I'm in Dunedin!!

I am now in Dunedin - I have reached my destination and couldn't be happier! I have done so much so far and I haven't even been here for a week.

I will start from the very beginning.

Staying with Jerry in Palm Springs was the perfect beginning to my journey. We did some hiking and traveling, and him and I had a lot of cousin bonding time, which is always refreshing with Jerry. My last night in Cali Jerry, Steve, Josie, Albert and myself went out for dinner before I was dropped off at the airport. My flight was to leave at 9:30 p.m., and we arrived at LAZ airport around 7:30 so it was perfect timing....until I was informed that my flight was delayed six hours. Not so great. But on the positive side, a six hour delay was a great way to meet all the kids in my program! There were thirty of us, and I'm already close with a lot of them. Amazing people - adventurous, kind, passionate.

We arrived in Auckland around 12:30 in the afternoon on my wednesday, USA's tuesday. We gathered our bags and hoped on a bus that took us a few hours north of Auckland to Whangapaoroa. We weren't off the plane for more than four hours and they had us in kayaks. Kayaking is my favorite outdoor activity so I was super excited to start my Kiwi adventures that way! We played a "bonding" game where we had to pile up our kayaks out in the ocean, setting them up like a tic-tac-toe board, and with us balancing on this structure. We made it pretty high with only a few more people to go when the entire thing collapsed on top of us. Afterwards we dried off, had delicious kai (food) - a lamb dinner, and the entire group went for a hike along the hills to watch the sunset. That was not organized by our program, we all just decided to absorb the beauty ourselves. It was a very strong group of people - I am so blessed to have had them in my first few days in this beautiful country. After a long day of activity, we all crashed after the sun set.

We woke up bring and early for an interesting breakfast - spaghetti and toast! It's a Kiwi breakfast, and actually quite yummy. The Kiwis are all about kai. Every few hours we were fed. After breakfast we did some rogaining - a navigation game that involved us breaking off into groups and running through the hills at 9 oclock in the morning looking for different landmarks. It was fun, but pretty exhausting. Kiwi people are very active, very early. After that around noon (of course after more kai - tea and fresh fruit) we played rugby!! Rugby is a new obsession of mine; it was so much fun. I got really brusied and muddy, but it was a lot of fun. After rugby we had more kai, and then moved on to more outdoor outings! We did about a hour and half of mountain boarding. Basically you go down the side of a mountain on a skateboard with really big wheels. I wasn't too graceful doing this, and gathered a few more bruises. This was followed by a few hours of rock climbing. By the end of all of this at seven, - I was exhausted. We had more kai, visited the beach for a few hours and went to bed around midnight.

The next morning a few of us were able to drag our aching bodies out of bed to watch the sunrise. It was the most beautiful sunrise...it was right over the ocean. A feeling of pure happiness overcame my entire body. I thought to myself, "Yep - I've been waiting for this for months and now New Zealand is my home." I feel so at home. In this one week of being here, I have seen more natural beauty than I have seen in my entire life. We started this day with a visit from a Maori man who taught us basic Maori pronunication. He was preparing us for a visit to the Marae the next day. We learned a song:

Tutira mai nga iwi
Tatou tatou e
Tutira mai nga iwi
Tatou tatou e

Whaie te mormatonga
Me te aroha eng a iwi
Kai ko tapatahi
Kai kotahi ra
Tatou tatou e
Tatou tatou e

We also learned a song that goes like this:

Te aroha
Te whakapono
Me te rangimarie
Tatou tatou e

It translates to:

With love
With faith
With peace
We are all one together

We spent the rest of the day learning Maori and learning about the Maori culture. That night we had a safety/health lecture, and then went to bed early for an exciting day awaiting us.

Waking up, we had kai, packed up, played some quick cricket, and then got on a bus to take us to the west coast of the northern island to a real marae. It was not a tourist marae, it was the real deal. It was a beautiful drive, we went through Auckland and got to see the city for a bit, and climbed Mt. Eden (a volcano in the middle of the city) and had a wonderful view of the city and ocean from the top.

Then came the part I have been waiting for - the marae. Arriving at the marae, we had to wait at the gate while a Maori woman sang a welcoming song, inviting us into their home. We sat on red benches facing the marae, and two male speakers from our group introduced our group in Maori. Then we sang the two songs we learned. While we were singing the first song, it started to drizzle a little, but the sun quickly came out again and a full rainbow was painted in the sky. One end touched the river. I had never seen the end of a rainbow before. We then did the traditional Maori welcome - hongi. This is where you touch noses and foreheads with another person and share the breath of life, offering them peace and luck. This is when I noticed a little Maori girl watching me. When it was our turn to exchange the hongi, she whispered "you are very pretty...." and squeezed my hand. After the hongi we went to a haka and poi performance. This is where the young boys of the marae do the haka dance. They slap their thighs and chant and open their eyes very wide and stick out their tongues trying to look as scary as possible. Then the young girls performed poi. They had beautiful beaded blue and white dresses and carried poi - two white and red poms poms on a string. They whipped their wrists around and danced and sang a Maori song.
Then it was our turn.
The boys in the group had to do the haka dance - which was hilarious, and the girls in the group had a try at the poi. That was even funnier. We kept hitting ourselves in the face with poms poms - the little girls made it look so easy! This was of course followed by a huge kai dinner of fresh fish and shellfish. They cook their meals in the ground. They place the food on burning coals, then cover the pots with burlap sacks, then cover the sacks with dirt and let it cook. The food was AMAZING. I mean AMAZINGGGGGGG. I have never had fish like that before.
After kai we played what I think was called Bull Rush. The kids of the marae stood in the middle of the field and we lined up about twenty feet away from them. They called out a color and if you were wearing that color you had to run and try and reach the other side before they tagged you. Or they could yell "Bull rush!!" and the whole group had to run. This was followed by a quick game of rugby - those little girls are tough! They were really beating up some of the guys in our group.
Then we prepared ourselves for bed. We slept in the marae, a large building with one open side and all along the walls were pictures of Maori ancestors. The pictures were like wallpaper there were so many. Then the eldest Maori woman, Waitara, came and talked to us about the ancestory of her people. It is a Maori tradition to gather everyone into the marae at night and everyone shares stories about their ancestors.
Her talk was one of the most powerful speeches I have ever heard.
She talked about Abel Tasman coming over to New Zealand, and without even setting foot on land he gave it the name New Zealand after the county in Holland he came from, even though the Maori people had already given it a name. They were completely disrespected. Then James Cook came to New Zealand and he too never set foot on land, but the highest mountain in New Zealand was named after him - Mt. Cook. Waitara said the only thing the white Europeans brought to their country were diseases. That year thousands of Maori people died from influenza.
She spoke of the lack of equality and respect the Maori people received from the Europeans. She spoke of the oppression of her people in her own country. She spoke of change - of present day change; change that she herself was working toward. Change that would help the Maori people keep their culture alive. She asked us if in the application for our visas to come here if there was any place where the Maori were mentioned - did we get their permission to come here in any way? No. We didn't. Then she said, "Consider us inviting you to stay here as our personal stamp in your passport. This is our blessing to you." That is when I thought: "This is exactly how I want to spend the rest of my life - hearing stories like this." Experiencing authentic culture. The richness of individual cultures. Being at the marae I experienced the most intense spiritual feeling I have ever felt. I could barely sleep as I focused on all the faces of the ancestors covering the walls. I questioned my own heritage. I questioned my own spirituality.
I am an American. Sometimes I do not know what that means. Sometimes thinking that makes me feel very detached and disconnected.
I wish you all could have heard that speech. It gives me chills thinking about it.
I ended up going back outside to the river because I couldn't sleep. My friend Ethan had the same idea I did and we talked about Waitara's words while staring up at a blanket of bright stars looking down at us.
I felt protected by something more powerful than myself.
It was my first real spiritual moment. For the first time in my life I felt whole thinking about a higher being. In all my years of attending mass every saturday night, I never felt connected to "God," to the Universe, as I did in that moment.
Two Maori men came over to us and we stayed up for a few hours talking about America and New Zealand.
A few more students came out of the marae and joined our conversation.
We brought out our sleeping bags and lay under the stars. Then it began to rain, and we retreated back into the marae. I slept very well that night - I was lulled to sleep by a peaceful presence.

I woke up to my small Maori friend smiling at me. She took my hand and gave me a tour of the marae. We ate breakfast together, and I gave her a few piggybacks. I taught her how to use my camera and she took so many pictures - she was so fascinated by it! She told me she was eight years old and that her name was Njatwahoua. She held my hand wherever we went. When it was time to leave we said our goodbyes, did another hongi, and we each said our thanks for our kind and welcoming visit. As I gathered my bags she began crying and gave me a huge hug. She asked me if I would come back. She gave me her bracelet, and I gave her a necklace of mine.
I left with a bigger heart. I left feeling at peace.

On the way to the airport we went to a black sanded beach. We stayed there for about 45 minutes and then boarded the bus to go back to Auckland. We flew to Christchurch and then from Christchurch to Dunedin.
Finally we arrived at Dunedin!
My flat is great - I live with two 22 year old Kiwi guys, one Italian girl, and another American girl from New Hampshire. We have two bathrooms, each have our own bedroom, a large living room, and kitchen, -- and a backyard! One of the Kiwis has a car and he drove me to get bedding today and gave me a short tour around Dunedin. Last night, our first night in Dunedin, a bunch of us went out dancing and met some other student Kiwis. Everyone here is very friendly and has a very warm and outgoing personality.
I already feel so at home. Right now, this is exactly where I am supposed to be.

I'm going to end this post here because I think it is long enough! I had a lot to say - so much has happened! Tomorrow I am going to register for classes and get a tour of my campus. More on that later!
I miss you all so much, and hope you are all having wonderful experiences back in the states and for those abroad, I'm sure you are having a blast as well!
I cannot wait to hear everyone's stories.

Kia ora! Love love love!

written by  Kiwi-Travels on February 17, 2008 from Dunedin, New Zealand
from the travel blog: I'm going to live as a New Zealand Kiwi for six months!
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