SFS: Trip to the Mountains

I have spent the past four days at a place called the Marae. It was incredibly awesome! I'm not the most outdoorsy person per se, but I really enjoyed my time here. We all got to see what life was like on a farm and experience the life of a Maori family.

One of the greatest things was how accepting they were of all of us. They brought us into their lives, shared their culture, food, and home with us and we tried to do the same thing back. All 19 of us students stayed in one long hall, guys on one side and girls on the other. We weren't allowed to wear our shoes in this room because it was a sacred house where their ancestors were acknowledged and respected. We couldn't have anything but water in this room and all food was not allowed.

There wasn't hot water always readily available and the first night I took an ice cold shower. The reason being that I and a few others went on a short run that first night there. While running we saw shooting stars, the milky way, and the southern cross (again). Not only that, but we spotted an owl sitting in a tree and just took in the silence and darkness around us. It was awesome!

That first night was the latest any of us stayed awake, mostly just talking and hanging out until about midnight. Then we tried to go to sleep, but as was repeated every night, laughing fits befell a few of us and I ended up in tears from laughing so hard. Nothing was really funny, but when one of us started to laugh others would join in and it would become an endless cycle.

The first day we were there we got to witness a cool dog training program. This training is used for hunting dogs so they don't go after kiwi (another flightless bird). This dog aversion training was very interesting to watch because it only took one shock on an electric collar to get the dog to avoid the dead kiwi. Also, dogs who had been trained over two years ago, still had an aversion to kiwi and their smell and would stay away from them. Fantastic!

Following the kiwi experience from the first day, we all had the opportunity to go out into the mountains at night and listen for kiwi in the woods. This was fun even though it was pretty chilly. We went out about a fifteen minute roller coaster drive and sat on the road and just listened. Again, it was pitch black and absolutely silent. My group of six heard five kiwi over the course of two hours. We heard many possums and a few owls as well. And being out in the woods and having a clear night, we got to see a lot of shooting stars and many different constellations as well.

Yesterday was fun despite the rain and cold. We hiked through the mountains for about four hours in the rain and mud and had a barbecue up in the mountains at another cabin. While hiking around we got to see many of the sacred sites around where we were staying and it was very interesting to see it all. From there we walked back to the Marae to eat our Hangi (spelling may be off). This is a traditional pit-cooking style and boy was it delicious.

Two days before we took this hike the "man of the house" Aaron shot a wild boar that was on his land. That boar ended up being our dinner last night and it was great! A Hangi works like almost any pit style cooking. It's a hole in the ground that you have hot rocks in, which will cook your food. You put your food in a metal basket and lower it into the pit after wrapping it in layers and layers of burlap and a white sheet. Cover it all up with dirt and leave it there for three to four hours. Come back and you've got a fantastic meal, piping hot.

My favorite thing about being at the Marae has to have been the kids. There were four kids who would be around sporadically throughout the weekend and they loved to play. Three brothers, ages 7, 4, and 2 (I think) were the most fun. We practiced rugby, ran around, and just acted like kids. I loved it all. When we left today the women both told me that the boys would miss messing around with me and would tell them thanks and goodbye for me. All of us in the group have an open invitation now to go back to the Marae sometime in the future and visit everyone there and as of now, we're all trying to think of a good time to have an SFS reunion back at the Marae. Maybe it'll happen soon, but I think it'll be sometime in the distant future.

Maybe it'll happen, maybe it won't, but I know that staying there with this family (both SFS and Maori) was an experience I'll never forget.

Difference between a wallaby and a kangaroo

G'day mate! How's it going mate? Ive been practicing my local speak lately. And after going out last night with my friend I picked up a bunch of new phrases and terms I want to start using both here and in the states. I'm sure I'll be adding more throughout this trip, but there are so many colloquialisms I don't know if I'll be able to keep track of them all!

That really has nothing to do with today's adventures mates. Today we got to see many different animals. First were the koalas. Not the koala bears as some people call them. They were really good at hiding up in the trees and were pretty hard to spot some of the time. While we were busy looking for them up in the trees we had to keep looking down too because there were wallabies abound. Which brings me to the title of this post, combining my love of the language here and a fact not many Aussies even know. The difference between a wallaby and a kangaroo is mainly the size. There could be another reason or two, but the biggest reason is the size.

Then we saw the coolest part of the day: the little penguins. That's their real, non-scientific name. No pictures were allowed because their eyesight is so important and oftentimes language and technological incompetence (I.e. not knowing how to turn a flash off on a camera) caused them to ban all photography. Anyways, we sat really close to the beach at sunset and waited for the penguins to swim up on shore and head to their burrows. It was fascinating and fun to watch hundreds of little guys waddle their way home.

Not only did we see this amazing feat, but the stars were incredible on Phillip Island. I was surprised at the amount of stars we could see, even though in the airport I learned that you can see the most stars in the outback out of anywhere in the entire world. I got to see constellations I had never seen before (the Southern Cross) and saw the "south star" which always points south. Then the coolest thing I thought was seeing the Milky Way. It wasn't extremely visible, but it was definitely still there.

After our penguin adventure we ate at a small restaurant where I ordered what our guide told us was the stereotypical favorite meal of male Australians: chicken parmigiana. Let me tell you mate, it was delicious! I'm surprised that we haven't seen many fat people here, but the amount of exercising is impressive and explains why most people are skinny here.

I hope we don't have a mess of it while we travel around the country, but from what I've heard it shouldn't be too tough flying here. Until next time, cheers mate!