Greetings from New Zealand! Aotearoa, the Maori name for New Zealand, means "land of the long white cloud" and I really am out here living in the clouds. I've been in New Zealand for almost 3 weeks, so now that I've gotten adjusted and started my classes I finally have the chance to write a little bit about what I've been up to! I came to New Zealand completely on my own- no parents, no classmates, no professors, no friends- just me and my luggage. Traveling across the Earth without even one familiar face and leaving behind every bit of my comfort zone for 5 months was the scariest part of studying abroad for me. The only thought that kept repeating in my head as I sat on my 6.5 hour and 12.5 hour flights was, "Holy crap, what did I get myself into". People study abroad for different reasons: to travel Europe, to become immersed in a new culture, to learn a new language, or to drink so much they forget they're actually there to study and make memories they can actually remember. For me, I study abroad first and foremost to learn more about the world but also to push myself out of my comfort zone. I try to train myself to build a life and find a home whenever I end up, that way I'll find comfort in myself and my ability to adjust to new circumstances rather than in places or people that are bound to change. Life never happens the way you expect it to, so you might as well prepare yourself to adapt to change- you may just learn to like it. Thankfully, I wasn't alone for long. I was admitted to the University of Auckland through the IFSA- Butler Study Abroad program through which I could meet new people and have a point of contact in case I got into any trouble. I had some free time in LAX while I was waiting for my connecting flight to Auckland, so I decided to explore the airport and introduce myself to Lizzie, a girl in my program who was taking an earlier flight- little did I know the first person I met would soon become one of my best friends. When I arrived in Auckland on Saturday morning after a day of travel and an 18 hour time difference I met up with the IFSA team. I'd equate my first weekend in New Zealand to Summer Camp- that is, a really freakin awesome Summer Camp paradise in New Zealand where instead of singing campfire songs we run around in the pouring rain, jump off of rocks, and swim out to shipwrecks. We spent 3 days at Shakespear Regional Park on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula a little over an hour outside the city of Auckland. In addition to being a YMCA where people can come, stay, and learn, it's also an Open Sanctuary that has completely eradicated pests (for New Zealand that includes ferrets, rabbits, rats, and weasels) and is caring/repopulating species of Kiwi birds. Mike, our valiant leader at Shakespear, took us "out on a wander" for one of our first activities. It was literally just a walking tour of the park in the rain, but calling it a "wander" made it sound so much cooler and adventurous- I think I'm going to start calling all of my walks "wanders". The entire weekend at Shakespear was pouring rain and cloudy, but that made the experience even more mystical. If it hadn't been so foggy we would've been able to see some islands and the Auckland Skytower across the way. Next, we did the best thing you can possibly do after a day's worth of travel and jetlag- kayaking! We grabbed partners, loaded up our kayaks, and went voyaging in the Te Haruhi Bay of the Pacific Ocean. My absolute favorite thing to do in every place I visit is wade through the water. It sounds hokey, but it makes you feel more connected to whatever place you're in, and standing with your feet in the oceans that connect us all makes the world feel a little smaller. Once we all assembled a little further out, we played Kayak Water Polo. My team ended up winning (woo!), but I was just happy to be out in the fresh open air on the water. One thing I regret not packing in my suitcase: water shoes. The non-stop downpour and water sports all weekend took a toll on my shoes and clothes- we were all soggy pretty much 24/7. Even my raincoat soaked all the way through with water- I didn't even think that was possible. The weekend spent at Shakespear, although it felt like Summer Camp, was designed to be an orientation for us: an introduction to New Zealand culture, time zone, climate, and society. Something that's as much an integral part of New Zealand as the rain and is as close to New Zealanders' hearts as Football is for Americans is Rugby. We spent the rest of the afternoon learning how to play and starting games with the IFSA staff. I enjoy sports, but I by no means would consider myself athletic. It was a really difficult game to jump right into- especially since I've never watched it or learned about it before. There were a lot of little rules and things you had to remember to do before the game continued, and everything was done fast-paced: kick the ball in, catch it, run, get tagged, touch the ball to the ground, someone jumps in to play dummy half and passes it to another person who runs and scores a try. Just like you get a certain number of "downs" in American football, in touch rugby you get a certain number of "touches" before the ball gets turned over. Spending 4.5 months in New Zealand, learning how to play rugby was about as essential and integral to our health and well-being as us learning how to cook for ourselves. If it hadn't been for the YMCA staff, I probably would've starved for that first weekend in New Zealand. It had the potential to be a really overwhelming arrival, but the staff made Shakespear feel like a big family and fed us practically 6 meals a day. Every time we finished an outdoor activity, we had "Kai time" (and you can't forget morning and afternoon tea). I couldn't have been more thankful. As an added bonus, all the food was delicious! During Kai time was when we got to have actual conversations with one another and get to know everyone in the group. I'm really happy with the group of students I spent orientation with- I was worried about the group dynamics and was afraid that I wouldn't vibe with anyone, but we have an awesome group of students who are really down-to-earth, like getting down and dirty, and are excited to adventure in every way possible. In New Zealand, saying that you "lucked out" is a bad thing, so I would say that I got pretty darn lucky. Completely random fact that I learned this weekend and found interesting: bats are the only mammal native to New Zealand (all the rest were introduced by humans). I'll be learning a lot more about New Zealand Ecology and Conservation when I start class at the University of Auckland, but for now there's your fun science fact of the day. My absolute FAVORITE activities we did at Shakespear, no surprise, involved a lot of water. First, ROGAINE- it stands for "Rugged Outdoor Group Activity Involving Navigation and Endurance" and it's pretty much a competitive event where people run and find their way across open country with a coded map and compass. At Shakespear, we did the YMCA version rather than the military version where we had to navigate to different places in the park in groups of 4 using only a map and write down the symbols that we found in that place. If you drew the correct symbol, each place gave you a certain number of points and the team with the most points won. I got incredibly lucky because me, the girl who couldn't navigate her way through a paper bag, got placed in a group with 2 Boy Scouts. With a combined effort, we created the group name: Shakespear's Rogaine and Juliet (we were feeling extra punny). At the signal, we all ran out of the lodge into the torrential downpour to go rogaining- the rain made it 10 times more awesome, but it also made it 10 times more wet. We were drenched within the first 5 minutes sprinting up hills and sinking into the wet, muddy bush. It reminded me a lot of my high school track practices (thanks Coach Coffey for the preparation #SuckItUpPrincess). Our raincoats were as helpful as a bucket with holes is at collecting water- the water went right through. Logan on my team was the MVP- the guy has the lungs of a god since he runs like the wind and never stops (my asthmatic lungs could use some of his air and endurance), and he ran off on his own finding multiple spots bringing in the majority of our points. My goal for the next 4.5 months: learn how to navigate and read a map. That'll probably involve me getting lost... a lot, but in learning your way around you need to get lost a few times. Thanks to our awesome team and MVP Logan, we ranked 1st out of the 7 teams with a lead of over 100 points (460 out of a total 680). We got a little break from the rain when we went inside and played Unihoc which is almost exactly like deck hockey except for the name. Then we were back out in the rain going Coasteering! Coasteering is just a fancy word for exploring the coastline- we went down to the lake where we went kayaking on our first day and walked along the rocks by the shore. We had to put on our "buoyancy aids" (as Mike called them) and helmets because of the risk of falling rocks. We kept walking until we couldn't anymore and then we climbed up to a cliff on the rocks and jumped off into the water. After all of us had jumped into the water, Mike had us swim out to a shipwreck in the bay- that was a big first for me. It was totally WICKED. We just kept swimming out and bobbing around in the water, and it didn't even bother me how deep the water probably was underneath us. I didn't realize how large the steamship was until we swam out further to the boiler and Mike told us that the bow of the ship was even further. A hidden desire of mine is to empty out all the water in the ocean temporarily and see what lies underneath- how cool would that be?! It's essentially excavating thousands of years of maritime history. The only problem with my master plan is what to do with billions of gallons of water...hmmmm. Turns out, Robert Shakespear (of no relation to William Shakespeare) who started up Shakespear Regional Park actually sunk the Scottish steamship on purpose in order to serve as a marker of the rocks for his own ship at high tide. I guess you could call it a nautical sacrifice for the greater good. 10/10 would recommend going Coasteering, and doing it was a group of people this awesome makes it even more amazing. Later that night, the IFSA staff gave us a crash course of New Zealand history. It was actually really fascinating and helpful to my understanding of New Zealand culture, and I wish I could've recorded it or taken notes. The Maori, the indigenous peoples of New Zealand, arrived around 800AD. According to Maori (pronounced similarly to the word "moldy" where the "Mao" sounds like "mow" and "ri" makes more of a throaty "dee" sound) legend, the creation of New Zealand went something like this: the demigod Maui fished up the North Island (a stingray) which is why the North Island is called Te Ika a Maui (meaning Maui's fish in Te Reo- the Maori language). Maui took his canoe to get the fish which is why the South Island is known as Te Waka a Maui (Maui's canoe). To the Maori people the country they lived in was called "Aotearoa" (pronounced "Ow-taya-rowa") or "land of the long white cloud". When I flew into New Zealand, all I could see were long, white clouds along the horizon until the sea and islands poked their way through them, so I can attest to the truth of the name and what the Maori people experienced when they arrived in New Zealand. It wasn't until Abel Tasman of the Dutch arrived in 1642 that Aotearoa became "New Zealand" ushering in the age of European colonization. The Treaty of Waitangi was a covenant made between the Maori and the Europeans recognizing the sacred and shared land, but of course the treaty's promises wouldn't be kept for long. The Maori are a communal community. They don't own land or buy it or sell it or put white picket fences on it. They feel connected to the land. The land makes up their identity- it's where they are from and a reminder of all their ancestors. They treat the land with a tremendous amount of respect. Europeans could learn a thing or two from the Maori people. In having this history lesson, we were being briefed for our overnight stay on a Marae (pronounced Mar-eye)- a Maori community/meeting area where there are two main houses: one for greeting and one for eating. We had to be trained to go through an elaborate ceremony called Powhiri (pronounced Po-firi) in order to be welcomed onto the Marae. The "wh" in Te Reo makes an "f" sound because there is no "f" in the Maori alphabet that was created when the traditionally oral culture began to write things down. We learned two songs of peace and praise to sing during the Powhiri/welcome ceremony: Te Aroha and He Honore. We then had to create our own Pepeha or Mihi which is an introduction to who you are as an individual. For the Maori, who you are is connected to the land that you are from and that shapes you. I'll give you my Pepeha as an example: Tēnā koutou katoa Greetings to you all The next morning, the day we left Shakespear, was the first time we saw the sunshine in New Zealand. You could just see it poking through the clouds brightening up the morning sky through the fog. We said our thank yous and goodbyes to the YMCA Staff in a Poroporoaki (farewell) and then presented them with the gift of a tree for the sanctuary. Next stop: Central Auckland! We spend the day exploring the city having an IFSA- Butler Amazing Race in our teams of 4 from rogaining. Thanks to Logan's superb navigation and the fact that he'd already been in Auckland for a few days, we got around pretty well. It was a BEAUTIFUL, bright sunny day- which meant lots of sunblock. New Zealand has one of the highest rates of skin cancer because the sun is so strong. Especially coming out of the dead of winter, we were about to get fried. Only minutes into walking around the city of Auckland I knew that I would love living here. It's so clean, and you're right on the water so you can feel a nice ocean breeze while walking around. The city is so green- I didn't expect to see so many trees and green spaces in the middle of a big city. We were lucky that it was sunny and not downpouring so we had the chance to learn how to get around and witness how beautiful the city could be. We found a bunch of signature Auckland locations: the Auckland Skytower, the New Zealand Maritime Museum, Aotea Square, the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, the grocery store Countdown, Albert Park (as in Prince Albert and Queen Victoria of London), Britomart Transport Station, and the University of Auckland! As part of our Amazing Race, we had to take pictures to document where we'd been and what we'd done. After a day well-spent exploring Auckland we made our way to the Marae Te Hana. Tom, the man in charge, welcomed us out front to commence the Powhiri/welcome ceremony. We lined up, women first (because they're less threatening than the male warriors) with the 2 chiefs of our group (which we elected) next to the them and the rest of the men in the back. We had to stand still until the female elder, called the Kuia, made the high-pitched melodic call for us to come in. We walked forward together as a group, took our shoes off at the door, and filed into the seats set up for us. This time, the men sat in the front rows to protect the women in the rows behind them in case the ceremony went awry.
Tom gave us a crash course in Maori culture which was hard to follow because I couldn't visualize the words he was saying. There was a special word for every person, building, and activity. They made us a delicious dinner with chicken (the Maori word for chicken is Heiei- if you've seen Moana this may ring a bell), fried bread, potatoes, and vegetables. Then Tom took us all on a tour of the Marae- we "took a step back in time" where performers acted how they would've acted when visitors approached their village centuries ago. One of our chiefs Max had to lead our group into the village and when the Maori people saw us they banged drums and yelled and stuck out their tongues and made calls to let us know that they saw us. Then we made an arc surrounding the chief while they did the Haka (the Maori ceremonial war dance) and made an offering to us. If our chief did not accept the offering and raise it in the air, then shit would've gone down (for lack of a better phrase). When they knew we were friendly, they invited us in for a performance: we watched them do the most well-known Haka typically done before rugby games, a woman performed with poi (small balls swung rhythmically on the end of a string during Maori action songs and dances-which I actually won as my prize for my team winning the ROGAINE and Amazing Race), they demonstrated how to use their weapons, and they sang and danced. Tom gave us another Maori culture lesson after the performance and spoke about how walking into that building was like walking into the body of an ancestor with different parts of the building representing different parts of the ancestors. He also went over the art of storytelling, notable Maori people from different iwis (tribes), and Maori burial rituals that used to occur in the place we were sitting. After our tour and performance was finished, we set up our beds on the floor along the edge of the room we were welcomed into to sleep communally. To get to know each other better, we each read our Mihi out loud and gave a fun fact. The coolest part of the Marae at night was all the lights on the ceiling that looked like stars- they made it feel like we were outside while we still had a roof over our heads during the lightening storm- that and all the crickets and beetles that kept flying in and making homes in our bags. We slept the night all together on the Marae and in the morning we headed back into the city of Auckland. Once we said goodbye to our friends who were going down to Christchurch and studying at the University of Canterbury, we made our way to our accommodations and prepared to enter into the real world and start a grand New Zealand adventure!
1 Comment
Christine
3/6/2018 19:21:58
I’m so very proud of you!
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