dom m - week 2, time flys by when having fun

This week was jammed packed with fun and adventure. I can’t believe how the time is just flying by. Last Tuesday, we had an unstructured day, so I took the opportunity to go to Raglan with a bunch of other people. We left at 10:15am and were on the beach by 11:30am. Geographically, I found Raglan very interesting because part of it was on the open ocean while other areas were on protected waters in a bay. When I got out of the bus, I expected to see this great wide beach with huge waves, partly because the only time I heard of Raglan was in the same sentence as, “a famous surfing spot.” Instead we were dropped off in the part of Raglan that was inland. We were told only certain parts of the beaches were safe for swimming. We walked across a strip of land and then came to a nice spot. We were disappointed that it wasn’t one of the beaches facing the ocean. We were told if we wanted to get to the ocean, it would be a 3-4 mile walk from where we were. Wanting to just relax in the sun, we decided the calm lake like waters of the bay would be just fine. I personally enjoy the lake like calm water because I feel it’s more relaxing to swim in.
We set up our belongings on the dark black sand and walked up and down the beach for what seemed to be a good 45 minutes, picking up and looking at different sea shells. We all found interesting shells and Matt and I even saw a little sand crab burrow in the sand underneath the water. It was very nice and peaceful to finally have the opportunity to lie in the hot sun for a couple of hours. However my favorite part was when I felt the ripples the water made when I waded in a couple of feet. They were so prominent and very noticeable on the bottom of my feet. The water was cold but felt very refreshing once you got in.
Matt also lifted up his camera bag at one point and noticed that the sand had stuck to the portion of his bag that had magnets in it. The sand seemed to be strongly magnetic and also being very fine grained and dark black, it made me think the grains were mostly magnetite.
Our Marae stay was also a highlight for me this week. Although I must say it wasn’t what I expected it to be. I imagined the Marae to be in a more secluded area and I didn’t expect the Maori to be using their cars at the Marae. Maybe too many history classes have clouded my mind, but when I think of an indigenous tribal culture, I don’t think of a tribe that lives away from the tribal area and commutes by car to and from another home. On the road into the Marae, I noticed a nice gulf coarse to the left. John, one of the tribal leaders, also mentioned that the Queen of England had a house near by. Sure enough I looked to where he was pointing in it was overlooking the Marae and Lake Rotorua. There also seemed to be other houses owned by other people next to the Marae, something I didn’t expect to see.
The highlight of the night for me was dinner time. You can’t beat eating massive amounts of pork, beef, and chicken with stuffing and potatoes. I also found it interesting the way that they prepared the food. We saw this pit that they dug and they would put very hot coals in it to cook the food. The food would be in a mound above the coals and would cook for many hours. However they said that they could make food for up to 500 people using just this one pit, but the pit seemed too small to make that amount of food. I guess they really pile the food on top. All of us slept in the meeting house, which was basically one big room. We told ghost stories and just talked for most of the night. It made it more fun not having a TV or radio. It was good to pass the time by just talking to one another.