Hi from Whakatane!

I'm writing from a courtyard in a Maori University in Whakatane, New Zealand. (Maori are of Polynesian ancestry and were the earliest settlers of New Zealand. Their language is also called Maori, and Whakatane is pronounced Fa-ka-tan-ee.) I've done so much in the past few days, but I'll start at the beginning:

@ihaveathingforskies

I arrived in Auckland about 24 hours before my program started, so I met up with my friends Sarah and Ingrid from Wash U. Sarah and her family had been traveling in NZ and Australia for a couple of weeks already, and Ingrid met up with them a couple of days before I did. I managed to sleep well on the second leg of my trip from LAX to AKL so I was actually awake and energetic when I got off the plane. I bought a SIM card and hopped in a cab to downtown Auckland to meet them.

We walked to the water from their hotel and went on a harbour cruise around noon. (My computer is trying to autocorrect harbour to harbor but I won't do it! This is the commonwealth! God save the Queen!) We got a great view of the city and the famous Sky tower, plus some neighboring islands. JUST LOOK HOW PRETTY:

We ate lunch on the water at this place called "Originals." I got a fish taco, delicious. Between lunch and dinner we organized ourselves for field camp the next day and rested. We ate dinner at "Odettes," which was actually so tasty and would be @infatuation approved I am SURE. After dinner Sarah, Ingrid and I went to this bar about a 15 minute walk from the hotel and I ordered my first ever legal drink! Hooray for legal drinking! I used my PASSPORT! Bless UP! We went home and right to sleep and then got up early the next morning to meet up with our group for field camp.

To clarify, I'm on a program called "Frontiers Abroad: Earth Systems." We are traveling around NZ while learning and doing environmental science, learning about the Maori, and New Zealand as a whole. It's amazing and will be a great introduction to the country before I start my school-semester in late February at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch.

On the first day of field camp we drove from the airport to this Maori University in Whakatane where we will be for the next 5 days or so. In their introductions, one of our "professors" told us that he knows we are learning if we are having fun. They just want us to have fun! They are so cool!!!! (Our professors are the ones who SHOW us where to cliff jump and swim!!) The professors will rotate in and out based on our location/their areas of focus, while our trip leader Max and our TA Olivia stay with us throughout. They are also so great.

We arrived in Whakatane on Sunday afternoon. Almost immediately after arrival, we drove 3 minutes down to the ocean to take a swim. It was a little chilly by that point in the evening and the waves were huge but that was not a problem.

HAPPY!!!!

Me, Sarah, and Ingrid. (WashU friends.) SO HAPPY!!!!!!!

On our drive to Whakatane we learned a Maori song to sing as part of the traditional Maori greeting, which commenced the next morning, on Monday (?? I am confused by days because I lost one when I traveled and also I haven't been paying attention). A lot of the ceremony was in Maori, but as it was explained to us, it was all about having their ancestors greet our ancestors and inform them that we were in good hands. Also their mountains and rivers greeted our mountains and rivers. All of it was very lovely. Then we greeted each and every one of the staff and faculty at this university which the traditional head touch greeting.

After lunch we went out on the field. We practiced sketching and taking field notes at Kohi Point and then at a road crop (slice of rock on the side of a highway where you can see all of the layers from volcanic eruptions), while learning the basics of the earth systems in the area.

View from Kohi Point ft. New Friend named Rafa.

Next we went on a hiking trail down by Ohape beach to practice identifying trees, tree ferns and palms.

me at mid-summit

After all this we went BACK TO THE BEACH! Apparently we will get to take a swim of some kind almost every day, which is simply the best. It was still sunny on Monday and the waves were calmer so we floated around for a bit. We came back for dinner, showers and then a movie called "Hunt for the Wilderpeople" for some "kiwi cultural education." It was HILARIOUS!!! I suggest it to you all. It just came out last year.

Sleeping Situation while in Whakatane! (plus sleeping bags. Beds have since separated for optimum quality of sleep)

Tuesday was another full day. We ate breakfast and packed lunches, and headed out the Tarawara Mountain and river. We hiked along a the river and waterfall and learned about how it formed after a natural dam burst, so the bush we were hiking through was fairly young. (New Zealanders call their native forest "the bush." They use "forest" to refer to planted trees, like the coniferous forests we saw while driving to our hike.) We hiked behind the waterfall to an unbelievably clear freshwater pool, where we swam, cliff jumped, and ate lunch.

Waterfall ft. New Friend named David

Serene Pool, Before Swamped By Everyone In My Program.

After our hike and swim we followed the river down past a paper mill, where timber from the coniferous forest is processed. Adjacent to the paper mill was a geothermal energy power plant. There we learned about New Zealand's resource management and renewable energy advancements.

Next we went to a cold spring, mostly to cool off and drink the sweet water, but also to compare the clear spring to the dark brown river just steps away, which had been polluted by illegal dumping from the paper mill. New Zealand has problems too! (But much fewer problems, not gonna lie.)

Peep volcano in the background

We went into "town" for dinner - I ate some Sri Lankan curry at this place called Babinka's - and went to bed soon after because today, Wednesday, we woke up at 5 AM IN THE MORNING!

I didn't mind because of this stunning view:

Front of the Maori university

And because the reason for our early wakeup was to catch the low tide to collect data about the biodiversity of the rocky coast. We watched the sunrise as we hiked up and over a cliff to reach the rocks (a hike I would describe as Masada x 2) and spent the morning identifying barnacles, snails, algae, whelk species, and much more.

As the tide began to come in, we hiked back over the cliff and came back to our home base. We've had free time since. Most of us used it to complete our first assignments. (Yes I have some actual work too. We had to do a write up about the road crop and pyroclastic blasts, and organize our data we collected this morning on the rocky coast. But there are only 26 of us and we did it all together while listening to the Killers, sooooo I would still say that I am living my best life.)

"Class" ft. Me and New Friend named Maddy

Everyone on the program is so nice and and happy to be here. I think that New Zealand (and especially this type of program) attracts only good people.

In an hour we are going to the beach to get our swim in for the day, and after dinner we are learning more formally about NZ geography, culture and politics. I LOVE IT ALL!


xx Jules

P.S.  Here are some fun signs. I started collecting for Pa (Warren Widmann) but maybe I am just turning in to him.

 


P.P.S. we are sad from across the world about the inauguration and wish we could march in NYC/Washington :(