Hi Everyone!!

So I figured this was the easiest way to keep everyone updated with my adventures in New Zealand. I get the internet pretty regularly, so hopefully I'll be able to update pretty often. I want this to serve as a way for you guys to know whats going on here, but also as a journal for me. By the end, it will hopefully be a colorful illustration of my journey across this country!

So I guess I'll start from the beginning...on the 26 of January I boarded the Air NewZealand flight for a 13 hour ride. This actually went way better then expected with the help of Tylenol PM. We landed the morning of the 28th to an intense search by the NZ biosecurity department. (They have to make sure we aren't bringing any diseases or pests into the country). After we got out of the gates we were welcomed by three staff members: Elizabeth, Bruce and John. We then got into three vans and rode for about an hour before we arrived at the EcoQuest campus. It is actually a fairly big plot of land, that has a beautiful location. If you look east, we have a view of ocean, west is a view of the mountains, and north is the Whakatiwai river. Needless to say, we were all impressed. After a short introduction to the staff and to each other, we were directed to our cabins. Im living in cabin 5 with a girl named Cathryn, who goes to Mt. Holyoke. After we moved into our new homes, we spent the rest of the afternoon touring the campus and getting to know our way around.

The next 3 days basically consisted of orientation information. We learned all the rules and regulations of EcoQuest as well as New Zealand (my favorite, you're not allowed to wear shoes inside because it's considered disrespectful). Saturday morning we were allowed to go into Thames and explore the city. They have the biggest main street of any city in NZ, which was cool to see. There were also a ton of stands up for the Saturday morning market, selling mostly food. The food here is actually AMAZING, so none of us found the need to purchase anything. After we got back, we had our final afternoon of orientation.

Sunday morning we woke up early to go on our first overnight camping trip and officially start school. We went up into the pinnacles of the coromandel, which is on the eastern coast of the northern island. We powered our way up on the first day, but made a lot of stops to observe different forest compositions. The main point of this exercise was to see the big picture, how different conditions effect certain tree species, and let me tell you...after 2.5 years at Michigan, this way of thinking is not easy. In a way, they want you to be so simple it's hard. After observing probably 7 sites as we worked our way up, we finally reached our hut (which was actually much nicer then we expected). We all picked our bunks, stretched, and started making dinner. After we ate we had a final lession about how words like nature, environment, and wilderness have so many different meanings to different people... it was actually very eye opening. Then we all got to bed early because at 5 am the next day we got up to hike to the very top of the pinnacles. This was hard for two reasons: it was dark outside, and it was ALL stairs. However, all the pain was worth it to watch the sunrise over the Pacific ocean. After about an hour, we decided to hike back down to the hut for a delicious breakfast of pancakes. After breakfast, we hiked back down the hill (which was a surprising amount of uphill also), again stopping to observe different forest compositions. But let me tell you, it was great once we finally got to the bottom and back to campus.

Then all day yesterday and this afternoon we had class. It is actually kind of refreshing to be back in a typical classroom, but hard to be productive in such a beautiful place. Nevertheless, work finally kicked us all in the butt tonight because we have our first big assignment due tomorrow. We have to write a paper based on our findings during our hike, being as specific as possible, not easy. However, we are all motivated because tomorrow night begins our three day weekend!! This is our time off to do whatever we want, where ever we want to do it. One of the girls Hannah and I are going on an adventure to Lake Taupo, which I will update on once we get back!

Finally, the last thing I want to talk about is what we did this morning. To my surprise, New Zealand is a country with a very prominent indigenous people called the Maori. They are a very spiritual people and the most important fact about a person, to them, is their ancestory. In Maori culture your ancestory, and nothing else, defines who you are and everything that you come from. Because we are in such a rural area, the Maori are very prominant. Therefore, we had to go to their Marae this morning for a powhiri. A marae is a general meeting place for all the Maori in a specific area. The powhiri is a ceremony where we asked to be welcomed innto their community and they allow us. This is a big deal because they are welcoming us into the place of their acestory, which is the core of who they are. Now, whenever we travel throughout NZ we can say we are part of Kiaua (which is the town the Maori identify with). The ceremony was actually much more informal then I thought it was going to be, but it was very interesting. Basically their male elder speaks on behalf of their community, then our male elder speaks on behalf of us (all in Maori by the way). Then then welcome us across the sacred middle land, where we shake hands and introduce ourself to all of the Maori people that were present. Afterwards, we walked into the wharakai, which is the room where food is served. We then just enjoyed some traditional Maori food before we walked back to campus. It was definitely an experience to remember.

So, thats about it from me right now...look for another update about this weekend probably on monday or so. I love you all!!!