living with the kiwis: 2012

Kaitlin gave me a quote to include and I actually kind of like it. "Last night I lay in bed looking up at the stars in the sky and I thought to myself, where the heck is the ceiling". It's random and not really funny like she thinks it is, but I'm putting it in here anyways. It goes perfectly with my list of A-Z New Zealand experiences where I really did get to see stars where there should have been ceilings.

A- Agrodome, airport, Arrowtown, Auckland, Alexis, Aotearoa, all good, Atti, Alisha, Austyn, Amanda

B- bungy, beach, bus, Bueno Bars, birthday, bow and arrow, boating, banana grams, baptisms, Bro, Brittany L, Brittany B., Brooke C., Brooke T.

C- caving, castle rock, Coromandel, coastal challenge, Colwill Primary, camping, class, crayfish, chocolate boutique, Cape Reinga, chips, carrots, Carol, Christchurch, church, Clothes lines, Cicadas, Crumpets, Corinettos, cus (cousin), Chris

D- dolphins, Devonport, dutchess, diving, dance parties, dune surfing

E- emu petting/feeding, engagement, Etu, E noho, Emily S, Emily A, everyone

F- fresh fruit ice cream, farmers market, Fergburger, fringe, full stops, fry bread, Fish, flea, first aid kits, freezing

G- glow worm caves (glowing maggot poo), Glenorchy, gliding, gum boots, gondola

H- horse trekking, Hamilton, Hunger Games, hot pots, Haka, hongi, (minus Hobbiton), Hostel, hokey pokey ice cream, Henderson Interchange, hobbits, Helen, honey butter, hats, hurihuri, hot springs

I- itchy bug bites, international flights, internet (lack of), Ian

J- jogging, jumping, jandals, James Ahmu, jump jams

K- kids, kayaking, kenna, karaoke, kiwi, katniss, kai, Kia Ora, kitkats, ka pai, Kirsten H., Kirsten W.

L- luge, lollies, Lord of the Rings, left side of road, L & P

M- Milford Sound, mussels, mince, Mamma’s Donuts, museums, Movenpick, Milo, morning tea, maths, Marmite, movies, Maori, Massey, McDonalds(mackers), mince, milking cows, Micah, Margo, Mallory, Mandy, Mikaela

N- Navajo tacos, Noodle Canteen, Natalie

O- Orewa Beach, ostrich watching, opp shops, One Tree Hill

P- paua shells, pies, powhiri, Pascal, paddle boating, painting shirts, phone-less, planking, pipis, Piha, polyfest, pasifika, plats, PB and J, prelude hymn, pictures, pillow pets, pakipaki, Pak n’ Save

Q- Queenstown, Queen Street

R-rugby, Rinagatoto, remarkable sweets shop, Rotorua, Reece(and Sarah), Ritchies, Ramona, ramen noodles

S- surfing, Shotover Jet, snorkeling, salmon farm, sizzle, sassage sizzle, sweet as, splish splash, slumber parties, sunsets, sheep, sand flies, Sid Going, Stake conference, Sunnyvale, sweet thai chilly sauce, Stacey, Stephanie, Sarah

T- Teaching, traveling, train, tim tam slams, toangas, tubing, Tawharanui, TipTop ice cream, Takapuna, tribal lights, togs, torches, temple, Tiare

U- uum-papa, umbrellas, uniforms, Uni

V- volleyball, vans, volcanoes

W- World’s Highest Swing, waiwera, Whangarei, Wanaka, wheet bix, waiata, Waitakeres, Westfield, Westgate

X- X-base

Y- YSA, yoga on beach, YSAD(YSA discussion), yous

Z- zorbing

After this whole trip it feels weird that it's already ending. Looking at this list made me realize how much I was able to actually do here. It's crazy how dense these past few months have been. All I can say is how lucky I feel to have been given an opportunity like this and I can't thank the people enough that gave me the chance. It's been such a blessing to me. I am so excited to go home, but I know the minute I arrive I'll be missing New Zealand just as much. I love everything about being here, the landscapes, the sunsets, the weird fruit, my school, and all the people. And to my students who I know read my blog... I love you all too! It's been a perfect three months all together. Months full of things I'd never thought I'd do and things I may never do again. But all things that I'll never forget. I could not have asked for more. Plus I'm even coming home with a little bit of a tan (more than Kaitlin at least)...so what could be better than that? :)

E noho ra New Zealand.

We ended our New Zealand trip with a bang by spending that past couple days in the Northlands! We stayed up in Paihia right in the Bay of Islands. It was beautiful! The bay is made up of about 188 islands and we got to visit every one of them! Just kidding! We really only saw two. It was a blast.

Just like in Queenstown we stayed in another X Base hostel, but this one turned out to be a little fancier. It had a tiny bean shaped pool and a very fickle hot tub. We were also lucky enough to avoid the whole night club scene…this hostel wasn’t quite as hoppin’. Hahha.

On our first day we woke up early and arrived just in time to get caught in a small rainstorm. The rain didn’t bother us too much though because at this point, we’re all very used to it. We walked around the little town and went to the grocery store to buy supplies for our few days.

The next morning we woke up early, jumped in the vans and headed off towards 90 Mile Beach. I was so excited because this is what I volunteered to research back in our prep class in October. The beach is actually a highway. You have to wake up early eough if you want to beat the tide. It also turns out that it’s not actually 90 miles. It’s more like 80 something kilometers. Still, it’s a very long beach. One of the best parts was that we were the only three vehicles on the entire beach so we could go however fast we wanted! It was so fun! We had races and some of the cars rode in and out of the tide.

After a while of driving we turned off and started to head down a freshwater river that fed into the ocean. We had been traveling not very long when we realized that the big van that usually brings up the rear was not behind us. Immediately James turned around to find them. I think he had a hunch about what might have happened. It turned out he was right. The big white van was completely stuck in the sand and all the girls had gotten out and were trying to push it!

We all jumped out of our van and tried to help too. It must have looked kind of funny…to see a group of 20 young girls trying to push a huge van out of the mud. We would all scream when the tires spun and splattered half of us with wet sand. James tried to flag down a car that passed by, but they didn’t stop. A couple minutes later another car passed by and stopped without any of us asking. Two very big Maori men got out and came to our aid. They told us that the best thing to do would be to try to dig out each one of the tires and they’d go and find blocks of wood. When they came back we all got out of our trenches we’d dug around the wheels and got ready to push again. Right before we were about to give it another try one of the tour buses stopped and the driver came out to help us as well! With all their help and the awesome strength of 20 girls we were able to successfully push the van out of the sand! We all were shouting and celebrating…it was quite the feat.

It was also sort of funny because as soon as we’d escaped we almost got stuck again! They wouldn’t let any of us back in the van because it would then be too heavy so we had to trudge along after it. James yelled to Chris to keep going and not stop! He said that if we stopped the van would start to sink again so Chris floored it and left us all in the dust. After a couple minutes James came back to pick us up in his van, but still wouldn’t stop for us! He told us we would all have to jump into the back while he was still driving. It was so funny. We made it to the sand dunes in the end!

I hadn’t been “sand duning” since I’d lived in New Mexico. We used to take card board boxes and make sleds out of them to slide down the white sand dunes. This was just a little bit different. For starters…the hill looked like a vertical drop. Also, the sand was blowing so hard it felt like millions of tiny little pins were pricking into every part of me. I think sand got into every crevice possible. I was chewing sand all afternoon. It was very worth it though. After hiking to the top of the dune (which was a very “rough as guts” workout, by the way) we took turns riding boogie boards down to the bottom. It was so fun!

After the sand dune we piled into the vans once again and drove off to the Northern-most point of New Zealand. It’s called Cape Reinga. Brittany, Mandy and I ran down the entire path because we wanted to be the very first in our group to reach the most-northern point of New Zealand. There was a small light house with a sign that pointed in all different directions toward cities all over the world. This is also the point where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. The really cool part was that if you looked really closely you could see the two different shades of blue meeting at a certain point. Maybe I was just seeing what I wanted to see…but that’s definitely what it looked like. It was so pretty. I wish that pictures did it justice.

The next day it ended up raining allllll day. It was supposed to be our beach day so instead we all went out to the movies. I watched a very, very interesting movie called John Carter. I’d never actually heard of it before. I was glued to the screen the entire time. Haha, partially because it was so crazy I was trying to make sense of it all. Here’s a little preview for your viewing pleasure:

Later that night, after it got dark, one of the girls requested that we all go for a late night swim for her birthday. It was such a good idea. I was so scrared! There are very few things scarier or more mysterious to me than dark water. But that’s what made it so exciting!

The coolest part was that as we moved around the water glowed! Not kidding! The water was black but all around our legs it was a light, florescent blue. We found out later that it was a result of bioluminescence…just like our glow worm friends in the caves. It was so pretty.

On Sunday we were lucky enough to visit yet another new church building. It was the smallest of all the wards we’d visited so far on all our trips…in fact, it was so small it was actually a branch. I have to say though, that I think this one was my favorite. They were all so excited to have us and we really did make up more than half of the congregation. It was fast and testimony meeting so we were privileged to hear the testimonies of many of the members and to hear how much they love the Gospel.

A kind family invited us all over for dinner that afternoon after church. I think that’s one thing that I’ll never get over…how giving everyone in this country is to us. Only about half of our group ended up going over to their house and they seemed disappointed that there were not more of us. They were prepared to feed all of us! They made bowls and bowls of fry bread and a very delicious apple dessert.

They have a family tradition where guests have to stand on the table, tell all about themselves and then sing a song. We were all invited-or required-to participate in this tradition.

One of the daughters in the family happened to work at the Waitangi Treaty grounds and asked us if we’d been up there to see it. We hadn’t and we told her it was because it cost $25 a person to get onto the grounds. She was so surprised, telling us that we couldn’t come all the way up here and NOT see it! She very sneakily texted her coworker and found out when her boss was going on break so that she could sneak us all in through the “coastline walk”. It was so fun! And I felt so rebellious!

We were able to see another mariye and learn a lot about the ancient Maori culture. She taught us all about their different gods and how they believed that humans were created from clay. That is why the color red is so prominent in many of their sculptures and paintings. The black and white symbolize the contrasting forces of dark and light in the world that we live in.

We also got to see the actually treaty that was signed! It was cool looking at it so closely. She told us that because the Maoris didn’t speak or write in English that they signed with a “mark” rather than a name. The Europeans filled in the names next to the mark titling each line as “the mark of ______”. Some of their marks are really interesting.

The next day we did something very incredible. We had all been praying for good weather the night before and we were in luck. It wasn’t sunny, but it was still a nice enough day to take a boat out and SWIM WITH DOLPHINS. Yes, out in the open ocean. How cool is that?? If there was a more perfect way to finish off our trip I couldn’t think of one.

It took a little while to find them because they don't just swim up to you. We were all jumping up and down with excitement when we heard them announce that they had found a pod close by.

After our dolphin excursion everyone was a little tired and worn out. That night we had a whole group FHE and had a lesson on finances. It was the best object lesson I’ve ever had because at the very end, to model padding a budget, we were all given $115 each that had been leftover! Then we all passed around pieces of paper that we all signed saying what we loved about the other person. It was a very perfect ending.

On the way home we stopped at New Zealand’s largest tree. I’ve never seen a tree so fat in my life. We all said our goodbyes and took tons and tons of pictures. I’m still in the country and I miss everyone already.