BEST. WEEK. EVER. New Zealand Style.

I am in love with this place, and to the worry of many of you, I want to stay here forever…for the most part. We just spent the week at the Leigh Marine Lab and Poor Knights, aka my heaven on Earth.

As a warning, this is going to be an epically long blog since I have an entire week of awesomeness to pack into it. It is also probably going to lack pictures for the time being because I stupidly grabbed the wrong cord for my camera battery charger. UGH. That and the battery was almost dead to begin with. Go me. The one week that I especially wanted/needed an underwater camera. Owell, I got a few pics and hopefully other people got good shots.

We left for Leigh on Sunday, stopping to get wetsuits on the way. It was the first time I’ve ever worn a wetsuit, and let me tell you, they definitely are skin tight. For some reason they gave me an extra thick material and if I wore the jacket and pants together, I had an inch of material across my chest. Totally unnecessary, so I ended up 86ing the jacket most of the time. I did, however, have to wear it the first time we went out and I was unbelievably buoyant (even with 6 weights on). Ridiculous. We are supposed to have enough weights to be neutrally buoyant (eye level with water when floating vertically). However, my shoulders were out of the water…problem. So I added more weights (ended up being 3) and in the process of adding them to my weight belt, I beached myself on a rock like a whale. Special. I now know what problems whales face with their blubber…Good to know.

The 3 days we spent at Leigh were awesome. We snorkeled every day, did fish and kin (sea urchin) surveys and basically had no work, unless you were doing a presentation. We got a tour around the lab, which they are currently doing a ton of construction on. The building we stayed in was really nice, nicer than some dorms at school. What was really cool was that one of the grad students there was a past Eco-quester doing her masters work. :)

The entire week there was really chill and stress free. We had time to do whatever we wanted after dinner and didn’t have to stress about work. I got up for the sun rise one morning which was absolutely beautiful and went snorkeling the next morning. We saw huge stingrays, so cool!

We had a series of awesome lecturers throughout the week. All the talks were based around marine management which was cool to learn more about since I don’t have much background in it. We left for Poor Knights Wednesday, staying at a camp ground that night. Our room had triple bunks, there were pretty epic. I claimed a top bunk, which made getting back down in the morning interesting. We had a lecture from Wade Doak that night on the boat we’d be taking out the next morning. I have found my new idol. He. Is. Spectacular. I can’t put into words how crazy awesome he is and everything he has accomplished. In semi-simple terms, he and his family were invited by jacque cousteau to accompany him on a 3 month trip. OMG! I will leave it at that.

The next morning we left for Poor Knights. It was an hour boat ride out there and it turned out to be a gorgeous day. We have had the best luck with the weather, its crazy. We stopped at a harbor-ish area as our first destination to snorkel and there was only one other boat there. (BTW, Poor Knights is a marine reserve and no one is allowed to touch/take anything, or even allowed on land at all). I was able to get some pictures of this first stop before my camera completely died. It was so beautiful underwater; incredibly clear and the diversity is insane. The sea urchins here are huge and they have the most colorful sponges and sea anemones I have ever seen. SO AWESOME. I don’t know how long I was in the water for, but Steph and I were one of the first ones in and by far the last ones out. They had to keep some food out for us because we missed lunch.

Before moving to the next spot, a bunch of us were jumping off the second level of the boat into the water, so much fun! Our instructors got some awesome pictures of it.

From there we headed to Rico Rico cave. The caves and arches at Poor Knights were formed by gas bubbles in lava. This cave was gigantic. We drove into it (2 other boats already inside) and the acoustics were unbelievable. It is the equivalent of the Sydney opera house and holds an echo for 8 seconds. Apparently they have had a couple NZ bands play in there, which would have been SO cool. The captain of the boat blew a trumpet shell (like a conch shell) and the sound was spectacular. It actually sounded like the horns that orcs blow in LOTR, only better…way better. Next, there was a guy on the boat that brough a drum and recorder. He played the drum and sang first, so amazing. I have NEVER heard anything like it before. And when he played the recorder I thought I was going to die of shear happiness right then and there. I didn’t know someone could play a recorder like that. So unbelievably amazing.

From there we moved to one last snorkeling spot which is possibly where I had the best moment of my life. We wentto an area where there was an archway/cave type thing. We explored around it for a little while until we noticed a line of Blue Mao Mao swimming into the archway, so we followed. It was really neat to dive down and swim along with them. I made a couple of friends with some curious fish that swam right up to me. Once we entered the archway I literally gasped for breath. Inside there was a huge school of mao mao circling beneath us. I dove down in the middle and literally had thousands of fish circling me. IT WAS SO AWESOME. They were playing a ‘game’ on the rocks below which Wade referred to it as the invention of play, which is really neat. We stayed in there awhile just diving down with the fish. After awhile I made myself leave because my left ear was hurting, it wouldn’t clear half the time I dove.

I really wish I had my scuba cert and could have dove there. I guess it gives me a reason to go back, with a fully charged camera battery. Needless to say that it was one of the best days of my life and this week in general is probably the best week of my life.

And how to follow an amazing week is with an amazing weekend. There was a lot of back and forth about plans for the weekend and a few people were worried about it, but if I haven’t learned anything else here yet it’s that everything will be fine and to go with the flow. It was great not to have hour by hour plans and to do what we wanted. A group of us went to Whenagrei to rent a van (7 of us) and I proceeded to drive to the west coast. As in, I drove on the wrong side of the road AND car. Kind of cool, not gonna lie.

We drove to Trounsen park Thursday night and stayed at the DoC site there. We decided to do a short night walk into the bush in hopes of finding a kiwi…and we did! It was so cute! Rather large too and so awesome. It is rare to see a kiwi in the wild, go us! The next day we went up to the Kauri Forest and stopped at the larest Kauris trees in the world. They were HUGE! It’s hard to imagine something that large; one was 16.7 m around. That night we decided that we were going to go up to a DoC hut on a trail, but once we started we realized we weren’t going to make it before dark. So we pitched our tents on the side of a waterfall trek. Awesome night. It was filled with chasing possums and the best rendition of Lady Marmelade ever.

The next morning we headed back to small town we stopped at before to get some water and such only to run into a ‘Wild West Festival’. It was hysterical, complete with costumes and line dancing. I bought a beautiful pair of earrings and a ring, yay!

As if our weekend could get any better, it did. We headed north to the Hauraki Gulf and chilled on a beautiful deserted beach. It’s amazing how little people are at these places. Following our beach naps, a few of us went dune boarding. Yes, dune boarding. So much fun! I think I pulled a muscle in my shoulder though, oops. Climbing up dunes after a day of hiking turned out to be quite the task but totally worth it. We literally were boogie boarding on our stomachs, but down sand and into the water.

Last night we drove down to the Kai Iwi lakes and stayed at the campsite there (showers!). It was gorgeous. There was a short hike up to an awesome lookout where we watched the sunset.

Now I have to get back into school mode and slightly out of fantasy land. Midterm, presentation and paper this week, oh boy. It’s all good. After this past week, I’m pretty sure some work should be in order. Besides, I am here for school…right? ;)


Sunrise at Leigh


Snorkeling at Poor Knights!






7th largest Kauri tree in NZ (and the world...)


Dune Boarding!

Fun fact
Swim suits are called togs.

EcoQuest

Hello All!

We spent this week back at our EcoQuest base in Whakatiwai and pretty much did work all week. We have a bunch of things due tomorrow (the paper of which I just finished) and had our first quiz yesterday. I really need to work on my procrastination issues, it would have been nice to be able to chill tonight but I spent it all writing. One day ill learn…maybe.

We did a couple cool things this week like doing a transect shellfish survey and going to the Miranda shorebird regional park. The survey turned out to be a ton of fun with the group I was in. We were in mud flats counting shellfish and somehow it turned out to by hysterical. I got stuck several times and had to fish out my shoe. The shorebird park and center was also really awesome. We went out there at low tide and watched some birds, mostly godwits and wrybills, feed on the mud flats. There were a couple times that the entire flock left the ground in a unified swoop and passed overhead before settling back down. The sound they make with the wind was so awesome and I got a couple really cool videos of them.

I decided this week that I was going to get up and go for a bike ride/work out every morning before classes and such. A couple of us did it two days in a row but skipped today and since we are leaving for a week I guess it wont be happening again for awhile. The first day we went was awesome. It was a beautiful morning and we biked to a grass clearing by the beach to do some ab workouts. When we arrived, there was a guy sitting on a picnic table playing a recorder. So basically we were stretching and doing ab workouts with a beach front view, listening to the waves, birds and a random guy playing the recorder. It was perfect.

We are leaving tomorrow for Leigh and Poor Knights for marine biology week. IM SO EXCITED! We are basically snorkeling all week, I cant wait! I will have ungodly amounts of pictures when I get back, I am hoping my camera will hold them all. :)

Fun Fact
Parking is free, everywhere.

Coromandel

This past week has been pretty amazing. We went to the Coromanel and stayed in a youth hostel in Opoutere. The hostel was so nice! The room I stayed in fit 12 of us and had a fireplace, obviously we didn’t need it but it was cool. We basically took over the place and I kind of feel bad for the other people that were there but hopefully we weren’t too unbearable. We spent the week mapping or learning how to map (I still need to do my map). We kayaked several times which was SO much fun. I love kayaking. It was gorgeous and we had to intentionally tip ourselves over and awkwardly climb back into the kayaks like uncoordinated seals. It was hysterical.

The days were long but most of it was enjoyable which is good. Opoutere is gorgeous and we all wished that Ecoquest was where the hostel was; although, we definitely don’t have anything to complain about here. :) You know your professors/instructors are awesome when they hide in the bushes at night to scare the crap out of you going to the beach. I probably woke up the entire Coromandel with my scream.

The stars here are so amazing. I can’t put into words how beautiful they are. Stars at Shoals were incredible but somehow not even comparable to what we saw at the beach. There are absolutely no lights anywhere and you can see the entire sky and for some reason the moon wasn’t visible or out. We have come to the conclusion that New Zealand doesn’t have a moon. ;) I have never seen the Milky Way this many times in a row. I really wish I could take pictures of the stars, tends not to work though.

We had this weekend off and a most of us went to beaches the whole weekend. Friday night we went to a hot water beach in Haihei. It was unbelievable. We literally dug a foot or two into the sand and steaming water came through. It was like a bath. It was by far the coolest beach ever.

Cathedral Cove, on the other hand, is the most beautiful beach ever. I didn’t realize that they filmed the second Narnia there and, by association, I have now been to Narnia. It was a beautiful day, couldn’t ask for better and it wasn’t even that crowded. It’s amazing how some of the main tourist attractions here really aren’t regulated as they would be in the US. For example, if Cathedral Cove was in the US, 50% of it would be blocked off and inaccessible to the public, buoys would restrict you from where to swim, it would cost an arm and a leg just to get access to the beach and you definitely wouldn’t be able to climb on the rock-like islands and dive/jump off of them. I absolutely love my underwater camera, I swam with some fishies and got some really cool pictures. :)

The next day we went to what was supposedly one of the top 10 most beautiful beaches in the world, New Chums. Don’t get me wrong, it was beautiful, but we all thought Cathedral Cove was much better. New Chums was secluded and was awesome that no one was there. It was also overcast, sprinkling and really windy which may have taken a bit away from it.

The weekend was great but we are now back at Ecoquest and getting ready for more classes and such this week. It’s been proving difficult for me to get into the school mode here. It feels like summer camp or vacation and is unnatural to do work. Hopefully I’ll get into the swing of things soon.











Fun Fact
Public toilets here talk to you and have elevator music.

Fun in Whakatiwai

Since I don’t think I have mentioned it yet, our campus base is in Whakatiwai (Wh is pronounced f) on the western edge of the Firth of Thames. I still have not taken pictures of our ‘campus’ yet for whatever reason and if it weren’t dark I would take them now. Hopefully those pictures are to come soon. For other info about the life here, it is amazing, if I haven’t made that clear yet. It is a very simple life which I love. It is great not having/needing a cell phone every minute of every day. I shockingly don’t miss texting, which I definitely did in excess previous to this trip. I actually completely forgot I had a cell phone till I randomly found it yesterday. I recommend that everyone take a vacation and leave their phone behind or off the entire time. It will do you good.

The food here is amazing. I didn’t think it would be as good as it is, especially when it is as healthy as it is. I haven’t ever eaten this healthy in my life and I hope I can keep it up when I leave. I had the best guacamole EVER last week and there are always fresh avocados, as well as fruit and vegetables from our own gardens. We seem to go through tubs of peanut butter each week, our instructors and kitchen staff don’t seem to understand. It’s so good! If anybody was wondering, I have tried vegemite and I would love to know who thought that concentrated yeast extract was good, but who am I to judge? People love it. I definitely don’t. More power to them.

This past weekend, myself and 7 others from our group went to Auckland. It was a blast. We went to a market Saturday morning which was kind of like an art festival and farmers market in one. It was really awesome and I spent a good amount of money, yay presents! From there we went to the Waitangi Day Festival in southern Auckland where we happened to see Stan Walker, the Australian Idol. It was fun. :) There were more tents and art things along with really good food and shows.

I had my first hostel experience which turned out to be pretty chill. We got a free ‘dinner’ with our stay and it overall was a lot better than I was expecting. We spent the rest of the day wandering around Auckland where I spent a bunch more money, mostly for other people. :) We went to an ice bar that night which is legit a bar made out of ice. A little pricey but totally worth it, parkas and all. The next day we went to Rangitoto Island and hiked the volcano. The entire hike ended up being 11 km which was longer than I thought, it was a good hike though. Really pretty, pictures on facebook if I don’t get some on here. There were awesome lava caves too, I had never been in a cave before.

We leave tomorrow for the Coromadel for 4 days. We have the weekend off but most of us are staying on the peninsula and going to Cathedral Cove and the ‘hot’ beaches. It should be a good time.







Fun Fact
The sun is more intense in NZ not only due to tilt of earth, but because of a lack of significant pollution and particulates in the air. Due to this, the sunscreen is formulated differently. 35 proof ‘American’ sunscreen is 15 here.

Week 2: Maori

It's hard to believe that I have been in New Zealand for over a week now. It feels like I've been here for weeks yet also that we just got here. It has already been an adventure and we have 14 weeks left, I’m excited. :)

On Tuesday, we had a rather surprise turn to our day. We were informed that we were going to a Maori marae that day and had to prepare a waiata, song to sing to Maori. Not only that but that we were going to a tangi, a Maori funeral. I had never been to a funeral before but this was a unique experience that many people (non-Maori) get to partake in. Everything went well considering we had 3 hours to prepare 2 Maori songs and proper etiquette. It was remarkable that the Maori allowed us to come onto the marae during their time of grief and sorrow. I learned more about their culture in a single hour that I could have in a week or reading or lecture.

The intricacy of the carvings on the wharanui, main cultural house, is amazing. We were told the history and stories behind the statues which was really interesting. They stress knowing their ancestry and heritage which makes me which I knew more about mine. I know some things about my grandparents but hardly anything about my great grandparents. Maori know their ancestor that first arrived in New Zealand countless generations before.

It is the weekend, and I am totally excited for it. Eight of us in the class are going to Watangi Day Festival tomorrow which should have great events and shows/performers. Apparently the Australian Idol will be there, woot woot. As planned now we will be going to Auckland that night and climbing a volcano on Sunday. It should be a good time.

Fun Fact:
New Zealanders pronounce the letter Z as Zed.