Last weekend was our second Loyola-sponsored trip. We stayed at a marae, which is a sacred meeting house within the Maori culture. (For anyone who is not aware, New Zealand is a bicultural nation having both Maori people - the indigenous tribal people of New Zealand - and "pakhia" - the people of European descent who settled here.) Instead of a traditional trip focused on sightseeing, this weekend had more of a focus on soaking up the culture of the Maori through various different activities. When we arrived at the marae, we were instructed to remove our shoes as the marae is sacred. We participated in a traditional welcome ceremony called a powhiri, before we were allowed to actually enter the building. The first night we pretty much just had dinner, watched a movie, and went to sleep. The movie was Whalerider, which is about a Maori girl. I had actually seen the movie a couple of years ago, but it was really interesting to see it again and pick up on and appreciate the Maori culture in it. We all slept on mattresses on the floor in one big room.
When we woke up in the morning, pretty much everyone had gotten eaten alive by bugs. After breakfast, we headed to a beach where we had free time just to hang out. It was overcast, and I didn't really feel like going in the water, so I played volleyball instead! 
After the beach, we went back to the marae for lunch. In the afternoon, we were split up into two different groups to participate in two workshops. My group did the weaving workshop first. We each cut a leaf off of a flax bush, and then walked down to the beach where we learned how to weave the leaf into the shape of a flower. This is my flower:
The second workshop was learning Maori martial arts, which involves fighting with a long stick (think tribal jousting). Our martial arts instructor first had us do "conditioning" where we had to run sprints forwards and backwards for a good 20 minutes to a half hour. After everyone was all sweaty and tired out, we began the lesson. First, we learned the various different ways to block an attack and then we learned how to strike our opponent. The grand finale was when he paired us up and had us battle each other! A couple of the boys got really into it and at the end, the instructor faught both of them at once.
When we woke up in the morning, pretty much everyone had gotten eaten alive by bugs. After breakfast, we headed to a beach where we had free time just to hang out. It was overcast, and I didn't really feel like going in the water, so I played volleyball instead! After the beach, we went back to the marae for lunch. In the afternoon, we were split up into two different groups to participate in two workshops. My group did the weaving workshop first. We each cut a leaf off of a flax bush, and then walked down to the beach where we learned how to weave the leaf into the shape of a flower. This is my flower:The second workshop was learning Maori martial arts, which involves fighting with a long stick (think tribal jousting). Our martial arts instructor first had us do "conditioning" where we had to run sprints forwards and backwards for a good 20 minutes to a half hour. After everyone was all sweaty and tired out, we began the lesson. First, we learned the various different ways to block an attack and then we learned how to strike our opponent. The grand finale was when he paired us up and had us battle each other! A couple of the boys got really into it and at the end, the instructor faught both of them at once. 
Afterwards, we went to the wharf in town and tried our hands at fishing. 
Overall, we were pretty unsuccessful, but 2 of the boys did catch a small fish each. I also spotted a stingray underneath the dock! After fishing, we went back to the marae where we showered up and had dinner. Once the dishes were done, we went to the "Leigh Sawmill Cafe" to hang out for a little while. A bunch of us were pretty tired out from the day and headed back to the marae early, which the rest of the group stayed for a couple drinks. We kept the doors and windows closed that night, to try to keep the bugs out, but I still got some new bites.
Overall, we were pretty unsuccessful, but 2 of the boys did catch a small fish each. I also spotted a stingray underneath the dock! After fishing, we went back to the marae where we showered up and had dinner. Once the dishes were done, we went to the "Leigh Sawmill Cafe" to hang out for a little while. A bunch of us were pretty tired out from the day and headed back to the marae early, which the rest of the group stayed for a couple drinks. We kept the doors and windows closed that night, to try to keep the bugs out, but I still got some new bites.The next morning at breakfast, we were told to split up into our groups. (We had each been assigned to one of 3 groups for dishes duty for the weekend.) There were 3 activities planned for the day and the groups rotated the order. My group did kayaking first. We pretty much stayed within the bay, but it was a lot of fun! We played several games, like tag, which made it interesting. A couple of people tipped over but I think everyone had a really good time!
I don't have any pictures of the actual kayaking, but this is where we got into our kayaks:
Our next activity was snorkeling. We went to Goat Island Marine Reserve, which is supposed to have a pretty good selection of wildlife. Since I had just snorkeled in Australia, I knew how to do it here. The water was pretty murky, but it was still cool to see the fish. It was definitely a very different experience than at the Great Barrier Reef though! Our group ate our packed lunches on the beach before heading back to where the other two groups were.
The final activity was raft-building. We were divided up into groups of 6 and each group was given 2 barrels, 5 sticks of bamboo and some rope. The idea was to build a raft that could hold 3 people and then we would race the rafts. Our group had some trouble building something that would actually float. We were running out of time and had to just make our final attempt work. The first 3 people to take the raft out on the race did alright at the beginning, but by the time they got back, the raft had partially fallen apart. So when it was time for the second leg of the race, we only had half a raft to work with. I sat in the middle and used a kayak paddle to try to move us along, and then Josh and James half sat on the raft, half swam. Our team made it to the finish line first, but there was some controversy as to whether or not we should be disqualified since our raft didn't hold up! We had a fun time though.
Our raft is the one in the back:
Here's our rafting group after the race:
After a long morning and afternoon, we all headed back to the marae to pack up and receive our formal farewell. This was an interesting weekend and I really enjoyed it. We did some fun things, with a Maori twist, and also got to bond as a group. I'm definitely pretty tired out from the weekend though!
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