Presentations are required from all EcoQuest students. It is a way to give back to the beautiful country in which we lived and thrived in for the past 16 weeks. It is a final "goodbye" to New Zealand. But there was something special about this year's presentations. The presentations were going to be held at the local Marae instead of EcoQuest campus. This was very exciting, especially for EcoQuest students, because we hoped to visit the Marae one last time before heading back home.
Students walked over to the Marae at 8am so that we could set up enough chairs for all EcoQuest students and staff members, UNH deans and provosts, locals within the community, and stakeholders. Overall, we were expecting roughly 50 attendees, but we soon came to realize how much we underestimated. When our guests arrived at the Marae, the first thing I noticed was how many people were there to support us, around 100! When our guests arrived at the Marae, a formal spiritual ceremony was performed to welcome our guests onto the Whenua (land), similar to the one we participated in at the beginning of the semester. Only this time, we students were on the home side because we were already welcomed as part of the people. As the ceremony came to an end, we, the home side, created a line where we would greet individual people at part of the Whenua, traditionally with a handshake, hug, and kiss on the cheek.
After the ceremony, we all gathered inside the Wharenui. The Wharenui is the communal house for Maori of New Zealand where the living and dead can join together as one. It is believed to be the best place to connect with our ancestors. In order to enter the Wharenui, you need to be invited. Thankfully, we were all successfully invited into the Wharenui by the ancestors through the director of the Marae. EcoQuest Director, Ria, began the day with an introduction to Directed Research Project importance and objectives. Then, Chris, my groups' mentor, headed up to the front of the room to introduce my project, Hochstetter's frog. I was the first student speaker of the day. Lucky me.
My focus was introducing our project and Hochstetter's frogs. After 5 minutes of wearing down my own voice, I passed the spotlight to Jess, who passed it to Miranda, and so on, until our presentation was complete. After the presentation was over, we were asked many questions, including "how many rocks did you search and how many of those had frogs?" We searched just over 17,000 rocks, and found 128 frogs. Compared to previous years, this was a phenomenal ratio. When my group finished, the lizard team presented, followed by both biodiversity groups, and stream group.
Before heading back to EcoQuest campus at the end of the day, I reflected on what I had just experienced. The biggest thing that stuck out to me was the fact that American students were on the home side of the Marae ceremony. It was such an incredible feeling of being connected with not only the people of New Zealand but everything this country has to offer, such as the whenua (land), awa (ocean), and maunga (mountains).
Our last days in New Zealand were ours to do as we pleased…for the most part. We convinced Rebekah, John, and Maree to take us to a beach that was nearby and subtly hidden from most of the New Zealand population. They knew exactly where to take us and it was a beautiful day at the beach, to say the least.
On our last night, Maree started a bon fire towards the far side of EcoQuest campus. Every one of us sat around the fire from sunset to just before sunrise, talking about our amazing adventures in New Zealand. Just before sunrise, we all walked down to the beach for the final EcoQuest sunrise. Not only was the view spectacular, but it was comforting to be surrounded by such outstanding people, especially in time of departure. When the sun rose, it was time to leave EQ.
I currently sit in the Auckland International Airport, reflecting on the past 16 weeks. In all honesty, no words can describe what I have experienced. Every emotion, ranging from sadness to overwhelming joy, flooded my body on a daily basis. There are simply no words.
These are the memories that I am going to remember the most. The ones that you can't put words too. Put simply, it's a feeling. The feeling of warmth, joy, and happiness in your heart and soul. Every inch of your body tingles from excitement. As I sit at my gate, looking out the window at my final view of New Zealand, I can't help but feel my heart swell, bigger and bigger. Expanding more and more, filling with love, joy, happiness, sadness, and excitement. Until finally, the swelling stops. And I realize that part of my heart has broken off and will forever remain in New Zealand. This little part of my heart isn't something that can be seen or touched. Rather, it is an invisible light that lingers high above the trees, across all of the places that I have journeyed too. It is a light that I have seen in EcoQuest Alumni prior to my journey. It is the light I saw in Maree, John, Chris, Ria, Jono, and Rebekah while sedated in my journey. And it is the light that I not only leave behind in New Zealand, but bring with me back to the States to share with the ones that I love.
My EcoQuest Family
