Kia Ora

Day 1 New Zealand. We got up for breakfast at 8:30 at the Aukland YHA and left by 9:30 for the Aukland Museum. We stayed at the museum—mostly to see the Maori exhibit—for an hour and then hit the road for Whakatane. It was a 4 hour drive and tired as I was, the scenery was incredible and I watched out the window most of the way. Well, that and I really can’t sleep in a bus or any public, moving place. We saw great rolling green hills and plains and even a volcano. We drove past a bay for a stretch and saw these great green islands rising out of the water. It sprinkled on and off and we saw several rainbows when the sun was struggling to shine through the fluffy white clouds.

Now we are at the marae in Whakatane—a Maori meeting place for extended family groups that they use for reunions, weddings, funerals, housing overnight guests etc. Our tour guide for this whole trip is Lyndsay, an Anglo-Saxon Kiwi who is best friends with Matt, the leader of this marae. He is our connection to come here. A special “induction” is required when visiting a Maori marae. When we arrived we were welcomed onto the marae by the local whano, or Maori family. We stood at the gate as a woman sang (a woman is always required to do the opening song) to welcome our group. Then we advanced to the middle of the courtyard to pay our respects, then we all sat down diagonal to the locals with the courtyard between us. A man stood and gave a welcome speech, half in English and half in Maori, and the locals sang in appreciation of him. Then, Lyndsay, David (one of us ASCers) and Matt spoke and we sang for each of them. Every speech in Maori culture is followed by a song as a sign of respect or affirmation of the speaker.

When this whole welcoming ceremony was over, we brought our gear in and set up our beds in the wharenui, the big one-room meeting house. We weren’t allowed to bring any food in, wear our shoes inside, take pictures inside or sit on our pillows as all are customs. It is the mens' job in Maori culture to make the bed, so our guys pulled out a heap of mattresses and set them out. We absolutely fill the place wall to wall and miraculously they had sleeping bags, pillows and sheets for all 40 some of us, plus a family of their relatives who were also visiting.

After we were all situated it was time for dinner. I am so full right now I can’t believe it. We all transferred over to the wharekai, the eating house, where the whano cooked a big dinner of soup with a fried bread roll for the entrée, then spaghetti bolonaisse. There was also a Maori dish—potatoes with watercress and pork ribs. I wasn’t a huge fan of that dish. Dessert was apple pie type stuff with custard and cream. That was delicious. I’m going to gain at least five pounds on this trip. The Maori people are not so thin themselves.

Tonight the locals are going to talk to us about Maori culture here in the wharenui. Most of us are in our pajamas already and we just finished cleaning up from dinner. They cook, we clean is the arrangement. Matt is quite industrious and bossy, as Lyndsay described him. He has us move from place to place like cattle and has an answer for everything. But he’s a nice guy and has been very welcoming, if a little brusque, as are the other locals for the most part. Apparently when the ASC first

started coming they weren’t very comfortable because white people didn’t associate with them much. But this is the fourth semester we’ve come back and they have grown to appreciate us coming here I guess. Tomorrow we’re leaving at 10 am after another big breakfast. Right now we’re just chilling, Greg is playing the guitar and we’re going to get started with the evening activities soon.

All Good Things Must Come to an End

This last week in Sydney we have had some pretty amazing last minute adventures. Early this week a fellow ASCer was preparing to go home early for medical reasons. She’s had some unexplained stomach problems over the course of the semester and during our time in New Zealand she will not have easy access to a doctor. April and I went into the city to explore with her one more time after classes one day. We ended up seeing some places we’d never seen before in the Rocks, including Mike’s old high school, and seeing a beautiful sunset from Observatory Hill looking over the harbour and the Anzac Bridge.

My favorite memory from this whole week was when Mike took us to Bondi Beach. After a number of rainchecks from Mike over the course of the semester to do some insider sightseeing, we finally got a day planned to get up early to go see Bondi Beach and do the Bondi to Coogie cliff walk. At the last minute that morning, Mike ran downstairs and almost bailed on us because he was out of money, but we insisted he wouldn’t need to spend any so he had better pack a lunch and come. It wasn’t hard to convince him. On the way to the Eastern suburbs, we picked up Charlene and Joi on the corner of Lyons and Victoria since they wanted to come along too. When we got to Bondi, it was a cool winter day but the warmest we’d had in weeks, especially after all the rain. The sun was actually shining and we all marveled at how gorgeously aqua the water was, even in winter. Mike had only been to Bondi a couple times even though he’s lived his entire life in Sydney, so it was as much an adventure for him as it was for us. The beach was absolutely deserted at that time of year, which is amazing considering it is arguably the most famous beach in the world. We took off our shoes and walked down to the other end in the waves. Mike and I ran the whole way back because it’s only about a half mile long! At the other end, we accidentally left our shoes too close to the surf and one of mine got drenched by a wave.

When we were all together again we walked for over an hour up on the cliffs along the coast to Coogie. We passed several beaches along the way and saw the most beautiful scenery. At one point we came across a huge cemetery stretching along tops of the cliffs filled with the graves of the earliest settlers. The view from the cemetery, with its bright white monuments practically falling into the water against the blue sky was breathtaking. At Coogie we decided we had to try Bondi burgers (modeled after Portuguese burgers) at Aporto, which is the only real Australian fast food chain, and they were pretty good. Then we did the whole trek back up to Bondi and drove home. Mike dropped us off in the city at Paddy’s Market so we could do some final souvenir shopping and then exhausted we rode the bus back home for tea.

I still had some things to take care of at Wesley on Wednesday and on my walk back home I had to say good-bye to a good friend of mine and April’s. An elderly Hungarian man named Emil, the self-proclaimed “Sheriff of Undine Street,” has stopped us for a number of conversations on our walks to and from Wesley throughout the semester. He lives on Undine Street with his ailing wife, who has Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and a number of other problems, he says. He is her sole caretaker and for a breather he comes out onto the sidewalk to chat with his neighbors. He was a prisoner of war in WWII and was not able to return to his home country after the war. He moved to Australia and has been here for 60 years. He loves to tell us, in his still strong Hungarian accent, what beautiful American granddaughters he has. Often he holds us there on the sidewalk for much longer than we care to listen, but saying good-bye to him was still hard. He asked us to write to him when we reached America again.

On Thursday we took some time out of our sight-seeing to go see the Wesley play, The Good Woman of Setzhuan, since our ASC friend Hannah was in it. To be honest, it was one of the longest, most boring plays I’ve ever seen. The actors did a fine job, but the writing of the play was terrible. We heard later that the Thursday matinée was the worst performance so perhaps that contributed. As a last treat at intermission we walked down to Lyons Road to get some Lashings wedges. At orientation way back at the beginning of the semester we’d had from some catered in and we all fell in love with eating them the Australian way with sour cream and sweet chili sauce. We filled the whole theater with the smell. They made the second half go a little faster.

With the afternoon free, April and I went down to the City again for some pictures that we needed yet. We ended up meeting Pat (a Wesley student) and Ellie (Mike’s friend) on the bus and Pat got off with us in Darling Harbour. He entertained us through a street performance and walked with us through all the set-up for the FIFA Fan Fest that was taking place at midnight in Darling Harbour. After he left we walked through the Chinese Garden of Friendship and then went back to Paddy’s Market for a last minute souvenir run before heading home again.

 Yesterday morning we dropped our luggage off at Wesley so it would all be ready to go to the airport on this morning. It’s part of our “experience” (character building again) to carry all of our luggage ourselves to Wesley, taking it on public transportation etc. instead of having our host families drop it off. We were supposed to reflect on the amount of stuff we have. I am very glad I could fit all my stuff back in my one small suitcase for the half mile walk. I definitely have learned a lot about materialism this semester, through our class discussions and from personal experience. My suitcase must have been half the size of everyone else’s and I’ve been wearing the same clothes week in and week out. It has made my life so much simpler. Strangely, when you stop caring about your own appearance as much, you stop caring about other people’s too. I’ve donated a lot of things to the Salvo’s here so I can take some new things back, but I’m so glad I’m not taking a whole extra suitcase like a lot of other kids must.

After we dropped our stuff off we were free to do whatever we liked before we left this morning. We rode the bus to Burwood and combed every shop looking for the perfect good-bye/thank you gifts for the Jagos. It took us forever to decide, but we knew Mike wanted a scarf so we got him a blue striped scarf and Brian and Sue a display of candles, since Sue loves to light them and Brian likes to play with the melted wax. April knew of this place to get “bubble tea,” which is a kind of drink with bits of fruit floating in it. But then when we tried to get on the bus with our drinks the bus driver yelled at us and we had to wait for the next one.

When we got back we cleaned the whole bathroom that we shared with Mike top to bottom (that doesn’t get done very often) and our room, and packed our carry-ons. Then we spent the evening with the family. This was Mike’s 21st birthday. He and Jonno had a big bash planned for later in the year, but on the actual day of his birthday Brian and Sue invited the whole family over for a baked dinner to celebrate and to say goodbye to us as well. All the immediate family came—Andrew and

Marike, Camille and Andrew, Claire, and Linda came too. Sue made a delicious three course meal with soup, roast lamb, and the family favorite ricotta cheesecake for dessert. Linda, who is an avid cook, made a homemade meatpie. Mike and Sue always raved about her pies, but it never occurred to me that they meant meatpies too! A little later we went out with Mike, Linda and Claire to PJs for a short while. We came back to the house and after Claire went home the rest of us sat up talking until 6 am!

Finally we went to bed for just a couple hours before we had to get up to head back to Wesley. Our little household got up early to take some pictures at home and say good-bye to Lucky and Chili. April and I both cried this morning when we hugged them good-bye at the school. I thought for sure I wasn’t going to make it through three hugs, but I started crying even before the first one. We all promised each other that we would see each other again. Mike vehemently declared that he would come to the States, maybe not to live but he would travel there and maybe study there. I truly hope that is the case.

Tonight we are in New Zealand. I can’t believe it. I’m so excited to visit this place I’ve heard so much about, but leaving the Jagos was the most heart-wrenching thing. This week did not lend itself very well to leaving after all the fun things we did. The house was so quiet and sad last night and

this morning we all got up early to go to Wesley together—for the last time. No more late night Maccas runs. No trips to Forster and Canberra. No tagging along with Mike and his friends to pubs. No more favorite TV shows with Brian and Sue. No more family tea times. No more after-tea tea. No more baked dinners. No more family board games. No more of Sue’s special language. No more Jago jokes.

April and I keep turning to each other and telling something that happens at the Jagos, and we both suddenly remember we’re not going back ever again (for now at least) and we begin to tear up. We were talking to Kimberly earlier about dinner and April suddenly said, “We’re missing tea.” First I just nodded we tried to control our tears but Kimberly caught on to our distress and asked, “Are you having a Jago moment?” Then we just looked at each other and laughed through our tears. I think it’ll be like this until the end of the trip. I’m going to miss living there so much.

June 6

Rain rain and more rain. Will it ever stop? This is the rainiest year that people, even old people, have ever seen. And it’s also cold! And New Zealand will be even colder! I’ve gotta find something warmer to wear. So this weather hasn’t been the greatest for doing lots of things, but we’ve done some fun things anyway that didn’t require going outside too much.

Friday was our final debrief. The ASC spent the whole day in our classroom while it poured buckets outside. We went over all the things we’d done, talked about what we’d learned, and what to expect when we get back home. We also had our ASC showcase and April and I played Amazing Grace on the violin and guitar. After class was over, we all went to a Thai restaurant for dinner.

On the way home, April and I rented The Castle from Blockbuster and watched it with Brian. The Castle is what Brian and a lot of other Australians describe as “really Aussie.” It was a hilarious movie from the 80s about a working class family who fights to keep their home on the edge of an airport when it is about to be claimed by the government. I accidentally left my debit card at Blockbuster and had to go back and get it in the morning, but despite some intense worry, no harm was done.

On Saturday Carrie’s homestay had us all over for a potluck barbecue. Almost everyone came and we played bananagrams. Next week the World Cup begins and the Socceroos are playing Germany. Sue’s church held another barbecue Saturday night and showed a video by Athletes in Action (I found that amusing) about some Christians on world cup teams. Afterwards, our household went over to Andrew and Marike’s to watch Rugby Union, the Wallabies v. the Fijians. I’m never going to enjoy American football (a.k.a. grid iron) again after I’ve seen rugby and AFL. The players don’t wear helmets or pads, play doesn’t stop unless there’s a penalty or the ball goes out of bounds and their jersey numbers actually mean something. Australians of all ages are very passionate about their sports.

There’s a lot of things I’d like to do this week before we leave, but as long as I go to Bondi Beach before I go home, I think I’ll be content not doing anything else. Seeing the amount of work I have to do and the time I have left, there won’t be much that I can plan on doing. We had meant to go into the city with some people last night, but going to Andrew and Marike’s proved to be much more enjoyable. In reality, it’s the people that I’ll miss most when I leave here, and spending time with them is my priority.

Today after church at Sue’s church, we spent the afternoon packing our stuff up, just to make sure it was all going to fit before we do our final souvenir shopping and drop off our old stuff at Salvo’s. I think it’s all going to fit just like it did on my way out here, which is a relief. Hopefully I won’t find too much I want to take back from New Zealand! Strangely, packing up my stuff again gives me this excited sense of adventure. The idea of travelling again has my spirits up as much as they can be in the circumstances of leaving.

I’m so excited to see New Zealand, which sounds like the most beautiful country in the world and the Maori culture we’re going to experience sounds amazing. And I’m excited to be home again and see my family and friends. But there is so much I’m leaving behind here.