Another week already

My favorite part of this past week was definitely the trip to Mt. Maunganui, despite not being able to go to White Island yet. Not only great for pictures, but the rocky intertidal habitat was also a great place to collect a lot of samples for our coastal biology class. I enjoyed climbing out on the rocks and just watching the waves come crashing in, it was very relaxing, but interesting as well to see the different types of waves and the patterns at which they came in. I do, however, wish that it had not been so foggy, because I would have liked to hike to the top of the mountain.
Our stay at the Marae was not at all what I was expecting. First of all, I thought the family we were staying with was going to be a lot bigger. Also, after our tour with Will at Waitangi, I didn’t think they would allow us to take pictures or even wear shoes into the meeting house, I thought they were going to be very strict. Other than that, the show was great, I was very impressed with their singing and drumming abilities. Despite the fact that we can’t clap on beat to save our lives, I think the family actually enjoyed our rendition of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”. The Hangi meal was absolutely incredible. Their process for cooking the food gave it such an interesting flavor, and I’ve never had pumpkin cooked that way before, it was great! The twenty-nine-person sleepover, complete with ghost stories, was a lot of fun too.
Raglan beach was also different than I thought, but was a great day trip. Since the beach we were at was a protected bay, I was able to find a large variety of snail shells that were well intact because there were no large waves to break them up. Geologically, the beach was also interesting because it is a black sand beach, and we discovered that it is magnetic as well. Very cool!
Our free weekend is coming up, I look forward to playing even more Ultimate Frisbee, and now that we have done Black Water Rafting and Zorbing (so much fun), hopefully I will be taking a bungy jump off the Auckland Harbor Bridge.