Robert (New Zealand) - Kia Ora

As best as I can figure out, the trip from Dublin to to Auckland took three days. It was a trial, but I think that having the experience of loosing your sense of time and space like that for a few days is an interesting one to have. We arrived in Auckland around noon on the 7th having skipped the 6th somewhere over the pacific. Our program leaders had arranged a stay at a great hostel about ten minutes from the airport with a swimming pool, a strawberry farm across the street (2 strawberries, 2 pancakes, and 2 scoops of ice cream for NZ$ 6), and an Indian restaurant down the road. The next day was spent on a bus traveling across the north island from Auckland down to Wanganui. Most of the way was rolling hills and farmland, but towards the end we got into the mountains and winding valleys and ridge lines. Beautiful country.

We're staying at a place called the Quaker Settlement. It's a community of about 18 families on a section of land about a 10 minute drive from the city center. They also have a bunk house and communal living area that they provide for groups wishing to have retreats. They've been amazingly kind hosts. They give us food from their gardens, let us steal their wireless (I'm sitting on the lawn right now), ask their friends on the district council to explain open bottle policy in the city for us, and generally welcome us into their lives.

A lot of the first week was spent adjusting to jet-lag and doing some orientation. We did a two day workshop on New Zealand history focusing on European-Maori relations, and a Maori language and culture workshop. The Maori are fascinating, but I'll have more on that after staying in some villages next week. We're about 15 minutes from a beautiful black-sand beach. We all went down for an afternoon to swim, build sandcastles, and get severely sunburned (the ozone is very thin here still).

Yesterday we hiked the Tongariro Crossing, considered by some to be the best day-hike in the world. It's a volcanic formation about two hours north of here. I nearly summited Mt. Ngauruhoe (for those Tolken fans out there it's where thy filmed the scenes of Mt. Doom, so imagine that, except sunny and beautiful). Climbing up you have to boulder scramble on lava flows because most of the mountain is loose rock and ash, and is very steep. Going down you just run down the side with the earth sliding out from beneath you. It feels like being on one of those moving walkways at the airport except at 45 degrees down the side of a mountain. Other highlights included bright teal crater lakes, volcanic desert/grassland/rainforest all in 3 hours of hiking...........but mostly climbing up the side of a volcano. I also have a new found respect for the Danes. A group of 10 year old Danish kids absolutely kicked our asses on the hike, even after submitting the volcano. They were hard-core.

I'm really enjoying the Earlham group. Their all a lot of fun. We've definitely been moving into the "storming" phase of group development, but that's to be expected. We had a really good group check-in session tonight. I laughed harder than I have in a long time.

Things I have been appreciating:

-New Zealands dedication to round sums when paying for things (many things come to exact dollar amounts and you almost never have need for even 10 cent coins)
-Quaker hospetality
-The sun setting at 9 pm instead of 4 pm
-Swimming in the ocean again
-How New Zealand toilets have both a "small flush" and a "big flush" to help conserve water
-Meeting new people
-Being outdoors a lot
-Reading about everyone else's lives abroad