The End of the Year is in the Air

Week 6 at Swanson School is in the books, which means there are only 2 more weeks left of me being in New Zealand and of school at Swanson. Needless to say, the kids know that the end is near and they have started to get the summer break blues.

One special thing about this week was the staff Christmas breakfast that happened on Tuesday morning. We had to get to school early so that we could have breakfast as one happy team. After the breakfast, we had a contest with decorating the staff room! Each teacher is in one of the four school houses and the staff houses were in competition with one another to create the best Christmas display in the staff room. However, we only had one bag of old Christmas decorations to use. It was hilarious and something that I never imagined would have happened in a staff room!

This week, students are working on wrapping up the big inquiry project that they are doing, where they are inventing things that would revolutionize the world. Some of the students' inventions include a flying bed, a time machine, rocket shoes, and a cruise ship that would go in space. The kids have been working on their inquiry projects for the past 2 weeks. They had to first research an inventor and learn about the invention that was created. Then they were able to create their own invention that would change the world. Next week students will be presenting and I will make sure to take lots of pictures of what they create to show you!

We also studied more about America this week. The class told me that they were interested in some of the cities in the states so we took a closer look at Washington, D.C. and New York City. Students were very interested in what happened with the Twin Towers and why America was so changed because of it. I was surprised by how much students knew about the topic, considering a lot of them weren't even born when September 11th happened (which made me feel really old!) I enjoyed being able to have the serious sort of conversations with students that were necessary and hear their feedback on the subject.

Lastly, this week we started a new unit on frogs! We are studying all different types of frogs and taking a closer look at the frogs that are in New Zealand. As a final wrap up to the unit next week, we are going to make origami frogs and have contests to see who can make their frog jump the highest and the furthest. It should be an exciting time in Room 13!

Next week is my last week on full control and it is really a short week. On Monday, we have our end of the year trip and we are going to the Auckland Zoo (YES!!) and to a pool called West Wave. It is going to be an exciting but very busy day. Then on Tuesday, we are going to the Henderson Cluster Athletics competition to help out Miranda's co-op and cheer on Swanson School! This leaves me with only 3 more days as being the teacher, which is crazy! The last week of school at Swanson is filled with wrap up and cleaning out the rooms for next year. It is different from the states in the fact that students help to move furniture around and they help the teacher's clear out the rooms for the new school year.

This weekend Miranda and I are in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. It is a really exciting time down there because the world premier of The Hobbit occurred on Wednesday (your Tuesday) and when we go down, there should still be some of the things set up. (In honor of the premier, I gave all of my students Hobbit names, using the Hobbit name generator On Wednesday, I would only respond to Peony Foxburr of Loamsdown and all of the students were called by their hobbit names!) I am super excited to be there for that plus, we are going to Hobbiton next weekend!!

As I am sitting here writing this, I am coming to the strange realization that I am going to be leaving this incredible country in a short 2 weeks. My time here has flown by and I still don't really believe that I am here. The experiences that I have had are irreplaceable and I am going to cherish them forever. I love that I have been able to share parts of my journey with all of you!

Keep calm and eat a kiwi
-Elizabeth

Surfer Girl!

I forgot to add the picture of our finished turkey in my last post, so here he is!

Room 13 and Room 11 are thankful for many different things, including family, friends, and being alive!

 I have learned that no matter how tired you are, you have no choice but to take full advantage of the "2 stay at home days" you have when you are in another country and I think that I have done just that my entire time being in New Zealand.

On Friday night, Miranda and I went up the scenic drive with Amanda, my co-op, to her parents home for supper. We have been up the scenic drive one other time to see the views and they were amazing so I was really excited to see what it would look like having a house there. Needless to say, the view that we had from their porch was indescribable. It was nice to have a night away to just relax and enjoy the beauty that is surrounding Swanson. The supper that I had was so yummy and once again, I found myself being "Thanksgiving stuffed".

Saturday morning came and it was time to head to the Sky Tower, something that I have wanted to do since we came here. The Sky Tower is similar to the Space Needle in Seattle and you can see the entire city from the top of it.  When we got there, we saw some people doing the sky jump, where you bungee jump off the top of the building. It looked really fun but way too scary for me to even think about. We decided that we would simply take the elevator (which was kind of like the Tower of Terror where you can see outside as you are going up) and enjoy the view. We were able to go up 212 m (696 feet) and get a view of the entire city. It was absolutely gorgeous!

View from the top!

I even found our new boat Dad!

The Harbor Bridge

Looking down on the city

Needless to say, it was an incredible experience. It really made me think how quickly that this journey has been when I realized that it probably would be my last time in Auckland because I only have two weekends left and they are both jam packed with travel.

Miranda and I even managed to find some time on Saturday to spend at the casino!

The casino was decorate for Christmas!!

Just playing the slots in Auckland :)

 While in the city on Saturday, we also came upon a group of protestors who were outside the American consulate building. There were protesting the American stance in what has happened at the Gaza Strip. Needless to say, Miranda and I stayed on the other side of the street and tried to blend in as  much as possible so that no one would get mad at us for being American. It was an interesting protest because the police were involved and were helping to keep everyone safe by deferring traffic around the people in the street. I had never seen that before, not that I have been to a whole lot of protests in my days.

On Sunday, I spent most of the day planning out my upcoming week and getting myself ready for the following week as well. The exciting part of Sunday didn't come until the early evening when it was time to go surfing! I really didn't know what to think as I was getting ready to go. I was extremely excited to try it but nervous that I might be absolutely terrible at it! The beach that I went surfing at is called Piha Beach and it is one that Miranda and I had not yet visited. Our surf instructor picked us up at Swanson School and our adventure began!

Once we arrived at the beach, it was time to get changed into wetsuits and learn how to surf. We probably spent about 10 minutes total learning how to surf and the other hour and 50 minutes in the water, actually surfing. At first, it was really tricky trying to get up but after a few tries, I started to get the hang of it. The waves were probably 5-6ft in height so it was very intimidating at first. Once I got going though, I was able to stand up on my surf board quite a few times!! The time flew by and I honestly had the most amazing time of my life. It was so incredible to be in the ocean, surfing in New Zealand. Not many people can say that they have done that!

Learning about rips on the beach.

And now we learn to stand up!

Time for a little warm up, without our boards

Heading off to hang 10!

Surfer Girl!! Sadly, he didn't get one of me standing up.

Miranda and I are really hoping that we are going to be able to go one more time before we leave because it was so much fun! However, that will depend on how sore I am after this adventure. No one mentioned how tough it is to fight waves for 2 hours!! But it definitely was an experience that I would never take back. I can see how people can become so addicted to it. There truly is the most indescribable feeling when you finally stand up on your board and the ocean moves you. It is just incredible to be part of the ocean in that sense.

5 weeks have come and gone. It is hard to believe that this incredible experience will soon be coming to an end. I have learned so much from the people here and I am trying to embrace the more laid back lifestyle here and make it part of my own. When I do get back, however, the first thing I am doing is having a box of Kraft Mac and Cheese because I miss it sooooo much!! (Who ever thought that noodles and cheese could be missed, but trust me when I say that they can)

Have a wonderful week everyone and I hope to hear from all of you very soon!

XOXO
Surfer Girl

Thanksgving and Football: 2 American Traditions

I just want to start this by saying that I am incredibly jealous of everyone in America right now who is getting time off of student teaching, work, school, etc. to be home for the holiday's but I guess quite a few of you could be jealous of me so I won't really complain ;)

This week, Room 13 has been focusing on two main things: Thanksgiving and American Football. All of the students in my New Zealand class room love sport and they are the most engaged when they are either participating in sports or learning about sports. Because of this, I decided that we would have a few days centered around learning all about American sports, mostly football.

On Monday, my kids had to read all about football and learn the rules of the game. Football is much different from rugby, the sport that most people in New Zealand love. I had to explain to my students how football was played and what the main objective was. Mind you, this meant that I had to do my research to learn a little more about football since it is not my personal favorite sport.

I made sure to incorporate writing into our football day as well. Students had to decide what job they would want to hold at a football arena (a player, cheerleader, mascot, coach, vendor, etc.) and describe what their typical game day would look like. It was really interesting to hear what the students thought that everyone would be doing without actually having been to a game.

We spent a lot of time on Tuesday discussing all the rules, learning the positions, and also learning how to line up before a play starts. Overall, my students seemed to be understanding the game fairly well. I showed them videos of what it looked like and more thoroughly explained all the positions. It was then time for the students to learn who was on their team.

I divided the students up into 2 teams. They had to decide who was going to be their quarterback and also who they would have as captain. We also had to determine the kicker. From there, students were in charge of making up names for their teams. In the end, we ended up with the Auckland Vikings (based on the Minnesota Vikings for some odd reason) and the New York Machetes (based on the New York Giants).

Tuesday night, I was able to go on a little adventure to another beach. It was a black sand beach again and was absolutely gorgeous. From being at the beach, Miranda and I got this idea that we should probably try to go surfing before we leave here because honestly, when are we ever going to have the opportunity again!?

Wednesday came and it was finally time to play football! Needless to say, students kind of looked like chickens with their heads cut off as they were running around the field but they sure were enjoying the time that they had playing. After 25 minutes of play, we stopped our game with a tie score of 7-7 and we had plans to play again later in the week.

Thursday came and that meant HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! (but not really because of the whole time change thing but I just like to ignore that). We spent a lot of time on Thursday talking about the things in life that we are thankful for and why we are thankful for them. Miranda and I even made a big turkey in the hallway that we had the kids make feathers for and write the things that they are thankful for. We ended up having a shared lunch, where each student was to bring a traditional dish that his/her family eats to share with the class. It was a really fun day but the truly exciting things weren't happening until the real Thanksgiving.

Our naked turkey. Only 2 feathers, Miss Zygiel's and mine, before the kids added their own

So then it was Friday, the real Thanksgiving. This meant that we had a skype date with my family, who spent Thanksgiving in Green Bay, as usual, with my oldest brother and his family. It was really cool being able to watch my family interact with my students and get an inside look as to what my life looks like everyday while I am here. We even were able to Skype with David's family, which was even more exciting for them. After we talked with the family, we learned why Thanksgiving is important to America and what exactly it is celebrating.

Our Thanksgiving in New Zealand! Complete with turkey and stuffing

The Thanksgiving Queens :)

This week really flew by! It is hard to believe that we only have 3 more weeks left with our students. My time in New Zealand has flown by so far but I am excited to see what my time left here is going to be like! This weekend is our last weekend in Swanson because we have trips planned for out last 2 weekends. So, we are planning to go to the Sky Tower and try surfing! I am so excited to see how it goes!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and made sure to tell your family and friends how thankful you are for them. I am so thankful for the opportunity that I have had here and for all the people who have been so supportive throughout the entire thing.

Now, go spend some money on black Friday!!

Kia Ora
Elizabeth

Penguins, Sharks, and a Run Through The City!

What a weekend this has been! It seems like I never, ever stop going! This weekend, Miranda and I got to spend some time with my cooperating teacher Amanda and see some more of the city.

Friday night was just a relaxed night. We hung around at Miranda's home and watched Finding Nemo (a must watch movie when you are basically living in Australia!). It was a really nice way to spend a Friday night, relaxing and being able to just sit around for one of the first times since we have gotten here!

Saturday came and that meant that we got to go to the aquarium! Miranda and I decided that before we would start our adventure, we deserved some coffee from our long week. Coffee is not as common here as it is in the states. People tend to drink more tea, which is also delicious, but sometimes a girl just needs her coffee. So, we went to the cafe that is right in town and decided that we would make a breakfast out of it. Unfortunately, we were tormented by an annoying bird the entire time who really wanted to join us. Mind you, if we had been sitting outside then I could say that we asked to be annoyed by a bird but we were INSIDE! After our lovely bird encounter, it was time to meet Amanda.

The first stop on our adventure was to have a Chinese lunch with Amanda's parents. We had yum cha, which is a Chinese style morning or afternoon tea. It was the coolest experience to be apart of. These people come around with all sorts of Chinese dishes and you tell them if you want what they have or you send them away. We ended up with all different types of pork, chicken, fish, prawns (also known as shrimp), dumplings of all varieties, and many different vegetables. The pace was so quick and it was nice to have Amanda's parents with us because they know exactly what to get and what not to get. After about an hour of constant eating, it was time to go to the aquarium.

We arrived at Kelly Tarlton's aquarium and I was very confused. There was just a small building that said aquarium. It didn't really look like anything that was exciting. However, the aquarium was underground! It was created in the old pipes and septic tanks that used to be part of the city. The first thing that we saw when we walked in were the penguins! Of course, I was happy as could be at that point and didn't need to see anything else :)

Some of the penguins were sitting on eggs and some of the penguins were molting. It was so much fun to see them waddling all around. There were so many penguins and some of them were huge!

After the penguins, we got to see sharks swimming in a tunnel above us and we saw some of the biggest stingrays that I have ever seen! The aquarium had really beautiful sharks and there were so many of them. It was awesome when they would swim right over your head. We even saw one shark who looked like he had been recently attacked by another shark!

"Name's Bruce"

"You so totally rock dude!!"- Finding Nemo :)

 There were beautiful star fish and sea horses too. We even found Nemo and Dory hiding in one of the fish tanks! After the aquarium, we walked through the gift shop and we ended up purchasing the photo of us as a group that they took when we got to the aquarium.

I found you Nemo!

Ahhhhh! Sharks!

 After that was over, Amanda drove us around the bays and took us to KiwiYo, which is a frozen yogurt place. It was super delicious. That ended our adventure for the day but we did get to see fireworks at night that were going off basically right in our backyard.

On Sunday, Miranda and I ran a 6K through Auckland. It was a last minute decision and needless to say, we were not exactly ready for it. Neither of us has done any running since we have arrived here but we ended up doing really well in our race. We finished in about 40 minutes and were pretty close to the beginning with our ending time. Running a race in another country was never something that I had thought of doing but I sure did enjoy it!!

Pre-race. Making sure to represent the Spartans :)

 And now, another week has come and gone. It is hard to believe that I only have 20 school days left in New Zealand. The past 4 weeks have flown by and I have a feeling that the next 4 are going to go just as fast, if not faster! 

I hope everyone has a wonderful week and a very happy Thanksgiving. I know I will be thinking of my family on Thursday as they all gather together for a delicious meal. This Thanksgiving, I am especially thankful for my parents who have made all of this possible for me. Thank you mom and dad. I love you both!

Kia Ora :)
Elizabeth

School House Rock

You truly never know what to expect when you go into a school week. Every day is a brand new experience and you may think that you have a perfect week planned out, but there is always something that seems to happen and change your plans. Well, that was my week in a nutshell. I thought I had a wonderful week planned but children can easily change what you thought was perfect.

On Monday, I explained to my students that we were going to be learning even more about America over the week. I think it is important to understand the history of every nation, especially one that you are going to be learning about, so I took time to inform my students. Monday was spent talking about currency because the kids were really confused about pennies and dollar bills. In New Zealand, the smallest coin that they have is $0.20 and the smallest bill that they have is $5. They use $1 coins and $2 coins. So on Monday, we made sure to tackle the money side of things.
The day seemed to be going great until all of the sudden it wasn't. It is amazing how quickly things can shift in a classroom. One minute you think that everything is hunky dory and the next minute you have students acting like wild animals. Because of the crazy shift, Monday ended on a somewhat negative note (sadly) with students having to work completely silent because they couldn't seem to handle talking.

Tuesday came and the kids were acting much better. It was like I had a whole different class! We got to watch some Schoolhouse Rock and learn all about American history. They all loved the clips and were singing along once they caught on. We had a very watered down discussion about American history and what has happened over the years. Basically, we touched on the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, slavery, and the nation today. Even though it was brief, the kids seemed to really love it.

Wednesday was a special day in New Zealand because there was a solar eclipse that was happening. Kids were able to buy glasses to see the eclipse and we took time out of our day to talk about it. It was one of the most amazing sights that I have ever seen and I wish I could have taken a picture of it. Unfortunately, there was no way to get a picture of it because you could only see it through the glasses.

Today is Thursday and we had quite the busy day. My co-op was sick today so I was on full control (which isn't anything new) but I had no supervisor watching me today. It was just me and the kiddos. Needless to say, I was extremely nervous about my first day ever without having someone at least popping in and out to how I was doing. However, the day went smoothly. We had our typical first block with maths and reading. Block two then came and I ended up dropping all of my plans because as a class, we were having some problems with respecting one another. Because of this, we spent an entire block on building a community and learning more about one another. It seemed like it helped but we will see tomorrow. For our last block, we talked all about body language as it pertained to our unit on communication. The kids were really interested in what was going on.

Tomorrow is Friday and I have more of a relaxed day planned. We have a syndicate assembly in the morning and we are going to be learning more about America. Hopefully, all of our time spend on building a classroom community will have helped!

This weekend, Miranda and I are going to an aquarium with my co-op Amanda. I am really excited to see the penguins!!! Then on Sunday, we are participating in a 6k run that goes all around Auckland. It should be a really fun and exciting weekend!

Kia Ora and until next time- (This is from the Maori language and means be healthy/well)
Elizabeth

Athletics Day, Bushwhackers, Cave Dwellers, and Adventure Girls

I am sure that you have probably been wondering where exactly I have been teaching the last 3 weeks so I decided to add a picture of my classroom. Keep in mind that this was before the day started so kids are just being kids and having fun in the classroom. On that note, welcome to Room 13!

And this is the block where my classroom is. There are 5 blocks in the school that all have classrooms in them. My particular block has 8 classrooms in it and is 2 floors. We are on the left hand side of this building on the second floor in the corner.

Today has been quite the day! At school, we had Athletics day where students are participating in athletic events throughout the entire school day. We lucked out today and had an absolutely gorgeous day with a perfectly blue sky and the sun shining down on us. I even ended up getting a little tan from being in the sun all day so I can't complain :)

All day I was in charge of helping Miss Carter fun the shot put. We had to get all the kids in a grade level through in 40 minutes and measure the distances of the top 5 boys and the top 5 girls. Needless to say, it was a very busy afternoon! However, I really enjoyed being able to get to know all of the students in the school and spend some time to get to know all of them better.

So I secretly felt like I was at Hogwarts all day because the school is divided into four houses that are separate colors. The houses are competing for points to be the "top dog" and just like in Harry Potter, points can be given and points can be taken away. From day one, everyone told me I should be in the red house (Slytherin) because they always win. It was like I was really Harry Potter! I ended up being in the yellow house and this is the flag that we made to represent our house. It says yellow in the Maori language.

Students preparing for high jump.

One of the year 6 girls doing her long jump.

Our Yellow House flag!

The top year 5 girls running their final relay of the day!

After a very busy day at school, Rachel and Jan (My house mum and Miranda's house mum) took us to one of the beaches that it is near by. The cool thing about all the beaches on the West coast is that they are black sand beaches. I tried to take pictures of the sand but you just couldn't really see the color. The beaches were gorgeous and they were so sparkly. It looked like someone had poured glitter all over the sand! So we got to the beach and Rachel told us that we were going to be climbing up all the way to the top of the mountain in the picture below and we would end up right where you can see one tree sticking out. Needless to say, Miranda and I were a little bit concerned.

However, it was amazing going up the mountain and we had some of the most beautiful views ever imaginable. I never realized that our little town of Swanson was so close to all of this beauty. It was quite an adventure going up the mountain. We followed this really tiny path that was just part of nature. We need some bushwhackers with us at some point and maybe a chainsaw to cut down some of the huge tree branches! It was really amazing to be in nature like that and truly see the beauty that New Zealand has to offer.

Once we got to the top of the mountain, we took some time to take in all the views and we started our journey back down the mountain. It was actually really easy to climb down and Miranda and I made sure to make some time to take pictures :) 

We officially made it to the top! Just call us Mountain Ladies!

Help! I need a bushwhacker!

When we got to the bottom of the hill, it was time for another beach walk. This time we were going a different way and we ended up at a cave that was on the beach. While we were walking on the wonderful sparkly black sand, I  made sure to take a bunch of pictures. What was surrounding us was so beautiful that it is hard to describe.

Needless to say, the beach was absolutely amazing! This weekend, Miranda and I have ventured to Devonport and are going to the zoo tomorrow. You will get an update on that very soon! I hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend so far and I miss you all!

Stay relaxed, because that's the kiwi way!

Learning About 'Merica!

This week, I had full control of the classroom and we spent time learning all about the land of the free and the home of the brave. Before any of that happened, however, I had to make sure that my students would be able to handle learning about such a wonderful place and made them have a mostly silent work day on Monday to get ahead with their work for the week. I knew that learning about America would excite all of my students and we would probably end up with less academic learning time because of it.

So on Tuesday, the excitement began as we learned all about the election that was taking place in America on the next day (because we are a day ahead of you). We learned all about how the electoral college works and we learned about the candidates that were running for president. Of course, my students asked me who I had voted for and I explained to them how that is a very personal thing in America and does not usually get shared with others. After all of our learning, we had our own vote in the class, deciding which American lolly we liked more: Bazooka Bubble Gum or Chewy Jolly Ranchers. We used the electoral college for our vote and as a class, Bazooka Bubble Gum was the favorite. It was really fun to watch the students get excited about being able to vote and they actually seemed to have a pretty good understanding of the electoral college, even though all the students did agree that it was a silly system to have.

Wednesday came and we read the story M is for Mitten and learned all about Michigan. All of the students were angry that I didn't bring them Vernor's to try because apparently it sounded delicious to all of them. They loved learning about where I am from and had millions of questions about not only Michigan, but about America in general. Since they had so many questions, I took a survey of the students and we picked a few American topics to focus on in the weeks to come.

Also on Wednesday, we started to create our own ABC book about New Zealand. We have decided to call it K is for Kiwi and my students are extremely excited to share it with as many people as they can. When it is finished, we are going to create a movie of them reading it so that you can see it too :)

Thursday came and I taught the students more about me and the places that I have been. However, I made the mistake of showing them a picture of me dancing and now they all want to see me do the splits... So I promised that before I leave, I would do them for the kids. It's the little things like that that get me through the day.

Tomorrow is Friday and we have our whole school athletics day. All students in the school will be participating in track and field events, such as high jump, long jump, shot put, discus, the 100 meter dash, and long distance running. It is going to be a very eventful day and I plan on taking many pictures so that you can finally meet the students who I am teaching and learn more about my school through pictures.

Overall, I have had a very busy 4 days but I wouldn't have it any other way!

What A Crazy Few Days!

This has been one crazy week and an even crazier weekend. I guess the best place to start off would be on Monday. Amanda, my cooperating teacher, was out basically all week because she had staff training on Monday and Tuesday, CRT (classroom release time) on Thursday, and then left for Brisbane, Australia for 6 days on Friday. Because of this, I basically had full control of the classroom for the week, which was scary because it was only my second week with the students.

Monday morning came, however, and I was feeling prepared for the day. I knew what my plans were and thought that things were going to go considerably well. My day started pretty well and the students were engaged with their maths (yes, math does have an “s” on the end of it here) lesson.  They did wonderfully with their reading lessons as well and the day was off to a great start. However, things started to change when the substitute teacher who was in the room started to aggravate the students and turn their moods around. Because of this, we had a very rocky afternoon with students who were getting very upset and started to have behavior problems. We made it to the end of the day but I was feeling a little anxious after what had happened.

Because of how poorly Tuesday went with the substitute teacher, I made my co-op aware of this and she was able to be in the classroom on Tuesday as a support system for me. Tuesday went better but there was still something that was not working for me in the classroom. Wednesday and Thursday came and went as well. On Wednesday, we were able to do some fun things because it was Halloween. Thursday was a little bit better but something was still off. I felt as though the students were not respecting me in the way that they should be.

So on Friday, we made a change in the classroom. I introduced a new behavior management system where my students were in charge of their own fates. We created a point system where students can earn points for doing what they should be doing in class and making positive choices but points can be deducted if a student is not following the classroom treaty and showing disrespect. Surprisingly, the students adapted really well to this change and Friday was an incredible day. We were able to get a ton of work done and I had a classroom where I finally felt like I was able to teach. It was perfect!

After school on Friday, Miranda and I quickly went home, got our bags and headed for the train station. We had to catch the train by 3:30 so that we could get into Auckland in time to get to out bus that would be taking us to the Bay of Islands. Our adventure started at the train station, when we almost missed our train because we were at the wrong track. There is currently construction at the train station and we were quite confused. However, we were able to get to our train on time and start our adventure.

The Naked Bus (yes mom and dad, we did have clothes on. No worries!) was waiting for us and we got on right away to go on our adventure. I know what you are thinking and I know, I never thought I would be taking a bus somewhere either but sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do! It was a long bus ride down a lot of windy and narrow roads but we eventually made it to Paihia where we would be staying. When we got off the bus, we politely asked the bus driver how to get to the Pickled Parrot, our backpackers accommodations, and he gave us directions. Again, I know what you are thinking about me staying at a backpackers hotel. It was a little bit different from what I am used to but it wasn’t terrible actually!

When we finally made it to our hostel about 6 and a half hours after we had left Swanson and after Miranda had a little run in with a whole in the pavement, we had a little surprise waiting for us. The woman who was running the backpacker’s accommodation told us that Fuller’s, the company who we had made our reservation with to go on a tour the next day, had called to tell us that our trip was cancelled and we needed to call them to figure out what to do. (We had no idea how they found where we were staying until we realized that the company must have called Miranda’s house mum to let her know the trip was cancelled because we gave them her phone number as a contact number) So right after we got to our room, we made a call to Fuller’s and talked with a man named Ross. He gave us some choices for the day but never really made anything very clear. Basically, we knew that we were going to have to be at the ferry station at 8:15 Saturday morning to figure out what we wanted to do.

Needless to say, this was not the most ideal way to be starting our weekend. We then went up to our room and we were slightly grossed out by what we saw. Both of us were scared to find bugs in our beds and we didn’t really know what to think. Eventually we were able to calm down and go to sleep. We knew that we had an early day on Saturday and needed to try to get some rest, if possible.

So Saturday morning came and we woke up extremely tired. However, we rolled ourselves out of bed, ate some breakfast, and headed over to talk to Ross. Basically, Ross was able to refund us our money and put us on a trip that was shorter. It worked out pretty nicely, except for the fact that it was expected to rain all day and the sky did not look very promising.

We got on the boat and started out adventure around the Bay of Islands. It rained a little bit at first but it wasn’t anything terrible. We were able to get some beautiful pictures and still have some fun. Right when we started our cruise, we were told that there were dolphins in the area. Luckily, we were able to go on the bow of the boat and see the dolphins! It was so cool to see them in their natural habitat. Some of the dolphins were jumping around and some were just enjoying a nice morning swim.

 
 After the dolphins, the captain told us that we were heading to the Hole in the Rock a little bit early because he was concerned about the weather. The Hole in the Rock was what I was the most excited for. It is a natural formed hole in a rock (imagine that) but you can drive a boat through it. We had to leave the clam waters of the Bay and head out into more rough waters. Miranda and I decided it would be fun to stand on the top of the ship at the back and pretend that we were surfing! It was really fun and we were sure entertaining all the people. However, we did get a little wet from the boat crashing on the huge waves and the wind catching the spray but it was all worth it.
 

On our way to the hole, we saw this mountain that had the clouds touching the top of it. We decided that it was probably Hogwarts and we were waiting to try and find Dumbledore up in the clouds. Sadly, it never happened.

We also got to see the Cape Brett lighthouse, which was once operational but now is a historic landmark. The lighthouse keepers lived and worked in the lighthouse from 1910 until 1978, when a new automated light went into service,

When we got to the Hole in the Rock, it was beautiful. We were able to actually go through the hole and see the inside of the rock. It was fantastic. We also saw some seals perched on one of the nearby rocks!

We shot across the ocean again and ended up at another island where we were able to get off and climb to the top of this giant mountain. At the top, we had spectacular views and were able to see many of the islands. When we were finished here, our boat took us to the town of Russell, where Miranda and I had some amazing fish and chips. We also ended up going to a flower show (strange I know) because it started pouring rain and the flower show was the closest building.

When we got back to Paihia, we decided to go back to our room and take a nap. We napped for a bit longer than expected and by the time we got out to go to supper, which was only 5:30pm, most of the shops were closed. Because of this, we were able to have some delicious pizza for dinner and then we went back to the room to relax, watch a movie, and enjoy some time on Pinterst :)

Now it is Sunday and we are back in Auckland, after another long bus ride. I am very happy to be home and in a place that is actually clean! I hope that everyone has a fantastic week and I will post again soon!

I miss you all a lot and hope to hear from all of you soon!