P2P_journals

Day 1: Auckland, New Zealand 6/24/04

Finally! I am in NZ (New Zealand), but the plane trips took forever. First, on June 22, I woke up at 4:30 am and ate breakfast. At 5:15 a.m., my family left for Davenport, IA. At Davenport, I said my goodbyes, and got on a bus for an airport to Cedar Rapids. I talked to my friends on the way. At Cedar Rapids, we went through security check and waited and waited and waited. Little did I know that I was in for long hours. Finally, we got on the plane and left for the Detroit airport. Again, we had to walk, wait, and eat as we got to Detroit. We boarded a bigger plane that was going to L.A. We finally arrived at L.A., and we waited, ate and walked to the terminal. We met the Illinois group. Our group is the Iowa group even though some of the other student ambassadors and I live in Illinois. We then boarded a HUGE plane that was a double decker. The plane was awesome! Everyone had a personal T.V. and headphones. You could watch movies and play video games. I sat on the aisle seat, next to two very nice Australian sisters. I fell asleep at 7:00 NZ time, and woke up again at 1:00. By that time, the plane trip only had a few hours left, thankfully. We finally got off the plane, and it was Wednesday, June 25, 2004.

Day 2: Auckland, NZ 6/25/04

After the plane ride, we waited a little. Then we met Clark, our part-marae tour guide for our stay in NZ. He is a funny guy, who was very friendly. We took the bus, or coach as local people called it, and left for MERC, which was a team building center. Clark first stopped at a place where we got our money changed in to NZ dollars. My $50 in U.S. money was worth $76 in NZ. We then left for MERC. We started off by everyone, (everyone being the P2P groups from IL, IA, PA, and FL,) gathering in a huge glass room where you could see the beach. It was beautiful. A MERC person explained our schedule, and she split the FL and PA groups away from us. They did sports activities while we did team building activities such as trying to line up tallest to shortest without talking, line up by our birthdays without talking, being given an animal noise to make and trying to find the other animals without seeing, and many more. We only had about an hour left, and we chose what sports activity we would like to do. I chose rock climbing, but other choices were 100 ft. tree climbing, kayaking, and beach walking. The rock climbing was very fun, even though we experienced one of New Zealand's two-minute rain showers! After MERC, we rode on the coach to a school. It was sort of like a middle school. When we arrived, we found out that we were early and the kids were in the middle of recess. We saw them playing in uniforms that were blue. Most of them were barefoot! Clark told us that they were barefoot because they didn't have things that hurt their feet. We were assigned into groups of six, with two NZ students leading us around. They were nice and funny, although their accents were somewhat hard to understand. We remarked that the school layout seemed a bit like a college campus. Some unusual classes for middle school were dancing, home economics, and advanced biology. I gave American coins as gifts to the kids. School was very interesting, but it was time to go. We went to the hotel and settled in.

Day 3: Marae tribe, NZ 6/26/04

We got up at 6:00 am, got ready, ate breakfast, boarded the coach, and made a two-hour trip to Sapphire Springs. While we were there, we learned about the Marae welcome. After that, we split into three groups. My group went with Ken, our instructor, and went down to a couple of flax plants. Those plants are extremely tough and important to Maori's, because Maori's use the flax plant for building houses, clothes, and other things. Next, we wove a flax flower--but unfortunately we cannot bring home because it may bring pests or disease to the U.S. We went into the forest looking at prehistoric tree ferns, silver fern, and trees. The silver fern is the national symbol of NZ. After that, we planted trees that will most likely grow to maturity. We went to the Marae tribe, where they started the welcome ceremony. The chief tried to scare us by doing a dance. He was wearing a beaded flax skirt. He laid down a small plant. Our chief, Ben, picked it up to show that we came in peace. They sang songs , welcomed us and we sang a couple of verses from This Land is Your Land. We settled in, ate dinner, and watched a very interesting Maori concert. They called the girls up and we learned an action dance. The boys went up and they learned a haka, or war dance. We got into bed afterwards and went to sleep. During our overnight stay, the Maori's have taught us these words:

Kiaora - hello, welcome, thank you

Whate-kai - cafeteria

Poi - balls on a string

Arohani - lots of love

We got up in the morning at about 6:00, and we cleaned up, ate breakfast, and went outside for a thank you ceremony. Ratiwinia, our main hostess, said thank you for being such a great group. I went up with gifts from the kids. I had made a dreamcatcher and they thought that was cool. Other gifts that also represented America were really cool as well. We left and made our coach trip to Rotourua. We went to a souvineir shop where I bought some nice things, and then we luged down a mountain. It wasn't regular luging, where you lay down; actually, we sat in a cart that went really fast. It was AWESOME. The only safety feature that you had to wear was a helmet. I went down three times! Afterwards, we went to a museum called The Bath House. It was historical as well as an art museum. It looked like a mansion. We saw a movie on how the volcano erupted. The way the room was designed, the floor and bench we were sitting on actually moved. We saw Maori graffiti soon after that. At the same time this was going on, we looked out the window, and some Maori's were finishing some graffiti! We went back to the hotel, called parents, and some kids swam, but I didn't. We went to bed after a wonderful day.

Day 5:Auckland, NZ 6/28/04

We got to sleep in until 7:30, then we got up and ate breakfast. We then took a coach ride to Auckland. When we arrived, we went to Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World. It was amazing! There were female fish that turned into males, stingrays, sharks, and many other sorts of underwater animals. We rode through two aquarium tunnels, then we went to the Discovery room where there were starfish that you could hold, and an octopus that could fit through holes the size of quarters. The octopus was currently in a small hollowed out log, and its tentacles were suction-cupping to the sides of the aquarium. We had a chance to shop, and then my P2P group went to our hotel that we were staying in for the night. We settled in, ate dinner,and went to sleep.

Day 6: Cairns, Australia 6/29/04

G 'day mate! I'm in Australia and it is a wonderful country/continent. The P2P group got up at 3:00 this morning to get to the airport, and then we made a two hour trip to Brisbane. The flight was boring but everyone was excited, because we were finally going to be in Australia. After we arrived in Brisbane, we made another two hour trip to Cairns. When we finally arrived, we went through meeting our tour guide Partrick, and exchanging money. We then departed for the Rainforestation, where we first met a Pamigirri guide, who is an Aborigini that shows Aboriginal culture. He showed us how to throw a boomerang. Even for Aborigini's the boomerang sometimes doesn't come back! He then demonstrated playing the didgeri-doo, which was very interesting. Finally he showed us spear throwing, with a spear thrower. The P2P group then got a chance to shop, and then we went on an army duck. The army duck was made in America, so the wheel was on the left side and not the right. The army duck went on land as well as water. Our driver stopped at a tree that had green ants on it. He picked some up and offered them to us to eat or lick. How disgusting! Surprisingly, some of our group grabbed one and licked it! They said it tasted like lemons. EWWWW! After that, we got another chance to shop and go to the wildlife park where there were kangaroos that we could feed! Some female kangaroos had joeys! Some wallabies were there, but none would allow me to pet and feed them. Also I saw a common wombat, a dingo, and fresh+salt water crocodiles! I held an amazingly adorable and soft koala that I got a professional photo with. To bad we had to leave to go to the hotel. We settled in, after an awesome, but tiring day.

Day 7: Cairns, Australia 6/30/04

This hotel is huge and it is called Palace Royale. We got up and ate, and watched as it started to rain, but it just drizzled. We boarded the bus to go to the docks. We arrived, and went on a walk along the beach that was man-made. After a little while, we walked back to the ship that we were going to ride on to the Great Barrier Reef. It was a packed boat that many people got seasick on. The ride was long but when we arrived, it was worth it! The Moore Reef was beautiful. The colors didn't seem as bright as pictures, but the fish were multi-colored and very interesting. I went snorkeling for a while, and then I ate lunch on the boat. I went snorkeling again, and got out of the water. I looked at the touch tank, which was on the platoon and had starfish, sea slugs, and coral. Then I went into a submarine ride that had all glass walls so that you could see out, and we left back to land. We came back to the hotel and went to bed after a really cool day.

Day 8: Cairns and Sydney, Australia 7/1/04

We woke up in the morning, and boarded the coach to leave for the Kuranda train ride. We arrived and it was packed! P2P groups, other people, and us filled the tiny place. We ate breakfast, and waited for the scenic train to arrive. We boarded the train, and had a 1 1/2 hour scenic ride. I saw a waterfall, valleys, and learned some history about the Kuranda Rail Station. It was a long ride, but it gave me a chance to get some great pictures! Afterwards, we went and saw a movie on the Kuranda Railroad Station, and we went to the Kuranda Museum that gave some history about Australia and Cairns. We finally went to the airport and had a 4-hour trip to Sydney. By the time we arrived, it was night, and we went to the hotel. We settled in and went to bed.

Day 9: Sydney, Australia 7/2/04

We woke up and ate breakfast. Everyone was excited because we were going to school! We went to St. Columbus Catholic School. We arrived and waited. We separated into two groups and our group went to art class. We made a picture of the Sydney Harbor with pastels. We put a blue wash over it, after. P2P switched classes, and we played AFL with Aussie rules. AFL is a popular game in Australia. I partnered up with an Aussie girl named Felicia. We did a drop punt kick, and then we learned to hit an AFL ball. It was then time for lunch. After lunch, we had recess, during which I played soccer. We then separated into three groups and went to different classes. The first class my group went to was Year 1, or first grade. They had built future transportational models that they showed us. The next class was Year 6, and we learned a dance that was really fun! Year 4 was next. We saw a play and we talked. We had afternoon tea, which consisted of some good snacks and some juice. We went to church where we listened to things about friendship. We left and walked along the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Sometimes groups don't get to do that so we were lucky! We walked to the hotel and went to sleep.

We got up, ate breakfast, and boarded the coach to go to our farm stay. It was a four-hour trip and we watched Whale Rider. We then stopped for lunch, where we saw the Three Sisters, a well-known rock formation. We left, finished watching the movie, and stopped at Bathurst, a town ten minutes away from the farm. We had twenty minutes to shop and get water. We arrived at the farm, settled in, and went to ride horses. Four people went around at a time, and the horses were led around by the halter with you on them. After that, we had lots of free time, were we journaled, played rugby and did other activities. We ate an awesome dinner and then we waited for the observatory to open. Clouds came and covered the stars, so we couldn't look at the stars. That was a bummer, but instead we learned about the solar system, planets, and stars from a funny guy. It was very interesting. It was 9:00 when we finally went to bed.

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