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