One week left

Hello everybody at home. This past week has been fun filled and exciting especially during our free weekend. During the week, we had several guest speakers including Terry Humes and Professor Conrad. These two speakers presented lectures on the different forces effecting the different coast lines of New Zealand and on deep ocean marine life. Of the two lectures, I enjoyed the lecture on deep ocean marine life. What I learned from this lecture is that there are deep ocean vents that are spewing out gasses at extremely high temperatures. One would think that the temperature, pressure, and lack of sunlight near these vents would make it impossible for any organism to form, but in reality there are several different plants and crabs that have adapted to these extreme temperatures. Also, these are the only organisms on the planet that do not use photosynthesis as their energy source.
After a few days of lecture, we were on our own. For our free weekend, myself and 10 other members of our group decided to rent a house on the island of Waiheke. During our stay at waiheke we went to the beach, went sea kayaking, bike riding, and just relaxed. We also tried to go sky diving two of the days but bad weather left us hanging. Of all of the experiences that we have from our free weekend, our neighbours are the ones that we all agree are the most memorable. We meet them within the first 2 hours of our arrival to the house. The guys decided to fire up the grill and but on some steaks we had bought from the local butcher. Soon we found out that we did not have any propaine so I went next door to ask for directions to the nearest gas station. Immediately we hit it off. Everyone introduced themselves and engage in a brief conversation. Later that night, unexpectedly they came over and gave us a ride to see a comet. The next day, we had appetizers, dinners, and desert with them. The hospitality of these kiwi’s just goes to show the culture of this nation. They did not think twice to give us a ride and invite a bunch of kids into their home.
Well we have one week left and I know this next week will be better than any of the other ones.