So right, I’ve been a slacker. I never intended to write a full post every day, but I did intend to update after the major happenings. Well, there have been about 35 “major happenings” and I am feeling overwhelmed as I sit down to right this post. I’ll break it down into some headings and I’ll go from there…sound good?
Queenstown
My amazing host counselor, Claire, is one of the top dogs at the Business school and, as such, she has lots of meetings. It turns out that she had a meeting in Queenstown the morning after I arrived. Barring any jet lag, she said that she would be more than happy to bring me along! Naturally, even if I had been jet lagged the next morning, I wouldn’t have ever turned down the offer. We took the most amazing drive through Central Otago and saw some pretty amazing landscapes and lots of gold rush towns. Let’s satisfy some history and geography buffs for just a second. Geography people…Otago is a region in New Zealand and it’s essentially like saying “New England” or “Pacific Northwest” in the States. It refers to a large area that contains lots of towns and cities and some breathtaking panoramas. We drove across Central Otago towards the west coast on our way to Queenstown. History people…there was a big gold rush and lots of little towns sprung up as a result of the influx of wealth and business endeavors. Alright, back to the trip. Once we arrived in Queenstown, Claire went to her meeting and I got to wonder around the town for a few hours! Imagine the most pristine landscape you can imagine, complete with blue lakes and towering mountains. Now, integrated into that landscape, picture a modern town with cool shops, bars, and cafes. Oh yeah, add a beach area to your thoughts as well. In a nutshell, you’ve got Queenstown. I was blown away, again. Everywhere I looked there was a mountain commanding my respect or another breathtaking view. As it is New Zealand, there was a fair share of extreme sports as well, including sky swinging! It’s worth saying that I was completely clueless about the giant hole in the ozone layer over New Zealand. A byproduct of this is that you burn a lot quicker than you do in the states. Hard lesson learned. Despite my end-of-day rosy complexion, I had an excellent time in Queenstown and you all should check out some of the photos on my Facebook if you’d like to put some truth to your mental pictures (which are all splendid in their own rite, I am sure).
We headed home after Claire’s second meeting of the day and ended up going through a town called “Arrowtown”. Claire showed me around the town and explained some important Maori customs and symbology. For those of you who are wondering, the Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand and are still present today. We stopped off in a jewelry store so that Claire could show me some “Pounamu”. Pounamu is this brilliant green stone, aka jade, and holds a lot of spiritual power for the Maori people. It’s important to note, however, that it is considered bad luck if you buy pounamu for yourself and it should only be purchased as a gift for someone else. Claire also showed me some of the various Maori symbols, including the ‘koru’. The ‘koru’ looks like a spiral and is meant to resemble an unfolding fern. The koru symbolizes ‘new beginnings’…Mom…a tattoo may be on the horizon… J
The road we took home was different from the one we took that morning and I got to see some more amazing little towns. We drove through a place called Middlemarch and it was awesome! There are these giant rock formations that just jut up out of the ground and they are all over the place. It was like a moonscape with grass…only much more beautiful. I should note that this drive also took us up over 4000ft in the air…they still only call these hills though. Ha. In short, Queenstown was amazing and everyone should go there at least once in their life.
Relay for Life
My first weekend here was pretty fierce; I got to help out with the local Relay for Life. Claire, of course, was one of the organizers and was gracious enough to let a jet-lagged, wide-eyed American join the volunteer team. For those of you who haven’t heard of the Relay for Life, it is a 24-hour walk that takes place over the course of one day and supports cancer research. Dunedin really turned out for this one with over 102 teams participating in the walk! It was really neat to see so many different groups come with food, drinks, sleeping bags, etc…preparing for the long road ahead! Some teams had a gimmick and others were there in plain clothes, just getting’ it done. I had a few different jobs ranging from parking lot attendant to “vendor gate” operator…but I was mainly just glad to help in any possible way for such a major event. Things got started with a “haka” from one of the local boy’s school…it was the first haka I’ve seen live since being in New Zealand and they didn’t disappoint! Check out the link if you would like to see a haka!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdMCAV6Yd0Y&feature=related
Following the haka, the day went off without a hitch and the weather was kept its distance. We had some rain but nothing like the previous year, or so I was told. Apparently they had to call the walk off 12 hours early last year due to unsafe conditions due to such heavy rains! No such bad luck this year!
One of my favorite parts of the walk, aside from just getting to see how happy people were to be together in supporting cancer research, was the ceremony that was held later that night. Parts of the ceremony were recited in the Maori language and it was just amazing to see everyone together, some emotional and others just silent. Following the ceremony, everyone took a lap together following a bag piper…very cool. Something else that I forgot to mention is that earlier that day people purchased white bags and wrote the names of people they knew who had lost the fight to cancer, were surviving cancer, or for those we knew coping with cancer-ridden loved ones. Inside the bags, LED candles were placed and illuminated. So, imagine hundreds of bags lining the walking path of the Relay…that was the setting for the group lap. Just seeing all the names on those bags was enough to make anyone emotional and I really started to love Dunedin at that moment. So many people had come together to make the event a success and it was a great way to spend some of my first week in New Zealand.
Conclusion
I am in love with New Zealand. Absolutely head over heels in the love with the people, culture, environment…just everything. One part of it has to do with how awesome my host parents have been and the other part has to do with how my real parents raised me to appreciate the life I’ve been given and how my experiences with those in my life along the way have shaped me into who I am today. Be on the lookout for a post about my experience looking for an apartment, aka flat, and moving out of Claire and Barry’s house. Some good experiences to share with those!
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