Week 2- oh snap

Week 2 has arrived, and it was another successful week. It started off with an amazing geocaching trip that led the senior squad (myself, eileen and guestche) crossing a four lane highway, fording a creek, climbing a "hill" (more like a mini mountain) and getting lost in a cemetary! It was quite the adventure, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
This weekend was absolute fun. We went as a group to a Maori marae and stayed with them. All 29 students and two professors had to sleep in the same room in the biggest sleepover I have ever attended. The Maori family gave us an insight to their traditions and cultures. As a group, we had to elect a cheif to our tribe. Chris was our cheif and he had to lead us into the Maori meetinghouse as a group, ladies first, and then present us to the young warrior. We had to sing a song of welcome, and as a group, we sang "Ain't no mountain high enough", and I think that the Maori family did really enjoy it. The family did traditional song and dance for us, and performed a Haka. It was absolutely awesome! The Maori marae stay gave a complete opposite view on Maori people as compared to the movie we watched last week titled "once were warriors." After their performance, we had an amazing meal. They explained to us how they cooked the meal. It is cooked in a Hangi. They dig a hole into the ground and use hot rocks to cook the meal. It takes over 6 hours to cook. It was delicious.
After that, it was on to Rotorua for some fun and exciting adventure. ZORBING!! Zorbing was a blast. Jon, Eileen and I went in the zorb together and laughed the whole way down. Limbs were flying everywhere, eyes were shut and lots of laughing was going on inside the ball. We completed our Rotorua adventure with a trip to the Agrodome to watch a sheep get sheared!
Our stay at Whakatani was amazing. It was relaxing to get to stay in a nice hotel. Although our trip to White Island was postponed due to harsh weather, we got to see Mt. Managanui. At the foot of the mountain, we got to explore some amazing habitats. On the shoreline, there was shell hash. It showed how active the water and waves were. We got to see many different types of shells including scallops and mussels. Washed up on shore was kelp. It was really cool to finally be able to walk around and explore a rocky intertidal habitat. Having previously learned about Rocky Intertidal habitats in Marine Biology class in the fall, I was very excited to see it with my own two eyes. The combination of both classroom learning and field studying helped me to really understand the biology and zonation patterns in the rocky intertidal.

I can't sit here any longer-- I have things to explore
-kls