i left off on the cook islands in the last one i think. we went there as a whole program group in the first week of october. we first landed in rarotonga, where their international airport is but then we got onto another tiny stunt plane-like plane and flew over to mangaia, one of the smaller islands in the southern part of the archipelago. mangaia is almost completely non-commercialized and we saw maybe one or two tourists there the whole time. there are three villages around the island and each of us stayed with our own cook island maori homestay families. it was really a culture shock for a lot of us because you couldn't drink the water, there was no hot water, we ate the native island food everyday, no doors on bathroom stalls, and everything was open air -- bugs, reptiles, animals outside and inside all the buildings. half of the kids in my group actually got food poisoning on the trip, about 10 people, but i wasn't one of them. i really loved the experience. during the day, we took tours of the island by driving around in the beds of pickup trucks and learned a lot about their customs and traditional crafts like husking coconuts and making a really strong rope from the husks. the island itself was beautiful. the coast was surrounded by this ring of coral reef and on land, the jungle started right after a thin strip of beach, which was all made of crushed, tiny coral pieces...no white sand beaches here. inland there were taro and bamboo fields surrounded by relatively short mountains covered in jungle and cliffs. we spent most of our time at the mangaia school with all of the kids from the island. all ages from elementary to high school were all in one complex and i think hanging out with and learning from them was the best part of the trip. they taught us how to weave palm leaves into everything. literally everything...baskets, skirts, leis, waist leis, glasses, rings, bracelets, shooter weapons, fans, and more random stuff. it really is pretty amazing how resourceful they are with what they have. i learned how to play the ukulele too. we also learned how to dance like pacific islanders, hula-like for the girls and a haka for the guys. the haka is a maori chant/series of gestures the men do to intimidate and show their power. on our last night, we had a performance for the entire island (it's very small) at the school where the kids did their native dances and fire twirling in their native costume and then we did our dances and sang in their native costume, sarongs for the guys and sarongs/coconut bras for the girls and all of us covered in palm leaves skirts, flower leis and head leis, and sea shell necklaces. it was fantastic. by the way, i have never seen so many different kinds of flowers that smelled so good. this was definitely not a vacation but more like a cultural learning experience and each of us had different feelings towards it, good and bad.
after the cook islands trip, things slowed down a bit travelling-wise because all of us started our internships full time and full time means less time. we did get to take a few more smaller roadtrips though. i'll just list the highlights of the last 8 weeks and talk about them briefly:
-railway campus- just hanging around the dorm and hanging out with my friends from my program as well as a bunch i made from other programs from all over has been really great. they're all people i plan on staying in touch with and possibly visiting when i get back to america and are just all really fun, great people. i'll miss them a lot.
-waiheke island- an island about a 45 min ferry ride away from auckland; we only spent a day there but it's famous for its wineries and vineyards so we did some wine tasting, relaxed on the beach for a bit, and walked around the island. we also hitchhiked and rode around on the back of a truck and ate dinner at a returned services association with a bunch of war veterans. don't worry, there were about 10 of us, guys and girls, and the hitchhiking culture in new zealand is completely opposite of that in the states. it's done all the time here and people pick people up all the time too.
-halloween tapas night at the railway campus- everyone who lived in my dorm dressed up in costume and we had a big tapas night in the communal kitchen. the americans made a lot of traditional fall/halloween themed dishes and the europeans, south americans, africans, and asians made their own versions of halloween dishes and asked lots of questions. it was a good time.
-ecology field trip: snorkling at goat island- goat island is known here as the 2nd best place to go snorkling in the country. it's about an hour and a half north of auckland and it's a little island in a little bay really close to shore. so we snorkled in the area between shore and the island and saw stingrays and some colorful snapper.
-party at piha- piha is new zealands most famous and dangerous surfing beach. it's on the west coast and so it's a black sand beach. there's the long beach and then the town of piha which is on the side of a mountain since the whole area is surrounded by the waitakere mountain range. we had a party on the beach, at the very northern tip of it on a sand plateau with the tasman sea about a hundred feet away. we saw the sunset over the sea and then just had a good time with around 70 people from the railway campus playing guitar, singing, and just hanging around the bonfire. awesome.
-hobbiton- we drove to the town of matamata about 2 hours south of auckland where the scenes from the shire were filmed for lord of the rings. hobbiton was filmed on a set created on a private farm surrounded by rolling green hills. we had to take a 20 minute shuttle over to the area because peter jackson made sure that the spot was secluded so no one would see it before the movies came out. the set itself has been dismantled almost completely except for the panels that made the walls outside the hobbit holes, some fences, and stairs. but the place itself still seemed magical because the the land itself was still there and there would be no hobbiton without the party tree, party field, trees, and tiered hillside. the tour was really well run and really enhanced what was left of the set. and i got to dance on the party field :-).
-thanksgiving- fortunately, almost everyone in my program knows their way around the kitchen and so we had a pretty great thanksgiving over here. everyone contributed one or two dishes of traditional thankgiving goodies and so what resulted was a long table full of delicious food - turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, garlic broccoli/cauliflauer, creamed corn, mashed sweet potato, fresh cranberry sauce, fruit salad, stuffing, gravy, cornbread, biscuits, pecan pie, peach cobbler, apple crisp, pumpkin pie, garlic bread, cheesecake, icecream, and so much more i can't remember. but yeah, we took care of ourselves over here and ate all the leftovers the next
day.
-ecology field trip to the waitakeres- our class went for a tramp in the waitakere ranges. it actually turned out to be a pretty tough hike for about 3 hours but it was like going through a jungle because of the thick forest and running streams. every so often we'd get to a break in the trees where we could see the ranges from high up and seeing the plush green mountains surrounded by mist and fog was really pretty.
-auckland zoo- the zoo here has a pretty big collection of different animals and the zoo itself is beautifully kept with gardens and displays, all very colorful. also, i finally got to see a kiwi bird after 3.5 months. that made it worth it in itself.
-horseback riding along pakiri beach- pakiri is a town about 2 hours north of auckland. maggie and i drove up there for a day and went on a guided horseback ride along the shores of the pacific, the surrounding sand dunes, and hilly forest for about 3 hours. we were even allowed to ride in the surf and the weather was sunny and warm. our guide even let us canter through the dunes and my horse actually started galloping at one point. i also drove for the first time finally on the way home. right side of the car, left side of the road is actually not hard and really kind of fun. i got used to it pretty quickly.
-coromandel peninsula- this past weekend, 12 of us went over to the coromandel peninsula for our last weekend in the north island, about 2 1/2 hours southeast of auckland. it's on the east coast of the country and is a peninsula on the north east side, known for its white sand and tropical atmostphere. i drove on the way and got to drive on narrow winding mountain roads most of the way. we used this trip to just relax on the beach all day on saturday and then on sunday, we went to hot water beach. it's a thermal spot on a normal looking beach and what you do is bring a shovel and dig a hole. if you dig in the right place, the hole fills up with steaming hot water and it's like a home made hot pool on the beach with the ocean waves crashing right next to you. it's pretty cool but it gets crowded during the summer months. from there, we went to cathedral cove, the most photographed beach in new zealand. it's a 45 minute hike there from the parking lot and when you get there, you immediately know why it's the most photographed. it's surrounded by limestone cliffs, the water is clear green/blue, white sand, there's a cave-like tunnel separating two sides of the beach, and waterfalls falling from the jungle covered cliffs. it's probably one of my favorite spots i've seen since i got here and it was a great way to end a great trip.
anyway, i fly out of here tomorrow (wednesday) and i'll be in sydney, australia for a week seeing the sights and visiting my friend emily, then on to fiji for five days to relax on the beach. hopefully the military coup going on there doesn't affect my flights and my stay over there. after that, i fly back to the states and land in boston on the morning of december 19!....if everything goes smoothly.
i've been so busy that i haven't really had a chance to sit back and think but it's really starting to set in that i'm leaving and this trip is over and that i have to say goodbye to people, the city, and the country really soon. i've already had to say bye to the friends i made from other programs, who all left back in mid november. we'll see how i handle that tomorrow. anyway i've got lots of errands and packing to get done sooo i'll end it here.
i hope all is well back at home, hope you all had a great
thanksgiving, and i'll see everyone really soon.
