yourself) got some sausages and looked for screws and washers. We also hit up the grocery store to prepare for the barbie we were going to that night. Turned out to be some great food and great company in a very pretty part of Auckland. Oh did I mention I drove there ☺

14-2-10
Rotorua

Ok so I have avoided joining a group long enough time to meet up with the australearn group and head to Rotorua. Ok I have done this drive a couple of times now so I pretty much knew we were driving to pee in the dog and stop occasionally for other things, like we had done when I was with the first group. It was different this time, I didn’t feel connected to anyone on the bus, apart from Alicia whom I had known from the leadership group. I shared stories with her and showed her pictures, but other than that I made slight conversation with the guy next to me. I was happy to learn he is from San Diego, loving the California connections. I soon learned that there was another guy from the trip that is from the North Bay. Pretty excited, but still don’t feel that immediate connection that I had with the leadership group. There are two groups on our week D program. Kids that are going to Auckland Uni and kids going to Waikato. They separated these kids by their Uni on the busses so that the Waikato kids would meet each other.

A long time later we got to Rotorua, with great history and story telling by our crazy cool bus driver Stu *Know I butchered his name, sorry. We were staying at the same place, Kiwi Paka, which I was excited about. We went straight into an orientation after we got our room placements. I was pretty stoked to get a room by myself, I’m starting to enjoy getting a little space to myself once and a while. After the orientation about some of the differences of academic requirements and a run down on the culture as a whole we went to learn the Haka.

Now I know the Haka from before, but I was excited to do it again to test my knowledge. My first inclination was still to put out my tongue, but I resisted. It was different learning the Haka with these strangers. I felt a connection with them just because we are going to go to school together, but I didn’t know them like I knew the other group. It just felt like an intermediate time between when school started.

When we got out it was time to dinner and I was taken out to a very nice Valentines dinner by Matthew followed up with a nice walk to the lake before we headed back to meet up with Cory and Chris and play cards. I missed cards, and I missed the easiness with which comes from those that know you. I was relaxed didn’t feel like I needed to learn anything from them and they not from me it was great to just sit back and play cards. If you are interested we played hearts. Anyways to bed I went and woke early to enjoy my free day in Rotorua.

15-2-10
Rafting and Spa

Australearn has everything mapped of when we do what and today happens to be a day that we have free. You did have an option to sign up for some activity before you came to NZ, but some neglected to do that. I signed up for white water rafting. We had about a 45 min ride down a part of the river that had some nice drops. One was around at least 10meters. My highlight of the rafting trip was that the water was warm, I pulled in a guide, did a back dive off the front of the raft and rode on the top of someone’s kayak down a rapid. We also steered our raft straight into the bottom of a rapid and felt the fury of the water crushing down upon us.
After this fun adventure we were dropped off at the Polynesian spa to enjoy the rest of our day in relaxation. There were many hot pools all on different levels of each other, all with very easy access. Each of the pools were a different temperature from 42 down to around 35 I believe. Now an easy way to figure out what that is in something better understood by American’s is to double it and add 30. One of the pools overlooked a larger body of water off of some rocks. It has been raining all morning so there is a lot of mist hanging over the mountains in the back, which we saw when the sky stopped coming down. The rain felt really nice when you juxtaposed it with the hot water we were sitting in.
We got lunch in town at an amazing Kebab place, called kebab dinner if you are ever in Rotorua you got to go there. It is just off the main street with the rest of the food. But the kebab was very good. We had a paid dinner for our group tonight, steak and potatoes.
After dinner Chris, Matthew and Cory showed up they had just done what our group will do tomorrow. I walked with them to the old Polynesian spa before going to bed.

16-2-10
Community day and Tamanaki village

We went to an all boys high school in Rotorua and helped assess two classes of 13 year olds reading level. Most of the 13 year olds have the reading level of a 6-7 year old. And what the school does is get the most critical kids into a program that has a high success rate of bringing up the reading level a couple of years within the year they have at school. Very beneficial for the boys there. The teachers feel very passionately about this and seem really eager to help. These boys were timid and nervous for strangers to be talking to them, but we tried to calm them down to get a more accurate reading. I was very nervous for my first victim and didn’t know how it would all play out. When have to get them to read us a story and while they are doing that we are following along with them making certain marks to indicate that they skipped a word, added a word, had to come back to the sentence. We also asked them questions at the end to see how much they retained from the reading. They are allowed to look back at the story and have as much time as they want.
I feel for these kids, because if you haven’t noticed I struggle with this kind of stuff as well (meaning my grammar). I was the kid on the other side of that for so many years. I remember being tested and how difficult it was for me to read a passage and tell you what happened. Normally I would blank or get so nervous I wouldn’t be able to get everything out right in a cohesive way. I would start at age 9, with these boys, and if they read and answered the questions with ease I would get a harder passage, but if they struggled I would go down a year to find where they read comfortably. I really do remember struggling with this and having no courage in my reading ability and I didn’t even want to try and write a story because I knew I would muck it up with ease.
The high school formed a connection from my leadership program I did. The teachers were talking of how these were all very brilliant boys they just haven’t been challenged enough or haven’t had the attention they needed to get them back up to speed. All through OPC and the leadership program they were talking of pushing yourself outside your comfort zone, but making sure you had enough support to not fall into the panic zone.
We braked for lunch and some of the boys on our trip started up a game of touch rugby with the high school boys. I joined too… It was fun, bare feet and wet from the morning rain we ran and had a great time. I have definitely decided to play rugby at Waikato. It is happening even if I have the great possibility of destroying some limb. Highlight from that touch game, scored a tri. Yeah only girl playing too, the boys don’t know what was coming to them. I was lucky it was a great game, the other team, the one with mostly high school boys were kicking our butts.
We went to a hungi at the Tamanaki village. A hungi is a very large feast prepared by the Mauri people in a outside pit cooked pretty much all day to perfection. Before this amazing dinner our leader (previously chosen from the group, the leader must be male) had to be faced and accept a peace offering. The warriors come up to you yelling and jabbing sticks around and sticking out their tongue in very traditional manner, pretty intimidating if you didn’t have other people with you. Then we were lead into the village to see how a traditional village was run, where they slept, how they stored their food, what games they would play and then we were lead into their performance hall. In there we heard songs, witnessed dances, and saw a haka. When dinner time came around it was amazing. It was a feast. We had lamb with mint sauce, chicken stuffing, fish, chicken, salad, bread, so many potatoes… and the desert was great. A chocolate cake in cream and sauce, a traditional soft meringue with whip cream. Lets just sum it up with food coma.

17-2-10
Waitomo- Caving
The other australearn is going to the airport to go to their respective universities. So those that know me pretty well went to Wellington to start their process. I was in a bit of a strange mood, must have been because I realized that I have been doing so much and it is all about to stop very soon. Yeah school?
We took a two hour bus ride to Waitomo and went caving in the Haggas Honking Hole. They stuck us in really heavy and restricting wet suits, stuck white gum boots on our feet and a sturdy orange helmet on our head, plus a harness that we stuck on. We learned how to abseil (or repel whatever you want to call it) to prepare us to abseil down two or three waterfalls. Main thing to remember is if you let go your dead and if you want to stop yourself from falling bring the rope in your right hand to behind your back. The first thing we did when we got into the cave was hook up our rack and coast down a long hole. It was very dark in the cave all we had was our head lamps. We are in a limestone cavern complete with stalactites and stalagmites. The further we went in the smaller the area got. We were looping our way around a circuit that they have rigged up, walking for a ways then hooking up to feel the awesome power of a waterfall. One of the drops we racked up to we were told to crouch in the fetal position and turn off our light. The guide was belaying us from the top and he let us go down in a smooth quick fashion. We all piled in the very small space pushing up against each other until the other guide came down and led us on our merry way. We climbed through some very small, like on your stomach crawling through holes and some others where you just have to crouch. It was a pretty wicked trip.
We also learned about the glowworms that were glowing above our heads. We learned the non tourist version. They are actually maggots that attached mouths and other insects, which are trying to find their way out the dark cave seeing the light from the glowworms as the light of day. Gives a whole new meaning to not go towards the light right? They catch their wandering insects with a silky thread that hangs from under them and when an insect is caught it is eaten. The maggot cannot do its business so instead when an insect is consumed its business is burned giving the glowing light. When the maggots grow from their larvae stage they turn into flying insects which don’t have mouths so cannot feed and only have three days to live. What do you think they do…. Obviously form deep and meaningful relationships of course, well the male stays faithful to one women, but women lets just say they get around. The women then bears 150 eggs. She groups them in 20 because the first to hatch eats all the rest of the eggs starting its glowing process. Some of the flying insects believe that they are leaving the cave and are eaten by their brother family member or cousin. It is the circle of life.
We are given a sweet pizza lunch and take the bus back. Some of us chill in the hot springs attached to Kiwi Paka and enjoy the last night of our staying in this hostel. It was fun and I had some great conversations. Met a girl from Anchorage and we talked shop she knows everyone that I know in AK, given isn’t a lot of people, but still small world. Also talked to the bus driver who is also working on his pilots license, he has his roto license already.

18-2-10
To Hamiltron

Hamilton the city of the future –Hamiltron, it became a joke on the radio, because Hamilton as a city hasn’t gone anywhere and people don’t expect it to either. Didn’t but take us an hour and a forty five to get here. I am living in Student village, it is close to the rec center and has good food served at the village’s cafeteria. Each dorm has its own cafeteria and the social areas to meet, that have tvs and couches (aka the hang out spots) are separate from the dorm itself. My room is longer then it is wide. It has one bed, a long desk, a couple of drawers and a closet, two chairs and a trash bin. Apparently someone comes by to collect your trash everyday and vacuums your floor twice a week. No refrigerator or decorated walls, but this will be home for the next 5 months. I have a window that overlooks the construction of a parking log, but I can also see another dorm called Bryant hall. I am now unpacked and settled in, even getting internet.
Internet is so expensive that you have to pay for it everywhere… I miss free wifi. The kids that were on the australearn bit are now dispersed around campus and we see each other when we eat our meals. The RAs have been really nice, showing me around (along with everyone else) answering my never ending questions and even giving me the grand tour of the campus wide. It is pretty big, but very walk able. The buildings are all white and made of bricks (sorry probably concrete made to look like bricks). I really do miss the southern finesse of Carolina. This place does not have water fountains everywhere, but it does have an ecoli lake and a pretty bridge that goes across it. The library is under construction as well, there is a very large field (go sports!) and many academic buildings which are also white. The buildings have a strange uninviting vibe to them, but I’m assuming that the people make up for that. The school is a bit dead seeing as school wont start until March 1st. Orientation is Feb 23rd.
So this is no Furman, but I am still very impressed. Oh apparently you can tell who all the sociology majors are because they walk backwards, going against the norms….
Pictures are on their way

Jamee