Day 1.

Finally in New Zealand!!!

Hey All!!!  So it is currently 8:48AM on January 25, 2011.  We had an AMAZING first day in New Zealand yesterday!  Went to a point up on a hill, which had gorgeous views of Auckland, and then went to enjoy a picnic on the beach!  The beach was breathtaking!  The water was teal, with a cool feeling to it, and the islands off the beach made me think I was in a scenic picture!  It was awesome!  While on the beach we enjoyed a game of cricket, and got a little too much sun!  Coming from MN winter to NZ sun was quite the change for most of us, which made us all look like we have red faces J  I am sure I can safely say that it was well worth it. 

After a three-hour drive out of Auckland, we arrived to the village where we will be spending the next three nights now.  The Maori welcomed us with a traditional greeting, and allowed us to stay in their House of Ancestry (which is where I am currently sitting).  I am looking down the row of mattresses, 8 in my row, 6 against the back wall, and 8 more against the wall adjacent to mine.  The front is open, kept open all night as we sleep.  It is amazing.  This is great bonding time for our group, as we learn more and more about each other living in such small quarters.  Luckily, we have a pretty awesome group!!! J 

The village we are staying is really neat.  It is all pretty much open, which is cool!  I will post pictures up so you can get a better visual of what it looks like here. 

I was up this morning at 6am, eager to watch the sunrise.  I was disappointed when it was too cloudy, however, the sun is shining now and it is so beautiful out!  I also went on a walk with Liz, and was able to see some amazing views!  It is picture perfect here, I could definitely live here forever!  The hills just continue to roll into the distance, and the sun hits each hilltop just right. 

Today, we are supposed to be going rappelling and black water rafting.  The rappelling will for sure happen today, however, the black water rafting is undecided as there was a lot of rain here in the past few days and the caves may be too flooded.  We will find out this afternoon if it will work or not.  I am keeping my fingers crossed!!!  I will let you know if it happens, but now I am going to pack my bags to get dropped off at the local pub so I can connect to the internet in order to get some online homework done.  I will let you all know if the black water rafting happens!

Within the next few days I am looking forward to interviewing the Maori people, and relate what information I receive from them to the book I read (Teacher by Sylvia Ashton-Warner). 

Lots of love from 10,000 miles away! 

This is the place we are staying at currently.  All of the students are in this room, each with a mattress on the floor.  

This is the view I woke up to this morning.... Priceless! 

So on the far right is the building that we are sleeping in, as you can see it is pretty open..  In the middle is where the bathrooms are located, and on the far left is where our kitchen/dining is located.  

Another picture of where we are staying.

Here is a cool plant that I found outside! 

The wonderful view we have from our "home". :) 

Again, so beautiful!!!

Here is a small shack that we could see, I ended up hiking up to it! 

Looks like "jungle" trees ;) 

Another beautiful view! 

Flower I found outside.

More flowers.

Another cool plant! 

This is the front of the place we are sleeping! 

Cows. 

Priceless

Breathtaking. 

Amazing.

Here is a picture from my hike when I was looking down at our place where we are staying.

Where we are staying at!!!