Northland BU Field Trip

Hello everyone!

Since the last time I have written, I have gone on the BU field trip to Northland. I'll tell you all about that later but just wanted to share a couple things I have picked up in Auckland. The first is that they say "cheers" and "choice" all the time. "Cheers" is used more as a sign-off but also means "good" and "sure." "Choice" does not seem to be the same "choice" as we use in the US, but rather also means "good" and "sure." Another interesting thing is that NZ currency does not have pennies or nickels. Therefore, if what you are buying is $1.01-1.05 you pay $1.00, but if the cost is $1.06-1.09 you pay $1.10. I thought that was interesting. Also there are no poisonous animals in NZ, therefore all the other animals and insects grow a lot larger. Alright now onto the update:

Thursday, January 14th
On Thursday we had an interesting New Zealand Culture class. It was taught by a guest lecturer, Kahu. Kahu has been our Maori go-to person since we arrived and he has come on our field trips too. Our class was taught in the Maori meeting house called a Marae. We went to the University of Auckland one, and Kahu (with the help of some of his friends) told us about the different parts of the marae and the history behind it. The marae is thought of as a body and living being, with ancestors throughout it. When the ancestors have their tongues out, it means they are speaking to the person inside. While in the marae, we learned how to count in Maori and how to introduce ourselves. The president of the Maori students association was there and he encouraged all of us to attend the events that the club hosts during the semester. It was a very interesting experience and I hope to go back!

Friday, January 15th
On Friday we began our BU sponsored fieldtrip to Northland. Northland is the region right above Auckland and stretches to the top of the North Island (for those of you who do not know, New Zealand has a North and South Island, Auckland is in the upper part of the North Island). Anyway we began our adventure at 9 am and drove up the West Coast. We then arrived in Dargaville for lunch. Dargaville is a really small town and just had a couple convenience stores and cafes. However, it was the first time that I tried a Magnum Ice Cream Bar and it was incredibly delicious!! Magnum ice cream bars are store bought packaged ice cream bars but they are so good! There have been posters and signs for them all around the Auckland buses and I am so happy that I had one! I tried the almond kind, which was so good, but there are a lot more out there too! Anyway, after eating the magnum bar we got back on the bus and learned some Maori words and came up with Maori names for each other. My Maori name means “Sunny Peak” because my roommate wanted to call me “tall” but there was no word for “tall” so she decided “peak” was the closest. We then arrived at the Waipoua Kauri Forest. New Zealand is famous for their Kauri trees. The Maori and Pakeha (Europeans who moved to NZ) used to use Kauri wood for everything, but they ended up chopping too many down so now the Kauri trees are more respected and not used as much. and this particular forest has “Tane Mahuta” which is a very BIG Kauri tree. After looking at the tree and walking around the forest, we got back on the bus and headed for another town on the West Coast: Opononi. Opononi used to be famous for Opo the dolphin, but Opo has been long-gone and now Opononi is famous for sand dune boarding! We got off right on the water and took a boat over to the big sand dunes. Once arriving at the sand dunes, everyone was given a boogie board, we then hiked up the hill (which was really steep!) and went sand dune boarding! How it works is you run with your board then lie down on it and go down the hill into the water. It is SO much fun! We were there for over an hour so we had plenty of time to try sand dune boarding lots of times. Then when we were waiting for the second boat to come back, some of us went swimming in the water and explored around the sand dunes. We then went back on the bus and crossed to the East Coast to the Bay of Islands. The Bay of Islands is one of the biggest tourist attractions of Northland. It is well known for its beautiful beaches and it has a more tropical climate. We stayed in Paihia at the Saltwater Lodge. My room was for 5 people with a bunk bed and three single beds – it was a bit tight but fun. After getting settled in, we had a BBQ at the lodge, which was very delicious.

Saturday, January 16th
On Saturday we walked into the more downtown section of Paihia (which was a couple blocks away) and boarded the ferry for Russell. Russell is the town across the water from Paihia and was once called “the hellhole of the South Pacific.” This was because back in the late 1700s/early1800s, Australia was used as a penal colony and some of the inmates would jump ship and swim to New Zealand instead and settle in Russell. Anyway, now Russell is a very nice town. When we arrived in Russell we took a tour of the Pompallier House. Back in the 1800s when missionaries were settling New Zealand, they set up Pompallier as a printing and leather factory to create prayer booklets in the Maori language. The Maori had very high literacy rates. Pompallier opened in 1842. The missionaries would make the prayer booklets at Pompallier and distribute them throughout New Zealand. We had a tour of the factory and saw how they created the leather to bind the books in the tannery and how they printed and bound the books together. It was very interesting because we were also able to see how New Zealanders lived during that time, because they try to keep the Pompallier House looking as similar to what it was like in the 1800s as possible. After that we had lunch in Russell and then all departed for our various excursions. I decided to go on a boat ride and swim with dolphins with a couple other people from the program. When we got on the boat the people warned us that we may not see dolphins and even if we see them we may not be able to swim with them, but within 20 minutes of setting out we found Bottlenose dolphins! They were right beside our boat and were pretty much putting on a show for us – flipping and swimming around! After putting on fins and snorkel gear we were able to get into the water and swim with the dolphins, in their natural habitat. This was completely different than other dolphin encounters I have done in Florida. Here we were getting into the water and had to swim after the dolphins. I was lucky and when I was in the water the dolphins were pretty close and I was able to see dolphins swimming right next to me, watch them under water and be right next to them when they were flipping around – it was so fun! After that, we got back on the boat and still had another 2 hours so we cruised around the Bay of Islands – it was so beautiful! I sat up in the front of the boat and just took it all in. After a while, we were let off at an island and got to walk around the beach for a little bit before heading back to Paihia. After I got back to Paihia I read on the beach for a little which was nice. Another group of people from the trip had gone fishing and brought back a lot of fish for us! We went to a restaurant that prepared the fish and we got to eat it. After I had some delicious gelato.

Sunday, January 17
On Sunday we had to pack up and leave Paihia. We first went to the Waitangi Treaty House. The Waitangi Treaty was signed in 1840 between England and New Zealand at Sir Busby’s house. Busby was the honorary British resident of New Zealand. The Treaty has three articles. The first article is controversial because in the English version is says that all New Zealanders cede their sovereignty to the Queen of England, but the Maori thought that only referred to the British living in New Zealand and not to them. In the second article, it says that if New Zealand citizens would like to sell their land, it must first be offered to the Queen. In the third article, the Queen grants all New Zealand citizens the same rights as British citizens. We toured around the grounds, saw where the treaty was signed and walked through the museum. It was really neat to be there since we had learned about the Waitangi Treaty in our NZ Culture class last week. We walked around the grounds, saw the canoes (called waka) that the Maori used, saw the Maori meeting house (Marae) and went inside Busby’s house, which as been turned into a museum. After the Waitangi Treaty House we went to Haruru Falls. Haruru Falls is a small beautiful waterfall, we were able to look around for a bit. We then stopped in a town which has a public restroom designed by an artist. The bathroom has no straight lines which is cool, and the town also has a bakery which famous donuts which were delicious. Then we drove to Whangarei for lunch. We then got back on the bus and drove to Wenderholm Regional Park, which is a gorgeous beach. At the beach we learned how to play rugby! Rugby is a really strange game but it was a lot of fun to try to figure out how to play. You can only pass to the side or back and you have to be in a straight line. It was a fun introduction and the scenic background was incredible. We then headed back to Auckland (aka real life), ate dinner and started doing work.

This week seems like it will be filled with work. I have a couple essays to work on and am going to figure out how to navigate through the library to read up on colonial New Zealand to write an essay on it.

I took pictures of almost everything that I just talked about, so you can look at them here: http://picasaweb.google.com/LSOL817/NorthlandBUFieldTrip?feat=directlink

I hope you are all have a good start to the week. For those of you at Brandeis: have a great start to spring semester! Everyone who just left for abroad: have so much fun! I miss you all and would love updates from all of you!!

Lots of love from Auckland!!