Heading to the South Island

Rain, rain, and more rain.

The last few days have been nothing but it.

Today, we woke up early to head into Thames to grab any last minute things for the South Island. For me, that included sea sickness medicine, granola bars for the car ride, a comfy flannel, a book, and a wool sweater. There was also a farmers market in Thames this morning. So many amazing things to buy and see! I wish we had more time to look around.

On the way back to campus, John gave us a brief overview of what to expect while in the South Island. This is what I know: Tomorrow (Sunday) all 26 students and 5 mentors will leave EcoQuest around 7am. We will drive down to Wellington, arrive at the southern tip of North Island around 10pm, sleep in a hostel, wake up early, and take the 8am ferry through Cook's Pass. Cook's Pass is the water channel that runs between the main two New Zealand islands. It is a 3 hour ride where the first two are fairly calm but the second is brutally rough in open water. For someone who gets motion sickness, this wasn't so great to hear. But good to know. When we reach the tip of the South Island, we will drive to Kaikoura (arriving around 5pm) and spend the week there. We will move further south during the first major weekend on the South Island, spend the following week in Craigieburn, and then have the following week off for fall break! The plan is to be back on EcoQuest campus October 10th.

When we got back to campus, we had the rest of the day to clean our rooms, finish our Opoutere work due tomorrow morning, and pack. After I finished my paper, which surprisingly didn't take too long, I began to pack for the South Island. Packing 3 weeks into a single bag was not easy. One thing that we can't take with us is our computer: it will be too hard to take care of it while we are traveling. I'm actually pretty excited not to have to take it and be able to fully interact with my surroundings.

Something interesting about the South Island is that it is fairly rural. Wifi access is limited, cell service is basically not a thing, and the main form of transportation is bicycle. This is much different that what I am used to up here in the North Island, or even what I am used to back at home. But I find that the best adventures are the ones that are nothing like my natural way of life. South Island, here we come!

Martha and His Mine

The past few days have been far from exciting…that is, except for today. But before we get to today (which was so cool!), let's talk about earlier this week.

Tuesday and Wednesday mainly contained of lectures, debate prep, and more lectures. The one exceptionally interesting lecture that we had was taught by Chris on Extractive Industries. Extractive Industries is this week's topic at EcoQuest. For some reason, I am fascinated by this weeks topic, I'm guessing because I know little of it. When talking about extractives in NZ, you are mainly dealing with coal, gold, and silver mining. Mining, something I have learned little about, which is quite sad considering how extensive U.S. mining industries are. All of this talk on extractives led to "The EQ Debate."This debate will be based around the not-very-simplistic idea of mining. More specifically, there will be two sides, one that affirms and another than denies the following phrase:

"It is better left in the ground."

Splitting into groups and flipping a coin, my ground was given the denial or pro-mining side. This means that no matter how we personally feel about mining, we need to support it. Ok. This shouldn't be that hard. Right? After many hours of forming a debate, my group realized how little information we had to go off of. Which leads me to today….

The mentors believed it would be in the students' best interest to visit a mine - of course, for educational purposes. This was exciting news for me because I've never been to a mine, along with most other EcoQuesters! So today, we traveled to the Martha Mine in Waihi. What does this mine actually mine? Mostly silver, but gold as well. Newmont, an American mining company, has a series of mines throughout the town of Waihi. They have "Martha," the main open pit, along with many other underground mines.

When we first arrived at the mine, we were greeted by a tall, lanky man named Phil (?) - but we all just called him Martha (after the main pit). We began our day with a tour of the mines. We took a bus to various parts of the mine: the open pit itself, the waste rock area, the mill (where the gold and silver is smelted), and to their tailings pit. I won't bore you with the nerdy information that I found so fascinating... but one cool thing was that when we arrived to the mill, another man met us and Martha with some "treasure."He pulled out of his pocket a black cloth bag. He first pulled out a clump of silver the size of my hand, worth around $250. After some time, he pulled out a cube of gold not much bigger than my thumb fingernail, worth around $4,000. To my surprise, he actually passed these cubes around so that everyone could get a feel for how much gold and silver weighs. I was shocked to feel how much heavier the little cube of gold was in comparison to the chunk of silver. Martha then reminded us how not many people are given the opportunity to hold this much gold at once, so cherish it.

 Something interesting about this specific mine is that by 2016 (when Newmont "believes" they will complete the pits' resources) they will close Martha and turn her into a recreational lake for the town of Waihi. Now, from my standpoint….how in the heck are they going to replace 26 years of mining with a lake? And even if you do, will the lake ever be at quality that is safe for recreational/swimming or even drinking purposes? Phil claimed "probably over time," but I, along with other EcoQuesters, believe differently.

Side note: I was pretty impressed that Martha/Phil didn't poop his pants with the amount of environmental scientists that came to a mine to talk about all the reasons why mining is bad for the environment and for surrounding inhabitants. Kudos to you Martha.

Another side note: To get an idea of how big the trucks are that work in the pit…6 tires, each twice the height of me. Holy. Cow.

Towards the end of the tour, Martha brought up the fact that Newmont has just received consent to build a new underground mind, called Correnso. The plan for Correnso is to run an underground gold/silver mine ~190 m beneath the city of Waihi. This has raised many concerns regarding affects of this mine to the residents who live just above it - such as noise, light, dust, and vibration pollution. One of the major concerns is vibration: residents above the mine will feel a 10 second vibration 3 times a day for as long as the area is mined (could be years!). Though Newmont has proposed compensation to residents living directly above the Correnso mine, how can they simply tell someone to change their way of life or suck it up? Another interesting debate regarding Correnso is what will this mean for the future of mining? Newmont has decided to mine directly underneath a city, which has NEVER been attempted before. If something were to go wrong, what will happen to the people of Waihi? What will this say about mining? About Newmont? BUT if Newmont can pull it off, what will this say about the rest of the world? "Be prepared for mining to occur under your home?" Is this really something we are going to allow happen? These are all important questions that need to be answered.

On the way home, we stopped at a historic rich mine site and walked through old mines that have been abandoned for decades. There were many historic plates that told stories of how New Zealand's economy was founded on mining gold out of this area. Walking through these tunnels was dark, clammy, and cold. But unreal! For the first time, it wasn't exactly the view (mainly because it was so dark) but rather we were walking through New Zealand's history. Leaving the mine caves, I overheard others feeling the same way, which put an instant smile on my face.

Getting back to campus, groups gathered to prepare for the debate tomorrow. Reading paper articles after articles after articles about how mining is a good thing, all I can seem to think about is the giant, collapsed hole that potentially will be Waihi within generations to come.

In the pit

Horrible pan of the pit - Martha

Another Wet Day in Paradise

I woke up this morning the same way as all others since I arrived, hearing the sound of rain on my metal roof. The rain never fails to wake me up. Apparently, this is an exceptionally wet spring. But I don't know how much I believe that; it has at the least sprinkled every single day for the past 4 weeks.

I'm not complaining though. Rain is not the worst way to wake up. I could be waking up to feet of snow - similar to what my family at home will be experiencing within a few months.

As I woke up, I remembered how busy my morning would be. Today was Quiz #1. Quizzes here are not like the quizzes at home. NZ quizzes: 1 hour long, 20 questions, 4 subjects, and enough material to cover half a semester in the States. Yikes.

We started the day with Monday morning chores. After chores, we had until 11 to study for the quiz.

The quiz honestly wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I knew all of the material, but my problem was writing it all down in a way that made the most sense in an hours time. After the quiz, Chris handed back our first paper. I was surpassingly pleased with my grade, as were many others. So that's exciting!

Once lunch was cleaned up, we headed to the garden for a few hours to let our brain cells re-coop. Because my garden patch is "sleeping," I helped Maree move rocks and dig up invasive species around campus.

To end the academic day, Jono lectured about the Treaty of Waitangi. It wasn't a long lecture, but it did cover a great deal of material. The mentors gave us the rest of the night off to work on the Opoutere map, graph, and paper that is due at the end of this week.

Speaking of the end of this week!!!! We leave for South Island on Sunday! I can't believe how fast the semester is flying by! So, Sunday we travel down to Wellington, where we stay the night, wake up early Monday morning for the ferry down to the South Island, and then we travel to various cities for 3 weeks! I'm not exactly sure what to expect down there, but I'm ready to experience the New Zealand mountains that I've been dying to see ever since I discovered my acceptance into this program.

The rest of the night involved tea, hot chocolate, Grannie's, and much chatter regarding the South Island. As one of the other EcoQuesters, Chris, says, "Lord of the Rings, here we come."

A Quiet Weekend

It has been a great past few days. The weather has been awful, but the company, phenomenal. 

While most of the other EcoQuest students ventured through the Coromandel in torrential downpour and lightening, Emily, Megan, Erin, and I decided to head back to EcoQuest campus. When we all left Opoutere Friday afternoon, most students were dropped off in Thames to pick up their rental cars. Others were dropped off on the side of the road, where they would hike the rest of the way into the mountains. But for me, I was dropped off at my warm and dry cabin at EcoQuest. I did have my doubts: "did I make the right choice? I don't want to miss out. I'm not here for very long." But as the night progressed, the weather got worse and worse. The winds were picking up and so was the rain. Emily, Megan, Erin, and I headed to Grannies, where we spent most of the night watching old movies and sipping tea.  

Sleeping in is a beautiful thing. I almost forgot what it felt like. 

When I woke up Saturday morning, all I could here was the rain spitting on the roof and walls and the wind howling through the cracks of the window. I looked outside, the rain was horizontal. So far, I was happy with my decision to come home. I met Erin in the kitchen and we cooked breakfast together. After, we headed to Grannies to work on some assignments that are due at the end of this week. Emily and Megan were already there working when Erin and I arrived. We worked together on a map project until lunch. After lunch, Megan and Erin told Emily and I that they were going to try and spend the night in a tent in the Hunua Range. So, Emily and I helped them pack up, and they were off. Then there was two. Emily and I were the only people on campus (there was a staff member but we never saw him/her). Campus was super creepy. Emily and I stuck together like glue, freaking each other out with the sound of the wind coming from outside. We worked on our assignments a little longer in the evening. At one point, the phone in one of the rooms rang, and we both freaked out, thinking the worst - that we were in the movie One Missed Call. We decided to call it quits around 9pm and watched an old movie. One that neither of us have ever seen before. 

When we were tired and ready for bed, I walked Emily to her cabin and then ran to mine. It has been nice (during the day) having campus be so quiet but at night, it seems a little too quiet. 

When everyone came home today, I knew we made the right choice. All stories started with, "it was wet" and ended with, "we couldn't go anywhere or see anything because of the weather." Most of the students were trapped in hostels, cabins, or tents the entire weekend in hope that the storm would pass. Fortunately, it did. But not until after lunch time today. It was wonderful having everyone home. Steph and Joy left us pizzas for dinner that we could make ourselves. We cranked the music in the wharekai, made some pizzas, and had a huge dance party. What a wonderful weekend in Kaiaua. 

Sand spits, Dotterels, and Mangroves

Hello! Welcome back! 

I, along with all other students, spent the last week on the Wharekawa Harbour Spit in Opoutere, New Zealand. All students and staff members were awake by 4am on Tuesday morning in preparation for our departure to Opoutere. 26 students and 4 mentors had bags packed and organized in the vans, lunches made, food for the week placed in the large white trailer, and kayaks packed in the wired trailer by 6am. Needless to say, it was a crazy morning. Mentors that came along for this trip were Maree, Ric, John, and Rebekah. In order to get to Opoutere from Kaiaua (EcoQuest campus), students and staff drove 45 minutes to Thames and then an additional 70 minutes past the Pinnacles and through the hills of the Coromandel Peninsula. Though almost every student experienced car sickness by the time we arrived at the hostel, the landscape was quite the view. The hills were similar to those in Kaiaua except these ones were much taller and more jagged. 

We arrived at the Opoutere Youth Hostel Association (YHA) around 10am. Mentors gave us a tour of the hostel and assigned our rooms. There were 4 rooms. The largest was an old school house that could sleep 12 people. I was not part of this room, but it acted as a great place to hang out as a team. There was also a fireplace inside, which was use every night. Connected to the school house by a boardwalk were the bathrooms, remaining cabins, and kitchen house. I stayed in one of the rooms within the kitchen house with Emily, Lauren, and Kyle. Inside the kitchen house, there was also a large dining room and a lounge with a pellet stove (also used every night). 

After everyone was settled, we packed our lunch and went out for what our mentors called a "surprise." We walked down the driveway of our hostel and along the main road for a while. The main road was barely a road at all. There were few houses and many bamboo and palm trees. After some time, the group veered off the road to a forest path. Eventually, we hit a wooden bridge that welcomed us to "Wharekawa Harbour Spit, Opoutere, New Zealand." Ok. Spit. Meaning beach. So where is the sand? Looking across the bridge, all I could see were mangroves and pine trees. We continued on the forest path for another 5 minutes until we finally hit sand. I immediately took my shoes off and felt the sand between my toes. So soft and warm. It felt just like summer. As we kept walking, I noticed that the trees were growing shorter and shorter. Not long after, there was a clearing and then I saw it. The most beautiful beach I have ever seen in my entire life. The sand was pure white with white shells and the water was the most wonderful shade of teal blue. White waves broke not too far off the shoreline. To the left and right of the horizon were mountainous islands. What a view to see in person. 

The mentors mentioned that we had 2 hours on the beach to eat lunch, explore, and do whatever else we wanted to do in the area. My close friends (Emily, Lauren, Mary and Hannah) and I ran to the waterline and felt the ocean. Not as cold as I thought it would be, but still fairly chilly. Within moments, I was excessively hot; I remembered Maree mentioning that it only takes 8 minutes to burn in the New Zealand sun. 8 MINUTES! That's crazy. The heat felt so warm and welcoming on my face. This was a feeling that I definitely missed this summer while in Sweden. 

When our 2 hours were up, the mentors gathered everyone up and we headed back to the hostel. At the hostel, John divided the students into 2 groups: the first would head up the Pā site with John behind the hostel and the second would head down to the estuary with Ric to work on transects. I went down to the estuary first.

The transect clan followed Ric down the bridge near the beach. The tide was clearly out, which you could see and smell. Ric told us to divide into groups of 2-3. He then gave us our assignment: complete a vegetation profile based off of a floodplain transect. I have done this before in my Techniques class. This was a very tedious but important project. 

Close to 2 hours later, it was time to switch with the other group. My group headed up to the Pā site while the other headed down to the estuary shoreline. What is a Pā site? A Pā site is Māori hill fort - fortified settlements with fences and defensive terraces. This particular Pā site was 140 m (~460 ft) tall with very jagged and steep faces. It only took about 20 minutes to hike to the stop but the upper half of the hike was almost entirely vertical. The view from the top was stunning. I could see over all of the Wharekawa Harbour, the sand spit, and the ocean beyond the bay. More white sand beaches and clear blue waters.

In addition to simply looking at the view, John handed each of us an assignment that would be due later in the week. The assignment focused on drawing in a vegetation guide to a preexisting map of the Wharekawa Harbour estuary. 

Before dinner, the mentors brought us into our lounge, lit the pellet stove, and gave us our weekly oral presentation groups and assignments. Every week, we will be split into groups of 4-5 with a designated group leader. Each group will be given a certain topic with general questions and associated reading material. At the end of the week, the group leader will present the acquired information to the rest of the students and mentors. This week, my group focused on riparian zones, where Jack was our leader. 

The rest of the night was ours to do as we wished. Some people walked down to the beach in the dark to star gaze while others (including myself) made a large thermos of hot chocolate and told stories while creating a hair-braiding train.

The focus of Wednesday was to start working on assigned readings. Each group had until after lunch to do as they pleased with their time. After lunch, everyone reconvened and we all took a walk along the estuary. The tide was out so the mentors decided it would be fun to trample through 2 feet of mud. The smell was the worst part. Some few hundred feet later, we reached the sand spit on the other side of the estuary. Over near the sand spit, Maree informed us of dotterels, native birds to New Zealand. These coastline birds have had drastic decreases in population due to high rates of predation and human disturbance. My favorite piece of information that was given to us: dotterel chicks hatch the size of a bumble bee. Cut. It. Out. So cute. I really want one. 

After lunch, Ric gave a lecture on current issues in the Wharekawa estuary, such as accelerated sedimentation rates through forestry. The rest of the night was ours, but most of us ended up working on the large project that we have due next week. 

Thursday was a great day…. other than the fact that it poured. Part of the weeks program was to kayak out into the estuary at high tide and get a close up view of the surrounding vegetation. In order to kayak at high tide, we were up and at the boat launch at 4:30am. We were early birds with lots of coffee. We spent the next few hours in minimal sunlight and pouring rain exploring all corners of the estuary. As cold and wet as it was, this was definitely one of my favorite educational experiences that I have had this far. Learning in a kayak along an estuary is not a bad way to have a lecture. 

The rest of the day was left to the groups to finish any additional work for Friday's oral presentations. Around 10pm, most everyone gave up with trying to learn/study/read/write. So my group decided that we were going to give everyone a spirit animal. We snuck a white board from the study room and began to write everyone's name down with their spirit animal next to it. I was given the otter because I am playful and spontaneous. I would have settled for "because you like to swim," but that works too.  

We moved out of the hostel the next morning. Lunches were made, bags were packed, rooms and living areas were cleaned, vans were filled, and kayaks were loaded onto the vans by 8am. We drove down the street to a local school house for oral presentations. Topics that were covered throughout the presentations included: riparian zone (my group), environmental awareness, mangroves, and public survey sufficiency. The presentations came out great and were extremely informative! The mentors were very proud of us students for exceeding their expectation level. This was a great feeling! 

After the presentations, it was time to head home. Technically, I, along with a few others, were signed up to adventure deeper into the Coromandel Penninsual and camp for the remainder of the weekend. But looking at the forecast, we decided to head back to campus this weekend and lay low. I was originally sad that I wouldn't be exploring but not anymore. Emily, Megan, Erin and I are sitting in Grannie's all warm and cuddly while watching the Jurrassic Park series. As I sit here writing this post, all I can here is the sound of the rain POURING on the roof. I can tell that I have made the right decision to come home and hopefully be able to squeeze in a dry hike on Sunday. Wet tents are never any fun. 

Sleeping Gardens and Purple Fingers

Neither Mary or I set an alarm this morning. But luckily we woke up just in time to catch the tail end of breakfast. It was nice to be able to wake up, walk a few hundred feet, and have a warm bowl of oatmeal waiting for me.

Monday morning chores started at 8:30 and finished at 9:30. My chore this week was to sweep and mop the wharekai with Sam, another EcoQuester. Once we finished cleaning the wharekai, we helped the van crew clean the vans in preparation for tomorrow's departure. At 9:45, the students were split into two groups. One group would go down to the beach and finish up learning kayaking procedures and the other started with Hermione in the garden. My group went to the garden first. 

The garden is fairly large. There are 20-25 garden plots (5ft by 5ft) that contain many types of crops at various stages of growth. Hermione began the gardening lesson by asking each of us to stand in front of a garden plot that sparked our interest. I stood in front of one that had nothing but soil. I don't know why. But for some reason, I felt the need to stand in front of this sad patch of dirt in hope to turn it into something magnificent by the end of the semester. Once everyone had their garden plot, Hermione informed us that these plot would be ours until the end of the semester, just as I had hoped. While most others weeded or planted in their plot, I turned the soil over and over again, laid down a layer of compost, spread some lime powder for acidity control, layered some wet cardboard, and covered the cardboard in mulch. This is also known as "putting the garden to sleep." For the next 2-3 weeks, I will not touch my garden plot. It sounds like an oath because it is an oath. I want so badly to plant and harvest in my plot, but I can't. I won't even weed it. I will simply let it do its thing. And by thing, I mean heat up, let the cardboard decompose with the compost, and allow the worms to work. Ria told me that, at latest, by the time we get back from the south island, my plot would be ready to succeed and grow our food! Being able to grow food that will be used for the EcoQuesters and staff members is such an awesome accomplishment. I've never been in a garden to this extreme before! This was something that I am excited about. 

After I finished putting my garden plot to sleep, I helped Meagan plant some lettuce in her plot. Then, it was time to head down to the beach. Walking down there, I passed the other EcoQuesters who went down to the beach first. As they passed us shivering, all they could say was, "good luck" and "get ready to be cold!" This wasn't very reassuring to hear. Then again, I spent all summer in Sweden, jumping into various lakes that were only 2-3 degrees Celsius. How bad could it be?

The first part of the kayak lesson was taught by Maree. She focused on the basics: how to hold your paddle, how to get into your kayak properly, and what to do if you tip. When we got into the water, John took over. John had us paddle around while playing a game of tag with a sandal to get used to the kayaks. Not too much later, it was time to tip. In order to pass the kayak instruction course, Maree and John needed to know that the students would be able to get right side up if they tipped. And what better way to ensure this than to show them. So, we all paired up (I was with Mary and Miranda) and took turns "falling" into the freezing ocean water. I, mindlessly, volunteered to go first. I jumped right in with no hesitation, and it honestly wasn't that bad. The water was freezing but I was used to the initial can't-really-breathe shock from being in Sweden. The only difference was that in Sweden, I was able to jump right out and warm up. Here, I was 200ft from shore and the only way out of the water was back in the kayak. Fiddling to anchor my kayak on Mary's, I managed to pull my bow over hers, empty out the water, flip the kayak up right, and then shuffle back inside the cockpit. Everyone did this once. The moment the last person finished, we raced back to shore to warm up. 

Showering was a wonderful thing after being so cold for so long. After everyone was showered and warm, Steph called everyone to the wharekai for some soup and garlic bread. Yummy. 

At 2pm, Ria lectured about wetlands, subtly introducing this weeks academic topic. After Ria was finished, Ric came into the wharekai to introduce our field trip for the week: Opoutere. In Opoutere, we will be staying a a youth hostel and be taking day trips out to hike and kayak around local estuaries. The plan is to leave early tomorrow morning and then to be back Sunday. Luckily, the mentors are giving us students from Friday afternoon to Sunday off. Most students are planning on renting cars and driving around the Coromandel and camping. Another thing regarding this week is that we are traveling to a very pre-technology town, meaning cellular service and internet connection is EXTREMELY limited. 

Until next time…please enjoy some pictures of my adventures thus far!

A Weekend in Auckland

My first weekend off in New Zealand was spent in Auckland, the capitol of New Zealand. But before I get there, let's talk about Friday. 

Friday was a cold and rainy day. Not a very good day for learning how to work in the garden or to kayak, as planned. So instead, a guest speaker came to EcoQuest to teach us about New Zealand's Resource Management Act (RMA). 

After lunch, we were given an hour to finish packing up for the weekend. Mary and I were in our cabin, singing and dancing, when we heard a loud pop and a scream. Every bone in my body went cold. We went outside in the rain and saw a black puff of smoke coming from the main house. Looking closer, we realized that the smoke was coming from the electrical box that powered all of EcoQuest. The next thing we know it, the fire alarms were wailing and it was time to meet at the emergency meeting spot near the garden. It was pouring and everyone was barely dressed, but we were all there. A few moments later, an old fashioned fire truck showed up and all students were sent back to their cabins. When Mary and I got back to our cabin, there was no power, no internet connection and there was no running water (EcoQuest is well and pumped based for water supply). 

An hour later, we all met Maree in the wharekai where we learned the main safety rules for kayaking on the Firth. Once the training was over, we were free for the weekend. Maree agreed to drive the Auckland crew (myself, Mary, Lauren, Emily, Zack, Lucian, Kyle, Hannah, Adrian, and Silas) to the city. It was still raining when we got to the city but I still couldn't control my excitement. Walking up Queens street, the 10 of us looked for our hostel (Auckland Central Backpackers - ACB). Once we found the hostel, we checked in, put our bags in our rooms, and immediately hit the streets for some food and entertainment for the night. It was a great night with new friends in a new country!

The following morning, we were up and out of the hostel at 9am, ready to explore the city. We ate breakfast at a local coffee shop and grabbed some coffee at a Dunkin' Donuts across the street from our hostel. Yes, Dunkin' Donuts! It wasn't nearly as good as the ones at home, but it definitely hit the spot. 

By 10:30am, we were on the ferry to Rangitoto, New Zealand's youngest island.  Rangitoto is a volcanic island in the Hauraki Gulf off of Auckland. It is know for its shield volcano cone rising 850 feet over the gulf as well as its young age (only 600 years old). When we got off the ferry, we hiked to the top of the volcanic cone and through the lava caves. The view was spectacular but the caves were incredible! They don't look like much from the outside; when you first get to the caves, there are three rabbit holes. You would never believe how big the caves were from the outside. 

Going through each cave was a different experience. The first cave was fairly short and I could instantly see the exit light as soon as I went in the cave. The second cave was about 100ft in length but did not have an exit. The third cave was the best of them all. The entrance hole was extremely small and at one point, I was on all fours, facing down hill while trying to cross over a river in the cave. But once I got past the river, the cave immediately opened up (at least 20 ft tall). There are no words to describe the inside of this cave. The ceiling looked like it was made from clear crystal with red seed-weed looking moss hanging from the ceiling. The cave walls were ragged but sparkling in the headlamps' light. We continued to explore the cave while droplets of water fell from the ceiling. To get out, I climbed up a small, vertical opening and came out of a mini rabbit hole in the ground. The volcanic caves have been by far my favorite adventure in New Zealand thus far. 

We walked around the island for about 6 hours taking in the views, looking at all the volcanic rock that made up the entire island, and picking up sea glass and shells from the beach. The ferry picked us up at 5pm and on the way back into the city, we got off the ferry in Davenport, where we had dinner. Davenport is a small town, much like my hometown. There are small shops and restaurants on both sides of the road, all having their own unique character. We ate at a restaurant called Mecca. It felt so nice to sit down and have a glass of cold water. We stayed at Mecca as long as possible, taking in the mellow atmosphere and resting our feet. We left Mecca and continued to walk around the island until the next ferry arrived to bring us back to Auckland. 

Once back in Auckland, we stopped at a gelato store on the way back to the hostel. The flavors were outrageous! But tasty! The only familiar flavor was chocolate. Taste testing most of the flavors, I decided with Hockey Pockey, which I later found out is a New Zealand classic. It was delicious. Creamy vanilla with carmel swirl and a carmely-crunch. Yum. 

It was almost 9pm when we arrived back at the hostel. It was safe to say that we were all completely, head-to-toe exhausted. Instead of touring more of the city, we decided to make a plan for the morning, play a few card games, and head to bed. 

Check out was at 10am but we were up and out of the hostel at 9. The hostel employees were kind enough to hold all of our large backpacks for the day so that we didn't have to take them around the city. Trying to see as much of the city as possible before Ria would be picking us up, we mapped out a track. We began up north, walked past a great deal of tourist shops, and headed down towards the water. At the water, there were magnificent boats of all kinds. There were sail boats, yachts, and finishing boats. All large. All expensive. All beautiful!  

Heading back to the center of town, we dispersed to get lunch and then met at Albert Park to eat. The park was gorgeous. We were lucky that it was such a beautiful day and were able to eat lunch on the grass in the park. After lunch, we walked around the park taking pictures of various main features. 

It was getting to that time. The time that we promised Ria our presence at the Ferry Terminal. We went back to the hostel to grab our bags and then headed for the Ferry Terminal. On the way, we stopped at shops to pick up last minute souvenirs and snacks for the car ride back to Kaiaua. At 2:30, Ria was there waiting with EcoQuest's big white van. 

Everyone slept on the car ride home. I don't even remember falling asleep and then all of a sudden, 50 minutes passed and we were pulling into campus. Luckily, campus was back up and running with full power and running water. This was very exciting news! 

What wasn't very exciting news was that we had to finish our papers and associated drawings for tomorrow morning's lecture. Most of us completely forgot about this paper over the weekend and now it was time to cram. During dinner, everyone was sharing stories about their weekend. All of the other trips sounded amazing as well! After dinner, we camped out at Grannie's to try and finish up papers.

Currently, we are all working on our papers/printing/drawing/watching Jurassic Park, excited to be back on campus and anxious for our next adventure on Tuesday when we head east for the week. 

Rainstorms and Planting Flax

For some reason, the sunrise on my morning run was significantly better than every other since I have been here. Perhaps the stormy clouds have finally decided to leave Kaiaua for some time. Or maybe because it was just going to be a great day. Either way, I didn't care why. All I knew was that my body was lit in the warm New Zealand sunrise. This is a feeling that I will never forget.

We began the day with two oral presentations given by EcoQuest students Lauren and Hannah. Each week, there will be an average of 5 oral presentations, given by the students, about hot New Zealand topics. Today, they were about a local bird and plant specie.

My "Introduction to New Zealand Politics" class started at 9 and did not stop until 12. It was a LONG lecture. I was lucky that Chris was teaching because he tends to turn lecturing into a discussion. This made the topic a bit more bearable. Politics has never been my thing. But to my surprise, I was able to follow along quite nicely.

After lunch, it was time to plant. Maree came into the wharekai letting us know that we would be planting flax plants today with local Māori children (ages of 8-12). Maree continued to say that we were going to meet the children in a local wetland and plant from there. When the EcoQuest students arrived at the wetland, it almost instantly began to rain. This wasn't just raining, it was pouring. Soon enough, it was torrentially down pouring. We met a local conservationist, Steve, at the wetland who gave the EcoQuest students a quick debriefing on how to correctly plant flax. Maree arrived back at the wetland 15 minutes later children-less. The parents of the children did not want their kids to be in the cold rain. This was such a disappointment. But we carried on.

The EcoQuest staff and students planted over 200 flax plants within an hour. We stayed for another hour or so walking around a nearby farm, petting horses and cows.

When we got back to EcoQuest campus, I was soaked. I was cold. I was VERY muddy. But I was happy. Happy because the rain had finally stopped. Happy that tomorrow was Friday. Happy that I will finally have a full weekend to adventure.

My roommate Mary, some of our EcoQuest friends (Kyle, Emily, Lauren, Lucian and Adrian) and I are traveling to Auckland tomorrow after classes and staying throughout the weekend. We plan on exploring many things while in the city. At the top of my list, the newest New Zealand Island (only 600 years old). On the island, there are various volcanic caves and caverns that are open for the public to explore. In addition, there are many additional surrounding islands that have small but supposedly "cute" shops and such on them. We plan to explore those as well.

One thing about being in the city is that there is an even more limited internet access than here in Kaiaua. Which stinks because our first paper is due Monday morning and everyone has weekend plans in various parts of North Island. But what can you do. When you are in a beautiful country like New Zealand, internet access should be the last thing on your mind. Right? Especially when you have something like this to look forward to every night….