Wow! I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since I blogged! Whoops...
These last few weeks have flown by like none other! Technically speaking, my time at EcoQuest is already over 20% over! Ahhhhh! No! I'm not ready to come home yet!
Actually, I have to confess, I really have felt ready to come home at a few points recently. I've been yearning for the familiarity of a family and friends who have known me for at least a few years.
Particularly at the beginning of last week, while we were staying at a youth hostel on the Oputere Estuary (one of the nicest hostels I've ever seen by the way! No bedbugs!), I realized how nice it would be to pick up a cell phone and call home or one of my friends, not to have to wrestle for 10 minutes with the frustrating mechanical voice of the phone card, eventually saying, "Remember, you only have 1,036 minutes to complete this call." The hard thing is, if the person I'm calling doesn't pick up, it won't matter how many hundreds of minutes I have to talk. Darn this time difference! On the plus side, I have been able to use AOL Instant Messenger to talk with some people back on the state-side, which has been very helpful! And one night, I actually used my webcam to talk with my boyfriend, Chris, back in Hartford. Little did I know that even though I could do this, I wasn't supposed to be because it causes our internet bill for the month to sky-rocket. Needless to say, the chat was short-lived, but entirely worth the rebellion.
In general, I've been dealing with being home pretty well. I did call home this past week however, to wish my wonderful father ["Dad o' Katie", as he puts it] a happy birthday, and I talked with him and my mother for about 45 minutes, with tears welling up in my eyes during most of our conversation. It's not that I'm missing home, it's more that I'm missing my support system.
For instance, remember that paper I had been procrastinating on in my last post? Well, we got them back with comments on them mid-last week. We had been told before we started writing that these first papers would be ripped apart for the purpose of receiving a lot of feedback and constructive criticism; however, nothing could have prepared me for the comments I received. After I read the comment beginning with "This is horrible...", I had to stop for awhile. I'm not used to having my work so scrutinized, and I have to say, I think our teachers went a little beyond the realm of "constructive" criticism. With all of the comments, I was sure I had received an awful grade, but here's the kicker: we had to give our papers a self-grade before receiving our actual grade. UGH! I felt so terrible about my paper that this task seemed designed to drag us further down into our ditch of literary despair. Knowing that everyone's paper had been equally scorned did make me feel a little better, but when it came time for self-grading, I gave myself a D+. As it turns out, my actual grade ended up being *drumroll* a B-, roughly the same as nearly everyone else's report. Although I was able to get through the grading process, I can't describe how much I wished I could have gotten a hug from my dad or a kiss from my mom. Luckily, that first paper is behind me now, and it's time to dive into the next assignment: a vegetation map of the Oputere Estuary. Should be fabulous!
Rewinding a little, I should mention how fantastic my weekend in Rotorua was! The drive there went very well! My friend Missy drove the entire way in our stick-shift, 10-person van, and we only got lost once, when Caitlin navigated us in the wrong direction. Our campsite was very nice and homey, and all our tents fit well on our little plot of land. I finally got to test out my tent, and luckily, everything is great with it, especially considering I got it for $50 at REI. We were located only 10 minutes from Lake Rotorua, so the first night we were there, we all went down to the beach. Myself, Liz, Emily, and Kerry swam in the lake and it was beautiful! We have some gorgeous pictures of the sunset and us goofing around too. Our swim was followed by a midnight grilled dinner of burgers, cooked by the fabulous Missy, assisted by her headlamp. The night was lovely.
The next day, Saturday, February 7, we spent our day at the Raggamuffin Festival, which was SPECTACULAR! I really wasn't much of a fan of reggae to be honest, but this show was wonderful! Kora, Unity Pacific, and Three Houses Down were by far my favorite bands. Shaggy was also there, and he performed his old-school hit, "It Wasn't Me," further proving to me that he really has not been up to much following the release of that single. Oh well, he still put on a good show! There was also a small bazaar located behind the festival with lots of great food, free sunscreen (the sun was not hiding that day!), and the biggest assortment of marijuana paraphernalia I've ever seen. But I guess it was a reggae festival! Ziggy Marley was the last performer of the night and he did a great job, though I have to say, he was not my favorite! It could have been the fact that I had been there all day and that we were trying to leave early during his segment to beat the crowds. But all in all, I got a great day of music and a pretty sweet t-shirt out of the day!
Getting back to our campsite was another adventure in itself! A free shuttle took us back into Rotorua, and we had been told we could catch a cab from there back to our campsite. Sadly, we weren't exactly dropped in the middle of town, more like at a fast-food joint on the outskirts of town. While a few of us chowed down, Liz and Kelsey went out to find a pay phone, but after finding that pay phones would not take our coins, phone cards, or toll-free cab number, we had limited options left but walking. However, some of the ladies in the group, upon reaching their near exhaustion point, were not in the happiest mood, so we tried to find a place to stop where we could ask someone to call us a cab. We eventually found a hotel and wandered in. I rang the service bell and a man name Rayesh came out. After explaining our situation, Rayesh asked us to have a seat and that he would call us a cab immediately. I attributed our good luck with Rayesh to the fact that we both obviously shared Indian roots, much to the merriment of my group. Eventually, a cab showed up to tear us away from the hotel lobby's showing of "Dracula" and take us back home.
In the morning, we went to a large Redwood forest in the area and went on a half hour hike. Then we went into Rotorua again to visit a kiwi sanctuary, where kiwis were researched, bred in captivity, and the chicks released into the wild. Eggs from the wild were also taken and hatched in the center, the chicks rereleased 6 weeks after hatching, in order to increase their chances of survival significantly. The kiwis were adorable! After being shown the incubating area, we were taken to a dark room with 3 large pens in it. The room was kept dark because the nocturnal kiwis' internal clock had been switched so they would be awake in the day and when the workers went home at night, they could flip the lights on and the kiwis would go to sleep. I saw all three kiwis, and we were actually quite close to them, seeing as the only divider between us was a chest-high wooden fence. I actually couldn't find one of the kiwis for a few minutes and when my friend Kelsey suddenly pointed downward, there was a large beak and beady eyes looking up at me! I was surprised because the kiwis tend to be nosy; they have their nostrils at the ends of their beaks so they can scavenge for food more easily, but they tend to get a lot of leaf litter stuck in their beaks as a result and snuffle quite loudly; this one really snuck up on me! Anyway, after leaving the center, we started on our way home to EcoQuest. The ride home was fine, and we met up with our fellow students who had either gone to the northernmost tip of the Corrimandel Peninsula or sky-diving elsewhere.
Well, I do actually have work I really need to be getting done, so I will leave my recap here for now. But probably tomorrow, I'll post again just to relay a little information on this past week at the Oputere Estuary. As for now, I'm off to my work journal and mapping!
Bye for now!
Monday, February 16, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Weekend in Rotorua!!! Ziggy, here I come!
As I sit here, viewing multiple tabs on my browser while attempting to finish my report's rough draft (369/1000 words isn't bad, right?), I realize that I need to express how fantastic my upcoming weekend is going to be. Extreme excitement does not do my feelings justice! Aaahhh!!!
Today, my friends and I were scrambling to find some sort of campground to stay on for the long weekend, celebrating Waitangi Day, which is in memory of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, an agreement between the Maori and British settlers established early in New Zealand's history. Since we have a three-day weekend, we were all encouraged by the staff to find something to do off-campus. Unfortunately, we were somewhat ambushed by this task without really knowing what was available for us to do, and since we were off backpacking this past weekend and we had until technically yesterday night to have concrete plans, we were a little stressed out about our options. Sadly also, since this weekend encompasses a Kiwi national holiday, there were no hostels available, and slim-pickings at most hotels.
Luckily, today, with four of us simultaneously searching online, we found one last campground that had an opening and booked it for $252.00 NZ for two nights. Well, we attempted to book it... my credit card was declined... I knew I should have let the bank know about this trip! But my friend Kerry, who turned 21 today (happy b-day!) was able to rebook our accommodations, so we are all set to camp!
Later this evening, however, I realized that we had been REALLY smart and not taken the time to write down the name, address, or general location of our campsite. This gave me the perfect opportunity to distract myself from my paper, and I grabbed it! After about 30 minutes of searching on a quite slow internet connection (the norm here), I found where we were staying and started taking note. Then my buddy Emily, who is coming with to Rotorua, popped over, and we proceeded to spend our time learning about every service our campsite offered, from "swirl pools" to ablutions. She suggested we look at the section the campsite listed for "Things to do in February," and once we did, we found there was something called the "Ruggamuffin Festival" taking place this weekend.
Upon further inspection (aka Wikipedia), we found that the festival, actually called the Raggamuffin Festival, is a one-day music festival held in Australia and New Zealand and includes local artists, plus big-names, like Ziggy Marley, Shaggy, Inner Circle, and Arrested Development. And guess where it's playing this weekend? That's right! Rotorua International Stadium, a mere 6km from our campsite. Convenient, yes? And the cost? $109.00 NZ, about $56 US. WE ARE GOING TO THE RAGGAMUFFIN FESTIVAL!!! Woo-hoo!!! I actually just bought my ticket online and everyone else in my group will get their tickets in the morning. Man, am I stoked! This is my first real concert since Aerosmith back in eighth grade! Hurray!
So those are our rough plans for the Saturday we are on break. As for Thursday night, the girls and I are planning to bike out and sample the local fish n' chips and perhaps grab a drink or two. Even though turning 21 here isn't what it's like back home, we still have two girls in the group who had their 21st birthdays this past week. It's time to celebrate! Our plan is to spend the rest of the night at EcoQuest (the rumor is we'll be watching "Whale Rider" and possibly some "Flight of the Chonchords") and heading out Friday morning. The drive should be about three and a half hours tops, and we're taking one of the rental vans. [I forgot to mention: hopefully tomorrow during lunch, I'll be learning to drive this van, on the opposite of the road and in manual drive. We'll see how that goes :) Any local Kiwis who plan to go walking during their lunch hour have now been warned.]
We'll get into our campsite in the afternoon and the tentative plan is to go to a Kiwi exhibit, the local hotsprings/thermal baths, a Maori exhibit with bone carving, and/or go "zorbing," an extreme sport created here in New Zealand involving a person going inside a human-sized gerbil ball and being pushed down a hill. Now that's my kind of extreme sport! None of this sky-diving stuff! Our plan for Sunday is to go on a hike and then in the afternoon, leave for EcoQuest and be home for dinner.
I can't really believe that my newfound friends and I have really pulled off a trip like this in less than 72 hours. I never thought that coming to New Zealand would give me so many chances to explore relatively independently outside of EcoQuest! I actually feel like I'm learning what it's like to plan in advance and manage my money. All in all, it's been a good week, and it's leading into an exuberant forthcoming weekend! I can't wait!
Alright. Back to this paper...ugh. Talk to you all next week! Happy Waitangi Weekend!
Today, my friends and I were scrambling to find some sort of campground to stay on for the long weekend, celebrating Waitangi Day, which is in memory of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, an agreement between the Maori and British settlers established early in New Zealand's history. Since we have a three-day weekend, we were all encouraged by the staff to find something to do off-campus. Unfortunately, we were somewhat ambushed by this task without really knowing what was available for us to do, and since we were off backpacking this past weekend and we had until technically yesterday night to have concrete plans, we were a little stressed out about our options. Sadly also, since this weekend encompasses a Kiwi national holiday, there were no hostels available, and slim-pickings at most hotels.
Luckily, today, with four of us simultaneously searching online, we found one last campground that had an opening and booked it for $252.00 NZ for two nights. Well, we attempted to book it... my credit card was declined... I knew I should have let the bank know about this trip! But my friend Kerry, who turned 21 today (happy b-day!) was able to rebook our accommodations, so we are all set to camp!
Later this evening, however, I realized that we had been REALLY smart and not taken the time to write down the name, address, or general location of our campsite. This gave me the perfect opportunity to distract myself from my paper, and I grabbed it! After about 30 minutes of searching on a quite slow internet connection (the norm here), I found where we were staying and started taking note. Then my buddy Emily, who is coming with to Rotorua, popped over, and we proceeded to spend our time learning about every service our campsite offered, from "swirl pools" to ablutions. She suggested we look at the section the campsite listed for "Things to do in February," and once we did, we found there was something called the "Ruggamuffin Festival" taking place this weekend.
Upon further inspection (aka Wikipedia), we found that the festival, actually called the Raggamuffin Festival, is a one-day music festival held in Australia and New Zealand and includes local artists, plus big-names, like Ziggy Marley, Shaggy, Inner Circle, and Arrested Development. And guess where it's playing this weekend? That's right! Rotorua International Stadium, a mere 6km from our campsite. Convenient, yes? And the cost? $109.00 NZ, about $56 US. WE ARE GOING TO THE RAGGAMUFFIN FESTIVAL!!! Woo-hoo!!! I actually just bought my ticket online and everyone else in my group will get their tickets in the morning. Man, am I stoked! This is my first real concert since Aerosmith back in eighth grade! Hurray!
So those are our rough plans for the Saturday we are on break. As for Thursday night, the girls and I are planning to bike out and sample the local fish n' chips and perhaps grab a drink or two. Even though turning 21 here isn't what it's like back home, we still have two girls in the group who had their 21st birthdays this past week. It's time to celebrate! Our plan is to spend the rest of the night at EcoQuest (the rumor is we'll be watching "Whale Rider" and possibly some "Flight of the Chonchords") and heading out Friday morning. The drive should be about three and a half hours tops, and we're taking one of the rental vans. [I forgot to mention: hopefully tomorrow during lunch, I'll be learning to drive this van, on the opposite of the road and in manual drive. We'll see how that goes :) Any local Kiwis who plan to go walking during their lunch hour have now been warned.]
We'll get into our campsite in the afternoon and the tentative plan is to go to a Kiwi exhibit, the local hotsprings/thermal baths, a Maori exhibit with bone carving, and/or go "zorbing," an extreme sport created here in New Zealand involving a person going inside a human-sized gerbil ball and being pushed down a hill. Now that's my kind of extreme sport! None of this sky-diving stuff! Our plan for Sunday is to go on a hike and then in the afternoon, leave for EcoQuest and be home for dinner.
I can't really believe that my newfound friends and I have really pulled off a trip like this in less than 72 hours. I never thought that coming to New Zealand would give me so many chances to explore relatively independently outside of EcoQuest! I actually feel like I'm learning what it's like to plan in advance and manage my money. All in all, it's been a good week, and it's leading into an exuberant forthcoming weekend! I can't wait!
Alright. Back to this paper...ugh. Talk to you all next week! Happy Waitangi Weekend!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
A Trip to the Marae and... WHAT?! Homework?
Hello hello, tena koe! That's another greeting in the Maori language I've learned here.
So I don't actually have too much time to post, and if you read the title of this post, you'll know exactly why... come on, who should have to do homework while they're in New Zealand?! Lame. It's been more difficult than I thought to get back into the swing of writing reports than I thought it would be. Unfortunately, the weather continues to be gorgeous, just the right temperature for a walk, a run, a game of soccer or frisbee, or various other distractions I would love to get into. But c'est la vie, I'm here for education, right? Right!
To recap this past week, we started an intro to the Maori culture and were informed that we would be visiting the local Marae (plural word for Maori, also means the lifeforce), who live right down the road. They would be welcoming us to their place so anytime we travelled in New Zealand, we would have the right to say that Whakatiwai (the area EcoQuest is in) is our place also. The welcoming is referred to as the Powhiri, but I'm not going to go into too much detail on it here out of respect for the Marae. It's a very sacred ceremony in their culture which is meant to be seen by those involved, but I know you can find a lot of information about it online. In any case, we are going to meet the Marae today, so we've all practiced our hongi, the Maori greeting involving the touching of foreheads and noses between two people, and our waiata, song, like crazy. Since we are the manuhiri (visitors), we need to show a lot of respect to the tribe. It should be good!
Continuing on the recap, we also began an exploration into the forests of New Zealand with a two-day backpack trip to the Corrimandel (I need to check my spelling here I think!) Forest Park, a beautiful reserve that is about 30 minutes outside of Thames, a town about 45 minutes away from us in Whakatiwai. We drove out to the reserve on Sunday morning. Our objective: take in the big picture, make observations with great detail in a variety of locations with different elevations, temperatures, foliage, dominant species, etc. And through observations, come up with questions and theories as to why different areas of the forest are the way they are.
The forest hike was absolutely fantastic! The forests here are predominantly evergreen, as opposed to the decidious ones that I'm used to. The weather was subtropical, very nice for a hike in a relatively shady forest, and the trees we encountered matched the forests majesty in their height. The canopies, though varying as we hiked through, were typically 7-9m tall, and there were a bunch of new species of trees I had never seen before, including the kanoka, manoka, rata, rewa rewa, and even some famous kauri, a favorite tree of loggers that was heavily targeted in the 1920s and 1930s.
Overnight, we camped in a hut, and in the morning, we had the option to hike to the top of one of the peaks, the "pinnacle." Unfortunately, during the hike the day before, a huge blister I had gotten from running popped, so I opted out of the morning hike, but still caught a fantastic sunrise while making pancakes for the returning group. After a short lecture on using compasses properly (thank goodness for that lecture... despite being in geology last semester, my orienting skills were... well, let's just say if I got lost in the bush, knowing the direction I needed to go in order to get out, I would probably spend the night camped out in a survival bag), we started our trek back down, stopping in a few other locations, but overall, just hiking back to our vans.
Just before lunch, we hiked through a thick patch of forest where you could barely see your feet. As a result, whether we wanted to or not, we found each hole, drop, and hidden branch as we made our way to our lunch spot. Just when I was ready to sit down and blow my whistle (which we blow if we think we've been separated from our group), we reached a rocky riverbed that curved down into a series of small waterfalls. The view was nothing less than that of a tropical oasis, and best of all, there was a small pool a few meters down that we could jump into and cool off in. For the first time in my life, I stripped down into my underwear and sports bra and jumped right into this naturally made pool, something I'd always wanted to do, but never had the chance to. This was definitely my favorite part of the trip! I need to talk to my field leader John about how to get back to that place for sure!
About 2 hours later, we reached our vans and rode back to Whakatiwai, after a short stop at a gas stations to stock up on the necessities: ice cream, soda, beer, Tim Tams, etc. Needless to say, everyone slept quite well that Monday night :)
So now we've been back for a few days and have started having official classes, mostly on the biodiversity and history of New Zealand. I already said it's been difficult forcing myself to do homework, so you can imagine it's been hard being in a classroom again. But I've managed with the promise of always being out by 5 each day. As for right now, I have to write a 1000-word report on the patterns of the the Corrimandel forest by tomorrow morning and focus on not messing up in the Powhiri ceremony today.
This weekend, we have off because it is Waitangi Day on Friday, so we all have the option of going off-campus. A couple of girlfriends and I have decided to go to Rotorua, a spot of geothermal activity, zorbing, Maori performances, bone carving, botanical gardens, and lots of stuff to look at. I'll have to report back on that later because I'm running low on time here to pretty myself up for the Powhiri.
Anyway, I hope everyone back home (and abroad! Yay!) has been doing well! I'll be in touch again soon!
~Katie
So I don't actually have too much time to post, and if you read the title of this post, you'll know exactly why... come on, who should have to do homework while they're in New Zealand?! Lame. It's been more difficult than I thought to get back into the swing of writing reports than I thought it would be. Unfortunately, the weather continues to be gorgeous, just the right temperature for a walk, a run, a game of soccer or frisbee, or various other distractions I would love to get into. But c'est la vie, I'm here for education, right? Right!
To recap this past week, we started an intro to the Maori culture and were informed that we would be visiting the local Marae (plural word for Maori, also means the lifeforce), who live right down the road. They would be welcoming us to their place so anytime we travelled in New Zealand, we would have the right to say that Whakatiwai (the area EcoQuest is in) is our place also. The welcoming is referred to as the Powhiri, but I'm not going to go into too much detail on it here out of respect for the Marae. It's a very sacred ceremony in their culture which is meant to be seen by those involved, but I know you can find a lot of information about it online. In any case, we are going to meet the Marae today, so we've all practiced our hongi, the Maori greeting involving the touching of foreheads and noses between two people, and our waiata, song, like crazy. Since we are the manuhiri (visitors), we need to show a lot of respect to the tribe. It should be good!
Continuing on the recap, we also began an exploration into the forests of New Zealand with a two-day backpack trip to the Corrimandel (I need to check my spelling here I think!) Forest Park, a beautiful reserve that is about 30 minutes outside of Thames, a town about 45 minutes away from us in Whakatiwai. We drove out to the reserve on Sunday morning. Our objective: take in the big picture, make observations with great detail in a variety of locations with different elevations, temperatures, foliage, dominant species, etc. And through observations, come up with questions and theories as to why different areas of the forest are the way they are.
The forest hike was absolutely fantastic! The forests here are predominantly evergreen, as opposed to the decidious ones that I'm used to. The weather was subtropical, very nice for a hike in a relatively shady forest, and the trees we encountered matched the forests majesty in their height. The canopies, though varying as we hiked through, were typically 7-9m tall, and there were a bunch of new species of trees I had never seen before, including the kanoka, manoka, rata, rewa rewa, and even some famous kauri, a favorite tree of loggers that was heavily targeted in the 1920s and 1930s.
Overnight, we camped in a hut, and in the morning, we had the option to hike to the top of one of the peaks, the "pinnacle." Unfortunately, during the hike the day before, a huge blister I had gotten from running popped, so I opted out of the morning hike, but still caught a fantastic sunrise while making pancakes for the returning group. After a short lecture on using compasses properly (thank goodness for that lecture... despite being in geology last semester, my orienting skills were... well, let's just say if I got lost in the bush, knowing the direction I needed to go in order to get out, I would probably spend the night camped out in a survival bag), we started our trek back down, stopping in a few other locations, but overall, just hiking back to our vans.
Just before lunch, we hiked through a thick patch of forest where you could barely see your feet. As a result, whether we wanted to or not, we found each hole, drop, and hidden branch as we made our way to our lunch spot. Just when I was ready to sit down and blow my whistle (which we blow if we think we've been separated from our group), we reached a rocky riverbed that curved down into a series of small waterfalls. The view was nothing less than that of a tropical oasis, and best of all, there was a small pool a few meters down that we could jump into and cool off in. For the first time in my life, I stripped down into my underwear and sports bra and jumped right into this naturally made pool, something I'd always wanted to do, but never had the chance to. This was definitely my favorite part of the trip! I need to talk to my field leader John about how to get back to that place for sure!
About 2 hours later, we reached our vans and rode back to Whakatiwai, after a short stop at a gas stations to stock up on the necessities: ice cream, soda, beer, Tim Tams, etc. Needless to say, everyone slept quite well that Monday night :)
So now we've been back for a few days and have started having official classes, mostly on the biodiversity and history of New Zealand. I already said it's been difficult forcing myself to do homework, so you can imagine it's been hard being in a classroom again. But I've managed with the promise of always being out by 5 each day. As for right now, I have to write a 1000-word report on the patterns of the the Corrimandel forest by tomorrow morning and focus on not messing up in the Powhiri ceremony today.
This weekend, we have off because it is Waitangi Day on Friday, so we all have the option of going off-campus. A couple of girlfriends and I have decided to go to Rotorua, a spot of geothermal activity, zorbing, Maori performances, bone carving, botanical gardens, and lots of stuff to look at. I'll have to report back on that later because I'm running low on time here to pretty myself up for the Powhiri.
Anyway, I hope everyone back home (and abroad! Yay!) has been doing well! I'll be in touch again soon!
~Katie
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
.jpg)