more sun, less city

 So as I write this I’m listening to some reggae island music I picked up at the Avondale Markets this weekend. That’s something that I really didn’t realize about New Zealand before I came here; this a Pacifica island as much as it is a British colony. There’s huge Polynesian influence, Pacific tradition, and the whole country runs on “island time” (ie everyone is mad laid back and its no biggie when I roll into class ten minutes late). You really have to get out of Auckland to get a good sense of it and that’s exactly what I did for my recent Bay of Islands excursion.

        

           This trip was paid for by HWS (yayyy!) and I think I speak for my whole group when I say that it was an amazing outing that produced some awesome memories. I could ramble on about the trip for hours, but I doubt I can truly capture with words and stories why the experience meant so much to us.

whale vertebrae leading to the Omaha Marae

• The trip started off with cultural workshops at the Omaha Marae including mau rakau (traditional martial arts) on the beach, ‘E Papa Waiari’ (traditional song and game, so fun/hard), learning how to play traditional instruments including the conch shell "putatara", wooden trumpet "pukaea", flutes made of bone "koauau", whirling blade "purerehua", and waking up at 5 am to watch the sunrise over the ocean (NZ being one of the first places in the world to witness the rising sun, after Japan). We were also lucky enough to engage in powerful discussions with one of our hosts, “Bianca”, about Maori perspectives and about current environmental problems such as offshore drilling. We all slept in the Marae (a meeting house and sacred space full of carvings and color to represent the history of this tribe). I could see the Southern Cross constellation and a few shooting stars just outside the window as I lay in bed. The experience was not flashy or touristy and, because of that, I learned so much from my short time there.

•   If you have not heard, there is currently a massive oil spill off the coast of NZ as a result of offshore drilling. Although it is on a much smaller scale, the situation is a stark reminder of our own mess on the Gulf Coast. You can read more about it here

 

Cape Reinga

 

wild kiwi horses

• Walked the path at Cape Reinga to the lighthouse located at the northern most tip of New Zealand. Maori believe when people die, their spirits travel north along a path until they reach a tree at this point and ‘jump off’. This is also where the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean currents collide, making a line of breaking waves perpendicular to the land.
• SANDBOARDING!!!! Such an awesome/mildly terrifying sport where you use a boogie-board type of thing to eliminate even the idea of friction as you slide head first down a massive sand dune. I screamed very loud, wiping out half way down the slope was my specialty (although I did have two good runs!). A solid face plant left me sporting an endearing-yet-repulsive sand beard and everyone was super jealous of it.
• Visited the ancient Kauri forests and gumdigger settlements. home of the oldest tree on earth (preserved by a peat bog).
•  Played around at Ninety-Mile Beach and the tour-truck drove us down along the beach for 70km. During this time we SAW A WILD HORSE HERD complete with a few foals AHH seriously such good luck! It was by far my favorite moment of the trip.

• Visited the Treaty of Waitangi site where the pact between the Maori and the Crown was produced and signed. This document is very controversial because the Maori and English translations are very different and, due to the word use, the Maori did not realize that by signing it they were surrendering their rights to the land.

touching the world's oldest tree

band practice

Another big thing I checked off the must-see list is that huge island volcano that lurks in the background of most of my photos. Rangitoto (Maori translation means 'Bloody Sky'). This is the youngest and largest volcano in the Auckland volcanic field and is only accessible by boat. It erupted several times between 600 and 500 years ago but is not expected to erupt again. The rocks here were a midnight black basalt, and there were huge ‘Aa’ lava flows that were still bare of vegetation even after all this time. Our tour guide was an American volcanologist and she gave the group a little geology lesson as we hiked through the bush to the summit, getting a view of the crater along the way. There are also lava caves and tubes that we didn’t have time to do on this day, but I know I’ll come back and explore later in the semester.

This past weekend a group of us went to the zoo, and the whole park was way better that I expected. In addition to the usual monkeys-lions-tigers-etc exhibits, the Auckland Zoo has very thoughtful exhibits specific to New Zealand and Australian 
wildlife. I was really enchanted by the NZ exhibits which included

being magically enchanted by the zoo

• a nocturnal forest (which housed bats, owls, and kiwi birds). The kiwi birds waddled about and used their long skinny snouts to hunt for grubs.
• several outdoor, walk-though aviaries full of native birds. This literally just felt like being back in the bush at Karekare
• an “island” section with seals, little blue penguins, and island reptiles
• a wetlands section with freshwater eel and waterfowl

Also this weekend I went salsa dancing for the first time! Ahh so fun, and I’m absolutely going again this Friday. My friend Melissa taught me some basics before we went out, and I had a few more good tutors throughout the night; by the end I was actually keeping up and acting like a coordinated person as I was tossed into countless spins and dips. I have got to get some salsa music on my itunes so I can use ‘dance practice’ as an excuse to procrastinate my homework.

taken from atop lion rock, with the 

classic finger-blocking-lens effect

            Also this weekend (I sound like a stuck record, but I packed a lot into this weekend!), we enjoyed a sunny day on Piha beach and climbed Lion Rock (te piha) for an awesome view of the coastline. That night we went into town for the All Blacks vs Aussie semi-final game WOOOO and the Blacks absolutely destroyed the Wallabies in a great game (great because we won and our defense was more effective than a rock wall). Everyone (well except for the wallabies) was out with their facepaint and flag capes, celebrating in the streets. Some guys on my bus even performed a loud haka (the Maori war dance) which was an awesome sight to cap the night.

            With the weather quickly improving and my commitment to thoroughly tour the North Island, I have the next four weekends absolutely booked with excursions outside Auckland. Here are my upcoming plans:

• Oct 21-23: Waiheke trip (island with great beaches and wine tour) + Rugby World Cup final in the city
• Oct 29-31: Roturua (thermal springs and geologic fields)
• Nov 5-6: Coromandel (beaches)
• Nov 11- 14^:  Taupo (largest lake in Australasia, planning to hike through active volcano fields)

and now for some teaching stuff because i'm not here just for the beaches!

I taught a bunch of classes a few weeks ago (as I mentioned in my last post) which was awesome, I love playing teacher. Right now the high school is on holiday break so instead my time is filled with these 3 hour lectures at Auckland University. The reason that the HWS New Zealand abroad program is advertised for students studying education is because New Zealand is renown for having this really progressive, multicultural, inquiry based model where the teachers have a lot more freedom HOW to teach effectively. While I can tell that the NZ secondary level schools (at least the one i'm placed at) are better organized and more creative than the US schools, I think that this "ideal classroom model" image is a success of primary level schools and early-childhood education programs... it is somewhat lost on upper level schooling. The other American students in my program who are placed in elementary schools confirm that the model does exist in their classrooms and they enjoy seeing it in action. Well whatever, I love teaching at the secondary level even though it is undoubtedly challenging. 

     In one of my uni classes with my American professor, we discussed the history of NZ schools. Historically, secondary level schools were taught and run by men (and almost all students were male because women were encouraged to pursue a domestic role); these schools were conservative, preoccupied with order and with examination results. Women teachers were really only involved in schooling the younger children where they experimented with and implemented new techniques for 'social and personal development'. Pretty cool, way to go ladies. 

    I taught 4 classes to 3 different groups of students. My first group is a year nine chemistry class that I assist with twice a week. These kids are familiar with me and they are super well behaved in general so the two classes I taught went perfect. The only issue is that, being a chem class, they had NO knowledge about any geologic concepts so we had to cover the basics like "why volcanoes exist? why are they found here in Auckland but not found where I live in the US?" before we could move into the lesson I had prepared. This is the class I will continue to teach a few lessons for next semester. 

    The second group I was a bit worried about teaching because everyday, when I observe them, these kids (75% of the class is boys) just ignore their teacher and goof around/talk/ throw stuff at each other and the teacher absolutely cannot get anything done. Somehow I managed to get this group to participate in the lesson, to focus moderately well (wayyy better than I usually observe) so I walked away pretty content with my classroom management skills haha. 

    The third group I taught are usually very laid back and thoughtful, but the teacher warned me that because the semester was almost over they have been becoming increasingly unfocused. They were probably my loudest group, but at the same time they were the most energetic to participate in the lesson so I don't really know how to read that. Lots of postive energy, mostly unproductive... but hey, I know what it's like when you're just counting the seconds until school break so I can't really blame them. It still went well, I was able to refocus them several times and was invited back by the teacher to do another lesson after break- YES!

    

Okay but seriously, everyone out there better be in support of the All Blacks this weekend THIS IS SERIOUS STUFF my city will actually close down and fall into a recession if we don't pull this off. Below is a quick video of the haka that was performed on my bus as well as the haka performed by the All Blacks as we watched the semi-finals in a pub downtown! 

Is this Auckland... or Rockland?

So I'm still alive. I can attribute my lack of blog posting to an increased workload at university. A few nights ago i considered using a new blog post to procrastinate writing my essay but, because I am just so marvelously mature, I produced a beaut seven page paper on the Maori spiritual connection with their land. Anyway now that that's all out of the way, I can write things that I actually know about, ha. 

hiking trail over black sand dunes? yeah that's cool

Warning, I talk about rocks a lot in this post. Can't resist.

Rock-house

First and foremost, I have decided where I am going to live for all of eternity. This weekend, Laura, Steph and I made our way to the Waitakere Ranges west of the city. Because Laura's host family has some good camping equipment, we are planning to camp in this region later on in the semester (when the weather is more predictable)- this was kind of our scouting mission for good trails. From the moment I stepped out of the car, I immediately fell in love with Karekare beach (site where the movie The Piano was shot, fun fact!). Beaches on the west coast of the North Island typically have black sand because they are iron-rich (product of the volcanoes) and thus magnetic. Anyway, I found a giant rock structure and climbed up it until I found the location where I'm going to build my future rock-house. Most hippie people dreaming of living in a tree-house or a forest canopy, but no, I'm going to live in this nook on the face of a giant rock.

We also visited Piha beach, which was equally beautiful and had amazing geological formations carved by the ocean. The cliffs were a mosaic of massive boulders and colorful rocks firmly "glued" into the steep sandstone cliffs. 

  

 

Laura visiting me in my new apartment

left: Dramatic waterfall in the Karekare Bush
right: Sedimentary cliffs, Piha

Tamaki Drive coastal bike route, from downtown Auckland

       Another amazing outing that I had recently was biking the northern shore of Auckland along Tamaki Drive. This route follows the coast line, passing through the popular beach towns of Mission Bay and Saint Helliers Bay, constantly in view of the harbor and Rangitoto, the giant island volcano.
      Early on in the trip I committed to biking barefoot. We stopped at a few beaches to collect shells, we rode out on the docks to get a better view of the boats, and eventually we came to a rocky-cove-like-thing where we played on the cliffs and put our feet in the water. We got a free show of the very talented 
kiwis that were out kite surfing and windsurfing on this incredibly windy day.

limestone and mudstone... YES!

    The cliffs on this beach had very distinct, very cool bedding layers of marine sediments (probably deposited from when this area was submerged underwater). The layers alternated between light colored limestone bands to a darker mudstone. There were thousands of names and messages that people had carved into these soft cliffs over time. Just as I was about to leave my own mark, I found my name already carved by someone (!!!) and now i'm on a mission to meet this other Lara residing in NZ so that we can make a Lara club and throw exclusive Lara parties only for people named Lara. Be jealous. 

Biking along the waterfront, Laura, Kat, and Khuram (our professor!)

                                                              After touring the Auckland Art Gallery with our group,

view from inside the crater

 Kiera and I hopped on an eastbound bus to Mt. Wellington (Maungarei, 'the watchful mountain'). I like, had a map, and kind of knew where I was going but I was definitely outside any suburbs of the city I was familiar with, so that afternoon was as much a game of navigation as it was an awesome hike. And can I just say that I have made so much use of my unlimited bus pass with these random adventures I get into, I love that thing and I think anybody that is studying abroad should be entitled to one. 

scoria and basalt

        Mt. Wellington has a deep crater and, unlike Eden, you can climb down into it. Kiera and I sat in that crater for about a half hour, memorized by how powerfully quiet it was down there. Despite the fact that there were major highways nearby and noisy birds/kids on the outer slopes, that crater was devoid of all sound. Occasionally the silence was broken by our feet shifting in the rocky debris or one of us announcing, “WHOAA MAN THIS SO WEIRD” ...but other than that... nothing. I collected scoria from the crater while Kiera collected flowers. Later we walked 5 km south through the towns of Panmure and Sylvia Park and finally caught a bus home just in time to                                                      watch the sunset. 

'there's our mountain, we are home'

navigation masters!! the slope of Mt. Welly

ripples from lava flow,
Meola Reef

I officially take more pictures
of rocks than people

   Another cool way I spent an afternoon was exploring the Meola Reef Reserve with Laura. 
This location is where the lava flow from the Three Kings eruption flowed into the sea and cooled, forming a long black tidal flat complete with oysters, crabs, and other marine critters. Afterward, I made my way to Western Springs park which is a larger reserve, and I saw all sorts of waterbirds and, most importantly, BUNNIES! REALLY CUTE ONES AHHH!

my sheep herd :) who hated me

Four of us spent an afternoon exploring One Tree Hill, one of the larger members of the Auckland Volcanic field. There’s no 'One Tree', it’s a long story, but there ARE a lot of sheep and, because its springtime, LAMB!!! Really cute, I’m a huge fan. I spent a good deal of time trying to pet one but they really were not into it. So I settled with “joining a herd” which consisted of me following around a flock of sheep until the unamused mother scared me away. No worries, we befriended a Siamese cat named Alfie who liked to chase little children around the mountain and have his ears scratched by Laura.

HWS PUT US IN TWIP ALREADY, HONESTLY!

        I'm teaching four classes this week, so my next post will probably be about that. One lesson is an in depth look at the Auckand volcanic field and a “tour” of the craters using GoogleEarth software. Another lesson is comparing NZ energy sources and energy consumption with those of the USA and other countries- that one is very discussion oriented and I’m excited to hear some more opinions about my ever-so-wasteful American culture. I’ve started booking trips to tour places outside Auckland on the weekends, and this upcoming weekend my entire study abroad group will be traveling to the Bay of Islands. It’s a weird    balance between work and play over here, but I’m cool with it.
     Even though I didn't really write anything it about it, i'm also enjoying the city-life a lot. Yesterday a group of us went down to the harbor to eat fish-n-chips and be harassed by seagulls. The weather was brilliant, everyone was out in the streets and the simple pleasures of that afternoon reminded me how lucky I am to have this experience, even through the tough stuff. I can't believe a month has gone by, does this mean i'm not considered a tourist anymore? Please? 

nope, still a tourist

ps: lawl at my post title, you know you love it!