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….