Today was the first full day spent with the entire group and I'm super excited for how well we are all getting along and how much fun we're going to have. Our schedule for today was rearranged a bit to incorporate more inside learning activities due to the rain that we had most of the day.
Our first visit was to Kiwi 360, a local Kiwi farm that does tours and provides interesting information on NZ's Kiwi industry. It turns out that NZ is pretty much the perfect place to grow kiwi, and they take great pride in the quality of their crop. NZ is entirely GMO free, and we are constantly learning of ways in which NZ strives to keep themselves pure and green. Instead of making decisions based on short term results, NZ tends to look at the big picture and long term effect of decisions on their environment. Being a bit of a farm lover, I was pretty interested in all of the info that the kiwi farmer described about their crop and farming processes. After our tour we had a nice lunch that involved plenty of kiwi tasting, and much to my surprise, I wasn't allergic to the magical fruit.
From kiwi 360 we traveled to kiwi encounter and examined the kiwi bird rather than the fruit. The crew at kiwi encounter is working to restore the population of kiwi and the country by collecting eggs from the wild, hatching them, and then releasing them back in to the wild at an age where they can defend themselves. If kiwi were to hatch in the wild, they have a 5% survival rate, but when kiwi encounter releases their kiwi into the wild that survival rate goes up to 70%. It's funny that the kiwi is NZ's national symbol, as it's really kind of a mean and flightless bored. However, it's the uniqueness of the bird that they cling to and live by.
The evening involved the unique experience of visiting a local Maori tribe for a taste of their culture. They performed several dances and songs and explained their ancient ways of survival. The Maori are the native people of NZ, and are very open to incorporating their lives with those of their visitors. They are very proud of their deep culture, and it was real interesting to learn about their tribe. It makes me wish I knew more about my history and ancestors, and really makes me want to travel to the Netherlands to get in touch with my routes - maybe next interim. We enjoyed a very large and delicious traditional meal that had everything from lamb to chicken to sweet potatoes and mussels. Most of it was prepared in their "ground ovens" and had a very interesting smokey taste to it.
After returning back to the hostel, a bunch of us took another dip in the thermal pool to put a nice relaxing end to an informative day of the NZ lifestyle.
After days of traveling and having no real plans, Kyle and I are both really enjoying being with the group and having things planned out for us. Doug, our tour guide for this trip, is doing an excellent job of explaining NZ life and keeping things fun and organized for us.
A highlight of today's travels was when Kyle's metal water bottle fell from the overhead storage of the bus directly on to my nose while we were driving through some bumpy roads. It took me by great surprise and left two nice cuts that look like a snake bite, so I might stick with that story when people ask what happened. Also, my cold has progressed into me loosing my voice. While I feel fine and haven't been too affected by it, it's quite annoying to try and hold a conversation while you can barely speak and your voice is always cracking.
Tomorrow we're hoping to do some adventure type activities, and I'll write about that in my next entry. So far this trip has been great, and I can't wait for all the things still to come!
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