Written by Brent Kramer and Taylor Boucher

​We got to sleep in on Monday which was great, since most of us were still very tired from traveling to Kapiti.

​Then we finished off block two in Wanganui with a pretty normal week of classes and internships. Wednesday we turned in our nature journals. We had to have a list of 50 New Zealand species with information about them, sketches, and several essays on which we had to research three New Zealand species and a self reflection. We also had two quizzes on Wednesday. The first quiz was on the flora on NZ, and the second was a geology quiz that we have weekly.

A group performing a haka at Pakaitore Day.

​Friday was Pakaitore day, a holiday for the local iwi. It was a free day for the students, and we all celebrated in different ways. Some of us went to the Save Mart and bought cheap clothes in preparation for the South Island. Some got up early and went to the Pakaitore day welcoming ceremony and watched ‘The Funathon (where there were different teams of people, and in each team there were two swimmers, two runners, and two canoe paddlers). Others slept in packed/prepared for the south island and later went to Pakaitore for lunch and Haka performances.

​Friday night we all went to the quaker settlement to stay the night. On Saturday morning we woke up early and said our goodbyes to the quaker settlement and Wanganui. We then drove to Palmerston North and flew to Christchurch, met up with Matthias (our south island guide), and flew again to Dunedin where we met our coach tour bus and driver. We then headed down the east coast to where we were going to stay for the next couple of nights. We had two stops on the way; first we stopped to look at a lighthouse overlooking a rocky, water-eroded beach that was filled with NZ fur seals sunbathing and catching a snooze. Our second stop was at a yellow-eyed penguin beach habitat, where this rarest penguin in the world can be seen if you are lucky. Unfortunately, we did not see any, but Matthias assured us we would have other chances at other beaches (and we finally saw two penguins). Afterwords, we went to our cabins and slept for the night, knowing we had a full day ahead of us tomorrow.

Sea lion pup with laying on its mother.

Sunday was very eventful, we started the morning off with a short beach walk next to our cabins. On the beach we saw 3 sea lions lying around, also catching a snooze. We were very lucky to see them because there are only ~150 mainland sea lions left in NZ. We then went to a conservation area outside of Owaka. This conservation area, which is located at Mohua Park, is an eco-tourism get away owned by Fergus and Mary Southerland. It is home to the Mohua bird, a very rare NZ bird. Here we learned a lot about ecotourism and its effects. Our next stop was at an AWESOME place called ‘The Lost Gypsy Gallery.’ This was the workings of an inventor with a wild imagination, full of hand-made gadgets and gizmos that were very hands-on. These were all crafted and displayed for the curious on an old gypsy bus. This was most of the students’ favorite part of the day.

Rare Yellow-Eyed Penguins.

After that we drove to a short hiking area, that led to a beautiful waterfall tucked back in the bush. The stream flowing to the waterfall was carved by lava from a past volcano. We finished off the day stopping by ‘Teapot Land’, a small yard with a huge collection of teapots (786 to be exact).

Side note... What different people in our group like to do in their spare time:

Taking selfies, getting hiccups, looking at ants, being momma goose, taking pictures of butts, falling down, perching on rocks, throwing candy into people’s mouths, passing out after fire baths, writing phylogenies on their body, comparing themselves to pumice, finding insects in their food, doodling cool pictures, making sweet time-lapse videos, climbing things, busting their lip, taking candid sleeping photos, looking at rocks, and running around naked. 

​(All of these are inside jokes, if you want to know the stories ask someone from the group!)