Hitting the ground running in New Zealand
It looks like we've got our technical glitches solved and can finally share our first post for the New Zealand blog. Our days have been so packed with travel and adventure and coursework that it's hard to believe it is only Thursday of our first week. A few highlight to share with you:
Students arrived safe and sound (and jetlagged) in Auckland and we met Doug (our personal "cultural informant" and van driver).
It was a picturesque drive to Tauranga on the Bay of Plenty, our homebase for our 3 weeks. Highlights were a stop at along the way to explore an historical gold mine...complete with glow worms!
Our digs here at Pacific Park are lovely (although a bit chillier than students are used to since it is "winter" here and they have come to find out that central heating is not such a common Kiwi thing). But it's hard to complain when your accommodations are a two minute walk away from the beach. It's fun that jetlag has many students up early for sunrise walks along the beach.
The intercultural communication/competency classes are going well and students are getting an introduction to how the natural world informs the Maori culture and how the Maoris blend with the Pakehas to create a bi-cultural New Zealand. We started our day yesterday with an outing to McLaren falls and rainforest and ended it with a hike up the sacred Mt. Maunganui. I do believe that everyone slept soundly last night.
