Final week of Holiday

This past week the four of us girls went down to the Catlins along the southern coast and did a couple of walks and went to see Nugget Point. We saw several more Fur Seals and there were even some baby pups that were very entertaining for us to watch. We then continued to drive down to Bluff to stay for the night before heading to Stewart Island in the morning. We didn't realize that there would be no where to get cash out in Bluff and many of the places would only take cash so we had to borrow from each other a little bit but we made it all work out.

The ferry ride over to Stewart Island was very choppy and several people got sea sick. Luckily the four of us got by with just slight headaches and queasiness. It ended up being a very rainy day on Stewart Island which made it pretty difficult to do much, because everything to do is outside. We did one walk and got soaked and pretty cold so we stopped by a cafe in the little town and got some hot chocolate to warm us up. We decided that we would take the earlier ferry ride back to Bluff and head to Alex to spend the night. After a quick game of checkers between Tasia and I at the playground we made our way back. The ferry ride again was really choppy and the drive was pretty long.

The next morning Tasia, Emily and I set off towards the West Coast. We got to see many waterfalls and stopped to walk out to both the Fox Glacier and the Franz Josef Glacier. They were fun to see, and we were glad we were able to get so close the the Franz Josef without having to pay for a tour. We then drove on up the Punakaki to see the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes. This was my favorite part of the West Coast because I found it a lot of fun to wait for the water to come rushing in and then shoot out of the top. We then decided that rather than staying another night on the coast somewhere, that it would be nice to get back to Alex again so we drove the 8 hours back. We were glad to sleep in our own beds last night and now we have today and tomorrow to get things organized and ready again for school.

Travels

After our canyoning adventure and cruise of Milford Sound we headed north to Mount Cook. We were a little disappointed when we got there because it was very cloudy so we couldn't see any of the peaks and didn't even know which one was Mount Cook. We did a short walking trail just before it got dark, and although the views were still neat they would've been even more beautiful had the clouds been gone. The next morning we decided to do one of the longer tracks to see more of the area. The clouds were still around but they moved enough for us to get some views of the amazing peaks. I'm very glad we stuck around that morning to get to see these because the night before we weren't even sure where Mount Cook was and we were pretty unimpressed with the size of the mountains until the clouds cleared and we could actually see them.

After this we went to Christchurch for the afternoon and spent the night there. We just walked the town a little and got to see most of the Town Centre. It is a much larger town, but the town centre still felt small townish. We left the next morning to head to Hamner Springs to check out the sulful spa. It was very relaxing to spend some time here, but there were a lot of families and couples in the pools so Tonya and I felt a little awkward. We found some chairs to sit in the sun for a little while, but I soon found out why they have "beware of honeybee" signs around the pools because I got stung by one of them..

We've been trying to keep our costs on food and housing pretty cheap, so we have been staying mainly in hostels and backpackers. Some of these have been nicer than others and it just depends on the place. Some of the rooms are coed, but when we checked into our room in Christchurch, the man looked at the room info and then looked at us and said, "Oh no there boys in that room, we can't have you staying there." He then gave us a two-person room for the same price as the cheaper rooms. We both thought that was really nice of him and decided that he must have daughters of his own.

In Kaikoura we did a whale watching tour and got to see Tiaka, a large sperm whale that dives down into the water for about 45 minutes and then surfaces for 5-10 minutes. I took many pictures while he was on the surface and then they let you know when he goes to dive again because that is when you can get a good picture of the tail. My pictures were both terrible and blurry though. We also got to see several dolphins (100-200) and many of them were very playful and would jump in the air and do flips and somersalts. They were a lot of fun to watch.

We decided to drive straight back to Alex that afternoon, which was an 8 hour drive. Each day we had to drive for around 4 or 5 hours also, so we have had lots of time in our van. We rarely get a good radio station in and we had some interesting ones on this trip. Our favorite had the line "Your fishnets and nose ring are making my heart sing." Pretty sure it's going to be a hit.

The Wee Differences

I've decided to create a list of some of the differences I have noticed between the US and NZ... I know its best to focus on the similarities, but oh well here goes:

1. Their accent and some of the vocabulary such as wee. They use the word wee all the time as in I have a wee lamb at home or put a wee line under the title of a book. Also, a bathroom is a room with a bath, toilets is a room with a toilet. Don't call a toilet and bathroom or they'll laugh. Garbage is rubbish and it belongs in the rubbish bin. Sandals are jandals, cookies are buiscuits, and tea is supper. Also, their e's and a's are pronounced a little different which is usually when I notice the accent the most. Some of my students still pronounce certain words. They also spell many words differently such as programme and centre.

2. Many people have asked so I will answer... The toilets here do not actually spin in the opposite direction. They actually don't really spin at all, you just push more of a button and the water kinda gushed out.

3. The cold water from the faucet takes a little while to actually get cold. It starts cold, gets warm, gets really hot and then is cold again...

4. Everything tastes a wee bit different as well. Even name brand things such as Twix and Snickers taste a little different. Ketchup is rarely used and ranch seems to be unheard of. The portion sizes are also much smaller (something I wish I could bring back with me, but I doubt it) They also have a lot of chicken flavored things such as chips and cracker and barbeque sauce is also really popular.

5. They have religious education in school. It was so weird for me on our first Friday to have the religion teacher, Debbie, come in and starts her lesson off with a prayer and then talks about Jesus and God with the students. It seems to be very nondenominational and there are still a few students who do not participate, but it's so strange to have this in school.

6. They use the metric system and temperature is in Celsius-I'm still not used to either.

7. Mullets and rattails are really popular with the boys here. Most of the boys in my class have one or the other.

8. There are more sheep than there are people. They are everywhere. Seriously.

9. It is really important to have good penmanship and they encourage all artwork to be very neat and tidy as well. My teacher tells the students that if their work isn't neat, he'll tear it up. He explained that he usually only does this to set an example, but then it helps them feel a sense of pride for the work they complete. They also put all of their artwork on display in the room somewhere. So neat to have art lessons right in the classroom.

10. The teachers are generalists so they teach regular classroom subjects such as reading, math, and writing, but they also teach art, PE, music, and fitness. They also encourage using some words from the Maori language which leads to my next one...

11. They have strong ties to the native culture of Maori. All of the students have a Maori language lesson once a week and there are also several who go to Kapa haka once a week to learn more of the songs and dances from the Maori culture.

First Week of Holiday

Tonya and I have almost completed our first week of holiday, and it seems like the time has flown by. We have gotten to do and see so much this week. We started off by going to Queenstown, once again, to try our hand at canyoning. It was a blast! The trip lasted about 2 hours and included a little rappelling, 2 ziplines, a few slides, and some exciting jumps. I'm not a very great swimmer though and this showed a little compared to Tonya who was on her high school's swim team. I was also a little more scared of the jumps than her, which you can see in some of the videos they took. I tend to do a little half jump or stutter step off the ledge, whereas most people just jump right off. My fear of heights got the best of me I guess

The next day we drove to Milford Sound. The drive there was very scenic with a lot more trees and green grass. We were told at the beginning of our trip that if you don't like the scenery in the area in NZ, you just need to drive 50K in one direction and everything will be different. This trip has definitely proven that. We did an overnight cruise of the Sound, which turned out to be very neat. They took us out through the sound and then back to a little cove where they let us choose from three options: kayaking, going out on the tendercraft, or swimming. Tonya and I both chose to do kayaking, which was a lot of fun. We learned quickly that we aren't very good at it though. Many people took off really fast and we kinda just let the current take us nice and slow. They served us some supper and then had some board games and cards to play for the night. We ended up playing Scattegories with two guys from Germany and a girl from England. After our game Tonya and I decided to go back outside to check out the stars for a little while. It was really cold, but the stars were beautiful. They were so bright and there were so many of them. The cabins we stayed in were tiny, but actually pretty comfortable and I slept really well. The next morning they served us breakfast and then took us around the sound again, but this time they got really close to the different waterfalls to the point that the water was hitting the deck and we all got sprayed by the mist. We also went out to the opening of the sound and saw the Tasman Sea and the coastline.

We then spent a day in Te Anau, which is the only town near Milford Sound. We decided that as our Easter present to ourselves we would stay in a hotel for the night, rather than the cheap hostels and backpackers. It was nice to have a room and bathroom to ourselves and we ended up sleeping in pretty late too which was great.

School

I decided I needed a little update of how things have been going at school. I took over the class this week on full control, although full control probably isn't a good way to describe this class for any teacher. One thing that has not changed from teaching in America is that there are always a few students that try to push the limit. I do really like my class, they are a lot of fun to work with and they are really good about sharing their ideas with the class. I have found that it is very difficult to get anything done though. They have so many extra things to get done in the week, that it has been very difficult to stick to a schedule. On Mondays we do News Buddies, where the students get to share about their weekends and we use it to work on their oral language skills, but it takes up a pretty big chunk of the day. On Tuesdays we go to the library for about an hour and then the computer room for about an hour. Wednesdays stay pretty normal and I've been getting a chance to teach some art and PE lesson. I haven't had a go at teaching music yet though, but we'll see. Thursday mornings, about half of the class goes to Junior Kapa Haka where they learn Maori songs and dances. I was able to go watch this once and got a little video of one of the songs they have been practicing. Friday afternoons are also full because we have an assembly where the teachers present certificates to any students who have done something exceptional, share artwork with the school and celebrate birthdays for the week. After this we have a teacher come in our room and teach religion for the last hour of the afternoon. As you can see with reading, maths, fitness and writing also, our week is pretty full. I have learned that it is very important to be flexible with the schedule. Just last week they told us Friday morning that they would like us to go watch the year 5/6 students in the school triathlon, so we just took out writing for the day and went to cheer on the older students.

My class has 25 students. About half of them are year 4 students and half are year 3's. There is also a pretty even split between boys and girls. They are a very competitive group of kids and like to play lots of games during out fitness time in the morning. The school has a mandatory time for about 15-20 minutes where the class has to go out and do some sort of activity that gets the kids running. Lately, I've been introducing them to some of the PE and camp games that I know and they've been enjoying playing them.

Let me know if you have any questions about the school here and I would be happy to explain more.

Kapa Haka Practice

Another weekend of Fun

This past weekend we decided to go to Queenstown which is the tourist center of New Zealand. There are so many things to do there. We decided on a few activities for the weekend, knowing that we will be headed back there before our stay is over.

We started by going on a chilly Jetboat tour of Lake Wakatipu and the Shotover River. It was a little cold, so they had us wear big raincoats because we did get wet on some of the turns. The boat went really fast and it was a lot of fun. Our guide pointed out a few things along the way, including the Remarkables. This is the only mountain range to run true north and south. They are also the peaks that were used in the filming of the Lord of the Rings for the mountains of Mordor. We got to sit right in the front of the boat which we thought meant we were going to get the wettest, but we ended up staying pretty dry compared to some of the other passengers.

Later in the afternoon we went on a ziptrek tour. We started by riding the gondalas to the top of Gondala Hill. Our tour consisted of a series of four ziplines through the trees and a little talk about keeping the environment healthy. We got a few pictures of us in our harnesses that were used and realized that we have gotten pretty used to having weird harnesses and helmets on for several of our activities. Our guided showed us how to flip upside down and ride the zipline. I was able to do this for one of the lines. The final line went the fastest and lasted the longest, but since it has the best views they told us it was best to ride this one normal. Our one guide also told us that the line would probably spin us around to the right but to just let in go and it would spin you on around. After I took off I spun to the right, but then just kind of stayed there pointing the trees rather than the beautiful views of the town and lake. The guide on the other side asked how the zip went, and I told him I just saw a lot of trees. He responded well why didn’t you just look to the left, he was supposed to tell you that! I did get a short video of this zipline, but it just shows mainly the trees.

Sunday morning, we headed back up Gondala Hill and got some amazing pictures of the view from the top. We then did the Luge where you go around this track in a little cart that has bicycle handles. They made you do one trip on the slow track so we did a second one to do the faster track. It had several little hills and sharp turns that made it a lot of fun.

We also walked around the town and did some shopping and tried a Fergburger for lunch. We were told by our ziptrek tourguide that it would be the best burger we would ever have. Of course, being from Iowa, we didn’t believe this for a second but thought we should at least try one. It was actually pretty good, but definitely not the best. We also spent a good amount of time feeding some very friendly ducks along the edge of the lake. On Saturday a lady came by with a whole bag of little cookies for us to feed to a group of ducks. They would come up and eat them right out of my hand, and there were so many of them! They were awfully greedy though and would try to steal them from each other or our bag. We also fed them some of our fries after each meal we had in town.