Taupo

Today I ventured about an hour south of Rotorua to Lake Taupo which is the largest lake in New Zealand.

But first- last night I went to a Maori dinner and show at a local tribe right outside of town. It was a fabulous cultural experience where we were able to eat authentic food,  learn history and dances, and see animals native to NZ.The whole gathering consisted of about 80 people coming from 17 different countries.  My table consisted of a couple from England on their eighth month of a nine month world tour (typical)  and a family from Indonesia.  The couple on the world tour is headed to San Fran in a few days where they will travel across the US for their final weeks of the trip!

The Maori have a similar story to our Native Americans in America. Living with a certified Lumbee Indian,  I understand a lot about the culture :)
Anyway,  the best part of the night were the dances.  They explained that each tribe has their own version of the Haka (seen before many rugby games) which is a traditional war dance. I cannot wait to tell my girls that this will be part of our spring dance performance!

We had a delicious meal which was cooked using white hot stones (the traditional way) consisting of lamb,  potatoes and a variety of salads. We had pavlova,  fruit,  and other cakes for dessert.

After dinner we travelled to an animal farm (small zoo) where we saw the kiwi bird! They are sneaky little guys that only come out for a second for you to get a good look. We learned a lot about the kiwi bird (which is native to NZ and cannont actually fly) and saw many other interesting animals including: lizards,  parrots, and trout (fun fact: Lake Taupo has the highest trout population in the world).

This morning I stopped at Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland to see the Lady Knox Geyser erupt and to check out the many geothermal pools,  lakes,  and craters that make up the park. It was fascinating!  A guide compared this area to Yellowstone National Park and I'll have to say it definitely reminded me of seeing Old Faithful erupt many years ago.

After the park I drove down to the Lake, had my best sushi lunch so far on the trip (the only meal I didn't take a picture of) and then headed to my rock climbing adventure.

Like most of the adventurous things I've done so far on the trip,  I wasn't too nervous for this. But I'll admit that it was terrifying and I think I'm still shaking a little from the Giant Swing at the end.

I had the course all to myself and completed about six high ropes challenges including walking across a wooden beam and tight rope, and jumping off a stump to catch onto a swing (absolutely terrifying). The guide was awesome and only tried to scare me a little. He said school groups as young as six years old use this ropes courses and the oldest person to go on the giant swing is 82... now I have a great idea for birthday gifts for my grandparents!

For any of you who watch the Real World/Road Rules Challenges (plays on vintage MTV in my house daily) that's exactly what this event was like.  It was very scary but lots of fun!

Tonight is the big rugby game!  It continues to be all the talk around here and although we're a few hours from the stadium were the game is being played,   we are still in Waikato which is the home team- Go Chiefs!

Rotorua

I started the day exploring Rotorua by walking through gardens and among geothermal pools. It is phenomenal how many areas there are around here to bath in a pool, see a geyser or take a mud bath.

After a while I headed to the Polynesian Spa and opted for a full body massage in addition to bathing in the pools. It was discounted, and I had access to private pools so I went for it. The massage was amazing and afterwards I sat in a few different thermal pools overlooking Lake Rotorua. It was worth it!

After,   I had a nice lunch in town and headed towards OGO which is an adventure activity I had on my list. Many people know this as Zorb.. which it is. Basically,  some zorb guys wanted to start their own business and made a track that is twice the size.

OGO is like an extreme water slide and was a very thrilling 2 minutes of my life. I opted for the two ride package so I went down thr straight path and then the zig zag. You jump into a huge ball that is filled with some water and get pushed down a hill where you slosh around the entire time. You get to the bottom and hop in a hot tub until you take your next ride. It was honestly such a fun time! 

Now I'm headed to a traditional Maori dinner and dance where I will learn about the indigenous people of this area. I'm excited to add some cultural background to my adventurous day!

Waitomo Caves/Rotorua

Today I travelled down to the Waitomo Caves for an exciting adventure that I've been looking forward to since I began booking my trip. There are numerous glow worm cave adventure packages for this area ranging in terms of length and difficulty.  I selected a 5 hour tour that promised to do it all.

I travelled with two other couples, both of whom were on long travelling adventures. One couple from France,  was in their fifth month of a year tour of the world and the other couple were actually from the states and were on a three month expedition of Asia, Australia,  and surronding islands. This would be probably the tenth time someone asked why I wasn't stopping in Figi on my way home. If school meetings only started a few days later!

For the trip, we were suited up in wet suits and boots and headed to the caves. Because we would be abseiling and rock climbing, we had a quick training before we entered the cave. The beginning was scary as we abseiled 27 meters (about 100 feet) into the caves. We walked through the water upstream to a few different areas where the glow worms lived. (These caves are famous for the thousands of glow worms that live in the rock). With our headlamps off we could see hundreds of the worms- it looked like a beautiful starry night. 

Next, we tubed down the cave and saw some fascinating rock formations and more glow worms. We climbed through very narrow rocks (one of the few times being tall does not work to your advantage) and hiked around the caves. The entire cave we were in is about five miles long,  but tours only travel through a small part of it because the caving can become very narrow and  dangerous. 

It was a little chilly during our expedition but it was interesting to learn that the caves are nearly the same temperature regardless of the season or temperature outside. While it wasn't freezing, we were able to see our breath which we learned was due to the 100% humidity in the caves.

After about two and a half hours of exploring we were headed out by rock climbing back to the top. I was the first to attempt this and have to admit that it was pretty tough! By the end, we were exhausted.  I bought a cd of all the photos from the trip and am excited to share those when I return.

I headed over about two hours to the east to Rotorua which is a popular tourist destination in the North Island. It is known for the thermal spas, lush gardens, and adventure activities.  The city sits on a volcanic rift so there are plenty of all natural pools and spas to relax in.

Rotorua is also known for its emphasis on the Maori culture ( the indigenous people of New Zealand). Around 35% of the population is Maori which makes it the greatest concentrated area of Maori in the country.

Tonight I became a little concerned as I walked around looking for dinner because the streets seemed desolate.  Luckily I turned a corner to find a fabulous farmers market/festival complete with food, wine, music and souvenirs. I had an amazing lamb pita pocket and a delcious caramel choclate pie that was easily 1500 calories.  Tomorrow I need to go for a long hike!

I have found myself using DC as my location in the states ( figure it's more well known) and am happy to report that many people reply back with,  "oh near the Baltimore Ravens- superbowl champs!" I love it! People here love the idea American football but currently the Super 15 upcoming rugby final is all the rave. The radio is literally counting down the minutes until the game on Saturday night. This is the same team (Waikato Chiefs) that I saw play last Saturday.  Unfortunately,  I'll be too far away to attend this week, but I'll definitely be watching- hopefully with some rowdy fans!

Last Day in Mellons Bay

Last night I had a fabulous home cooked kiwi dinner with Ness, the organizer of this segment of my trip and her family. Before dinner,  we stopped to pick her daughter up from Netball practice which is considered the most common women's sport in NZ. It's a lot like basketball with a little team handball mixed in. Something we'll definitely have to try this year in my class!

For dinner, We had amazing roasted lamb with mint jelly, vegetables,  and pavlova for dessert (they refer to dessert as pudding). You honestly haven't lived until you've had pavlova (or chocolate covered hokey pokey- see last picture,  or hokey pokey ice cream).  It's kind of like a merguine cake with whipped cream,  fresh kiwis,  and chocolate on top. Absolutely delcious!!

I chatted for hours with Ness and her family about the upcoming stops on my trip,  New Zealand and American differences and plenty of other topics.  I was fascinated to learn all about the common practice of New Zealanders going on an OE,  or overseas experenice to travel and live in other countries.  It is fairly common for young people to finish college, work for a few years to pay off debt and collect some money, and then leave NZ for a few years travelling the world. Many kiwis travel for a 2-3 years all over before they settle back home to start a family. Sounds like a fabulous idea!

Mellons bay is a very affluent area so it made sense when almost everyone I met had travelled around the world but furthermore I learned that New Zealanders really value other cultures and make a constant effort to travel becuase they live in such a small confined country. Ness and her husband explained that most kiwis really do live for the moment and spend their money when they want on what they want and worry less about saving then we do. Overall, it was such a wonderful night with a great family and I'm excited for our future plans to come back to visit and take a trip to Figi!

During the morning today I observed a PE teacher at Pigeon Mountain Primary which is in the same area as the schools I've attended this whole week. This school was similar to Mellons Bay besides having a PE "Specialist" who serves as a reliver to the homeroom teacher every other week. We played some soccer in the morning and then moved on to gymnastics later in the day.

Somehow it has taken me until today  to realize that kiwis are not keen on wearing shoes (they are keen or saying "keen" though : ). During the past few days I noticed some kids walking around barefoot but assumed there was a reason behind it. Today, the kids came running out on the wet field barefoot to play soccer and I knew something was up. Turns out, many New Zealanders really don't wear shoes too  often,  in fact,  they arent required in most public places (restaurants etc.). The rest of the day I started noticing how everyone was barefoot!

I also enjoyed learning about the school's ESOL (english as a second language) program. Currently,   the school is hosting 30 Korean students through their ESOL program.  Each term,  the schools hosts a set of about 30-40 korean students for about six weeks- many of whom live with host families in the neighborhood. It seems like such an amazing experience for both sets of students!

After school, I had a great sushi lunch, stopped in a candy store (they call all candy lollis) to grab a few necessary items and headed down to Hamliton which is the third most populated city in NZ (keep in mind there are about 4 million total in the whole country so imagine the opposite of the DC/Baltimore Metropolitan area in terms of traffic and crowds and that's what its like everywhere here.

During the evening here in Hamliton I visited a information center to get a little feedback on my upcoming adventures. The woman who assisted me was super friendly and helpful!   Upon leaving,  I asked for the best way to get towards the botanical gardens which were not far from where we were. The woman seemed a little uneasy and started to explain how the sun would be setting soon and it might not be the best idea to travel there at this time. She quickly cut herself off and said something like, "oh well you're from America so you can probably handle yourself in a dangerous situation like that." Obviously I took her original advice! I'm not sure the people over here have the best perception of America. 

Tonight I had an outstanding meal from a restaurant in downtown Hamilton. I've been waiting for the right time for fish and chips and  this was definitely it! 

Tomorrow I head down to the Waitomo caves for a five hour adventure including abseiling,  rafting and climbing through glow worm caves. I'm psyched for this experience! !

Bucklands Beach Intermediate School Visit

I have to start off by saying that I'm writing this sitting on the beach over looking Half Moon Bay which is right off the coast of Auckland and feeds into the Pacific.  Still in the dead of "winter"  and it's about 70 degrees with the bright sun setting over the water which is easily warmer than it was in Cape Cod a few weeks ago. It's no wonder Kiwis are viewed in such a happy light. .  If I lived here I wouldn't have a complaint in the world!

Today I had another fabulous day of school observations as I attended each level of schooling throughout the day (primary,  intermediate,  and high school). I started my day at Mellons Bay Primary and sat in on a Year 1/2 class ( k-first graders). There are some combined classes like this in the school which helps with categorizing students based on age.

Before the class began,   the teacher asked the students to guess where I was from... answers that included Africa,  England, and Australia :) The morning meeting confirmed that all young students are in fact the same-  very curious..  lots of questions at every opportunity! During class, a student shared his "All About Me"  poster as the students practiced writing sentences.  First they wrote a sentence about what they liked about the poster and then they wrote a sentence about what they liked about the student who was presenting. I enjoyed the teachers positive behavior method where students were given the okay to put up a frog or lily pad next to their name when they had behaved especially well.  It was a clever way to quickly and efficiently reinforce positive behavior without disrupting the class.  Next we travelled to the multipurpose room for PE where the students participated in the gymnastics stations that we discussed yesterday.  It was a great lesson that I  diligently collected the plans for and will definitely be using back at Calvert.

After morning tea I headed over to Bucklands Beach Intermediate School which holds about 600 students in Year 7 & 8 (12/13 year olds). I received a quick run down of the PE/ Health and Sport curriculum from the Sport Director (AD) Stacey K (great name!). She explained that they try to integrate the subjects as much as possible and showed some of the detailed lesson plans that they use. Her role is more of an admin for sport and she's responsible for planning out all PE and Health lessons and delivering them to the homeroom teachers to use.

I had the special opportunity to help out with a school Cross Country race which was held at the nearby high school (called McClans College- I snapped a picture of their uniforms for comparison).  They have a few of these races throughout the year for students to improve their fitness- an idea that I'm hoping to bring back to Calvert!

The views from the high school were incredible! ! I was stationed on the course near the soccer fields and could not stop taking pictures and basking in the beauty of the view of the bay. The kids did great job with the very hilly course that was almost 4k.

Tonight,  I'm having dinner at Mrs. Elliott's house - the teacher who so graciously planned my time here in Mellons Bay. I'm excited for some authentic NZ food and a chance to chat with her family about the remaining stops on my trip.

I included a few pictures of houses around here to give everyone an idea of why I need to save about a million $$ to move back.  Hopefully they'll reverse the recent law banning foreigners from buying property by the time I'm rich!

Mellons Bay School Visit

Today, I began my school visitations starting with Mellons Bay Primary which is a school located about 30 minutes south east of Auckland. This visit was especially important because my entire idea of travelling to NZ stemmed from a visit to Room 19 at Mellons Bay. Here's the back story:  during senior year of college when most of us were student teaching in Salisbury and Ocean City,  one of my roommates (Jaime) came to Mellons Bay for her 6 week observation. When Jaime returned,  she couldn't say enough good things about New Zealand,  the school,  the kids, and most importantly her mentor teacher Mrs. Elliott. When I had the idea to travel over here,  I contacted Mrs. Elliott who welcomed me to visit and even set up observations of nearby schools during my stay.

Well I finally had a chance to see what all the excitement was about and I'll have to say that my expectations were exceeded.

Today was the first day of school after their two week holiday. Schools here work like a year round school.  They have about 6 weeks off from Christmas- February to mark the end of the school year.  When school starts back in February,  the students attend for about 6 weeks and then have a two week break which is the pattern that continues throught the year- sounds like an idea we should adopt in the US :)

Mellons Bay educates students ages 5-11 and they are grouped in classes based on their year in school. For example,  today I was primarily with a year 4 class which was composed of 8 & 9 year old students. In NZ,  you start school the day after your fifth birthday so students start at any time throughout the year in Year 0. After they complete that part of the year and get acquanited,  they start year one. 

The school is essentially a series of buildings that contain two or three classrooms all of which open to the outside. Traveling to the library or another classroom means running outside to get there which solves the common problem in schools of talking in the halls. Teachers here teach through the day besides morning tea and lunch- meaning the teach all special subjects within their homeroom class.  The entire school has morning tea (basically snack/recess)  and lunch at the same time. When the time comes,   students walk outside and find a space on the blacktop or playground to eat. There are a few teachers who monitor the school and eventually the students have time to play. 

During reading and math,  the class (28 students) is broken up into groups based on ability.  The teacher works with one group at the time to review concepts and answer questions. While this happens,  all other students are focused on their work which was located throughout the room. I've never seen such a large group of students on task with little reminders from the teacher.  It was outstanding!

I had some great conversations with the students about what to do in New Zealand,  the differences between American English and Kiwi English, and what American schools are like. Their idea of American schools included mean teachers yelling at students to be quiet all the time! I explained that our school and teachers are similar then at Mellons Bay and they were relieved. We discussed some differences in our language- here are a few of them:
Braids= plaits
Vacation= holiday
Trash=rubbish
Napkins=servittes
Bathing suits=togs

In the afternoon I helped out with Year 0 classes in their first day of gymnastics. Each term the entire school completes the same sport/  activity for PE and each team takes a turn supplying the lessons.  The kids were split into teams and I helped explain and demonstrate their gymnastics stations.  Watching the little 5 year olds in PE made me really miss my Calvert kids!  They are just so cute at that age.

I was so impressed with the organization of the class,  and how everyone seemed to be on task the entire time.  Students worked at their own speed, in their own ability group and had help when needed. Additionally,  the whole school had lunch and recess for over an hour with about 5 teachers to supervise without any issues.  No injuries,  no arguing, no tears.  Everyone seemed to find something to do and enjoy themselves.  Students thrived with the freedom they had during this time to play how they wanted with anyone in the school. As a whole,  the students were very independent and sweet! And their accents were as cute as I anticpated them to be :)

Tomorrow and Wednesday I'll be visiting other schools in the area.  I've never visited a place like Mellons Bay- absolutely beautiful! ! It's like a beach town where every area is surrounded by the bay/water.  The houses are amazing!  And the towns have cute shops and restaurants. My hotel is beach front,  two stories, with a kitchen and king size bed ( a major upgrade from my hostel in Auckland!) . The last two pictures are views from the hotel... I'm already considering staying another night :)