Week Number 2

Hi all! So we are just finishing up the second week of our trip. Seems like we have been here for more than that! There is so much to do here, and for the most part our days are booked.

During the week we were able to settle into our Hamilton dorms at The University of Waikato (got my t-shirt today!) and got into the schedule of 9:00 class. The classes allow us to relate what we saw on our excursions to the scientific aspects of the land around. One night we had a class movie night where we saw “Once We Were Warriors.” It was a very disturbing movie on the Maori culture. When the movie ended all, there was complete silence. No one knew what to say or do because it showed a dark side of the culture which none of us had been introduced to before.

On what I believe to be day 7, a group of about 10 headed to Raglan for the day. Raglan is a beach about 45 or 50 minutes away. We walked into Hamilton and then took the bus to the beach. After we finally found the beach, I was amazed to see how black the sand was. I’m not talking gray, but full on black as night black. I grabbed a handful to put in a sample bag for later and went on to collect sea shells for about an hour or so…you should see the amount of shells I have in my dorm room. Somebody is getting necklaces as presents! Then onto a dip in the Tasman Sea and lying out on the beach. I have now been in the Pacific, Atlantic and Tasman, which is very exciting. After a lying out for a while, Matt noticed something strange on his camera bag. What could it be? We crowed around what we thought to be a living creature on the bag, then as we got closer we realized it was sand. The Raglan black sand is magnetic and was attracted by the magnets in the bag. Choice!

As for the weekend, that was our time for our first departure from Hamilton. We packed our duffle bags/backpacks and headed out on a bus to a Marae. Although the weather was foggy and rainy this was a treat. To see the Maori people perform in front of us was amazing. They sang to us and then we sang to them. Earlier in the week we elected a chief and picked the song “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” and sang it in two parts. We were worried about their feelings on the song, but they loved it and even sang with us. After the opening songs and the woman dancing with pois---rope with a tassel at one end and a wrapped ball at the other---we were treated to a hangi. Delicious food and let me just say I am looking for kumara, the best sweet potatoes, when I get home. It felt like Thanksgiving, our plates were pilled high and then desserts. We were stuffed and satisfied, so onto the sleeping arrangements. We all, including the professors, slept in one big room, the meeting house. It was so much fun because we basically all just stayed up talking and experience what the Maori people do on the arrival of relatives they have not seen in a while. This provided much insight into the Maori culture.

We did so much but my final writing is about zorbing. I went zorbing and it was awesome. At first I didn’t really want to because you get wet and it wasn’t that great of a day out. I thought what could be fun about rolling down hill in a big hamster ball and getting wet just to get back into the rain. I stood at the bottom of the hill took some pictures and began to hear how much fun it really was, so of course I needed to find out for myself. It was a group of three in each ball, my group included Katy and Chris. It was great and since my camera can go in the water I have a video from inside the zorb as we rolled down the hill. I am going to show that video to everyone!
Get ready for some Kiwi slang when I come home!