DAY 46: Easter Break- Lake Waikeremoana

Its Sunday morning and the first Easter I have not gone to church. So strange. Also, the first Easter I have never gone to my Grandparent's house for our annual egg hunt and Grandma's Easter ham. I'm a little bit sad but I planned on calling them later to say hello. Plus, this little Kiwi girl took pity on me and




gave me a chocolate egg, so at least I got one egg this Easter!

We had to buy a water taxi ticket to get dropped off on the other side of the lake (which was not cheap by the way) but then we were on the trail! We had sort of put off planning this trip until the last minute, so not all of the campsites had enough room for us. This meant that we had to condense some of the hiking. The trail which should have been done in 3-4 days, we planned on doing in 2 and a half. Good thing I like hiking... !

The first day would consist of 9 hours of hiking; up to the top of the first mountain and down the other side to the campsite. The first hour or so was the roughest- all straight up. I took a short break to call my  family while I still had service. They were celebrating Easter on Saturday at home for driving and work purposes. 

FUN FACT #20: New Zealand is 17 hours ahead of New England. So when it is Sunday at noon for me, it is Saturday at 8pm for my family. 

My family got a kick out of my nudist colony experience- especially my Dad (no surprise there!)

We didn't chat long, but it was nice to hear all of there voices. I hung up and kept hiking.

When we got to the top, we stopped for lunch. The view was gorgeous and showed us the entire lake. There were a few people at the top who had heard that there was a wind gust off the cliff that would send anything you threw off of it back at you. They tried it out with a few flip flops and a tree branch. It actually worked! 

We hiked down the other side and made camp. Our feet and shoulders were very sore as we made some camping dried food and Ramen noodles for our Easter feast. It was no Easter ham, but it did the job. 

DAY 45: Easter Break- Mt. Maunganui and the Drive From Hell

FUN FACT #18: While at Global Links Orientation, our leader (a Kiwi) showed us a YouTube video that apparently had been the butt of so many jokes a few years ago. He showed it to us not knowing how far we were going to take it. The man in the video has no teeth, so when he says "Next Minute" he sounds like he is saying "Nek Minnut". For whatever reason, we thought this was hilarious. And we continue to say it today.

Back to the story though. So we woke up early and skiddadled before we saw too many naked people. It was a few hours ride to Maunganui Beach, which I had been to during my Global Links Orientation. The volcano that resides over the beach is called Mt. Maunganui, and it is a short 35 minute hike to the top. It is a pretty hike with views of the ocean on one side and the city on the other.

After we stretched our legs, we got back in the car to continue on our journey to Lake Waikeremoana. The old naked guy at the nudist colony had told us that the ride would be pretty wild, but I don't think we were quite so prepared as we should have been. We filled the car up at the last gas station shown on the GPS and immediately hit dirt road.

5 hours of pot holes, one lane bridges, falling rock signs and the most twisty dirt roads I've ever driven on came next. Luckily, it was a beautiful afternoon and I don't get car sick! Yay me! Sarah was not so lucky, be we gave her shot gun and she was fine.

FUN FACT #19: New Zealand has no indigenous mammals. As an island, the only animals that exist are their special native birds. Europeans brought with them certain birds and animals that have taken over, but as far as mammals go, New Zealand is fairly limited. There are wild pigs, very few deer, and possums everywhere. I had a hard time adjusting to this thought- I was always wary not to leave garbage out for fear of bears and coyotes (such a Vermonter).

So we are driving around on this road from Hell, and we say, "Well it's a good thing there are no mammals in New Zealand. We don't really have to worry about hitting any deer!"

NEK MINUT There's a horse in the road! We all yell, Brett slams on the breaks, and the scraggly horse scampers off. Well, that just changed our perspective of this drive. So apparently, there are wild horses in New Zealand. Who knew? We slow it down and pass about 25 more horses along the road until we get to the lake. We set up camp, and pass out quick thanking God we made it there o.k.

 Hike tomorrow!!

DAY 44: Easter Break- Waihi Beach and Naturist Park

FUN FACT #17: Bathing suits in New Zealand are called "Togs"

Unlike America, Easter Break is a thing here. So of course we took advantage and decided to get out of Auckland and see more of the beauty of New Zealand.

A few of our friends went to do the Tongariro Crossing, but we chose to check out Lake Waikeremoana. (Don't even bother trying to pronounce it-- my friend Lizzy to this day refers to that weekend as "When we were at Lake Wai-kre-re-mamuahmleleloooa...") The lake is near the middle of the North Island and towards the east coast.

Because we took so long to book our campsites and it was Easter Weekend, we had to delay our hike shortly and start on Sunday morning rather than on Friday which was the day we left. So we decided to take our time getting down there, and make a few stops on the East coast along the way.

About 2 hours from Auckland is Waihi Beach. The beach is very nice with some of the most beautiful shells I have ever seen. My friend Lizzy and I spent forever picking them up and searching for whole sand dollars. We were doing just this when we saw a hiking trail that looked like it might provide an overlook of the beach and bay. Barefoot, we thought, "Hey, let's go up there and see!" We got to the top and had a great view. But the trail kept going. I am not one to let a path go unexplored, so we continued.

After about 35 minutes, we were thinking of turning back but we kept passing surfers and hikers who told the best was yet to come, keep going! So we did. For another 30 minutes. And boy, were they right! We found the most beautiful beach. The sun was going down, there were a couple of straggling surfers, and a family having a picnic. The sand was like a marble cake; the white and black sand swirled together to make such a pretty sight. Lizzy and I didn't stay long because we knew the crew would be worried, but we decided right then and there we had to come back when our friends from home came to visit. Or get married there, either one. I'm fairly certain my Dad would be willing to fly all of my family there....Right Dad? ;)

We got back to the crew with our feet killing us with every step and got in the car to drive about 45 minutes to the camping facilities/park we had booked. The place was called Saphire Springs and supposedly had hot spring pools. You would think this would be really cool, but in actuality, I was kind of dreading it. In case I haven't mentioned it, hot pools smell like farts. But we hadn't seen any other places near by when we looked up the area online, so I figured I would just have to suck it up and plug my nose for the night.
Upon arriving, we all climbed out of our two cars and went inside to pay. But the owners were convinced we were cheating them, that one of us had not paid. As Americans, we said screw this, we'll go somewhere else. We are not going to be scammed by you, give us our money back.

I was kind of nervous at this point because you aren't exactly allowed to just pull over and set up camp on the side of the road in New Zealand. We started driving down the road, and Brett (the driver) and I had recalled passing a sign that said "Naturist Park", so we thought we would go back and check it out.

Rolling down the dirt road into the woods, we come upon a building. We parked the car and Brett and I went inside while the other girls and the other car waited. We walked up to the door and rang the bell and were let into the lobby by this nice old man with a beard. Here is the interaction:

Brett- "Hi, I'm sorry this is so late, but do you happen to have any campsites available for this evening?"

Old Guy- "Yes we do! Its $16 per person and the showers are free."

Now, this was cheaper than the other place, and the other place cost $2 a shower. So Brett and I look at each other thinking, Yeah, this sounds great!

We look at the man and I say, "That would be wonderful. We have 10 people total."

Old Guy- "Sweet as! We just have one rule here... No Togs allowed in the pool, sauna, or hot tub."

Brett and I think for a second... and it dawns on us. "No Togs... means no bathing su...Oh... wait..."

Old Guy- "You do know this is a nudist colony, don't you?"

I couldn't handle it, I just started laughing. He explains that its cold tonight which is the only reason he is wearing clothes. The crew came inside and we all got the giggles as we paid the nice old man and took his directions to our spot.

Simple as that- On Easter weekend, I stayed at a Nudist Colony. And yes, I did enjoy the pool, sauna, and hot tub. Sorry I'm not sorry!

I will say this though, it was incredibly awkward when we left early in the morning and Old Guy came out to say goodbye. He wasn't lying when he said he only wears clothes when its cold.

The following are pictures from the KatiKati Naturist Park website. The photo of the two people behind the counter are the owners A.K.A. Old Guy-- or as this website claims, his name is Kevin.

DAYS 30-39: Piha Beach!

Days 30-38: Auckland living and class.

Day 39: We decided we needed to get out of the city (thats right, we lasted about 2 weeks... we're from Vermont, we're not used to buildings taller than the trees...)

We had heard about a beach about and hour away called "Piha". No buses ran there, so we had to rent a car. This was so weird, because in the States you can't rent a car until your 25, so this was kind of cool. Except for the part where in New Zealand, they have the wheel on the right side of the car and drive on the left side of the road. Good lord.

Anyways, so we rented the cars, spent about 10 minutes sitting in the car trying to grasp the concept that the blinkers were not the windshield wipers and you can go left on red. Weird.

We hit the road and once outside the city were on the most narrow and windy roads I've ever been on. No wonder the buses don't go here, they would never fit. Finally after driving through miles of "bush" we got to an overlook of Piha beach. We pulled over and got a couple of pictures before we made our way down to the water.

Piha beach is on the western side of the North Island. Therefore, the water that hits it is the Tasman Sea. What is also unique about Piha is its sand: it's black. Which makes sitting on it extremely hot. But we didn't spend much time lounging around, we had way too many things to explore!

As you can see in the photo, there is this big rock/mountain in the middle of the beach. Supposedly, a Maori tribe used to use it as a high point for battle. So of course, we hiked it. It gave a gorgeous view of the beach.

When we got down, we went to explored some cool caves that you can only see at low tide. We had to dodge some crabs, but we had fun looking at starfish and barnacles. My friend Lizzy Fanning, who I teach with, had told us about a short hike to a waterfall. So we piled back in the car and went in search of it.

The hike took about 40 minutes and was relatively easy. The falls, called KiteKite Falls, were huge! We were at the bottom of it and thought, we should try to climb above it! We climbed an incredibly steep hill where we were on our hands and knees to get up and played around the pools above the great fall. We were dreading the slide down when we found a very well traveled trail instead. Wow we are so smart.

Although the water was freezing, we went in the pool anyway. People looked at us like we were crazy, but we didn't care. Needless to say, we didn't stay in very long. We got some New Zealand pizza on the way home (let's just say, it's no A Crust Above...) and got ready for another week of class.

DAYS 25-30: Teaching in New Zealand

DAYS 25-29: Class.

DAY 30: TEACHING!

Lizzy and I got to St. Michael's school and were immediately asked to volunteer with the "PMP" lab that is run on Friday mornings. We had no idea what that was, but we found out quickly that it stands for "Perceptual Motor Program". Essentially, Grades 1, 2, and 3 each come into the "gym" (at staggered times) and are split into groups that rotate between 6 stations. Each station is geared toward certain skills such as motor skills, memory, eyesight, or hearing that can help students learn how to read. Studies found that children have the most difficulty reading because they are not at the correct memory level or their eye sight needs work on staying on the line of a page etc. So the students practice by doing fun things that actually help them to read better.

Lizzy and I ran the memory station. The children stood in a line facing about 12 pieces of paper on the floor with different pictures on them. We said the names of three different pictures, such as "Sun, Fish, Car". The student repeated the words and stepped on each picture. After, the student would one-legged hop on a line, crawl through a tunnel, and pencil roll on a mat before getting back in line.

Supposedly, kids who roll off of the mat can have balance problems. Those who don't keep their arms above their heads and curl into a ball might have self image problems. Students who forget the list of pictures will have problems learning a new word and then identifying it on another page.

My reading class the next week talked about PMP and how it has improved reading in New Zealand. I'm really hoping that this makes it the the U.S. because it is a really cool program that doesn't cost much but has great results.  If you want to read more, here is a good website:

http://www.movingsmart.co.nz/home/schools/pmp/what-is-perceptual-judgement/