This past weekend we had one of our group Loyola trips to a Marae! I'm not actually sure where it was... but the area was gorgeous.. and we learned a lot about the Maori way of life and explored the area! In the marae we couldn't wear shoes and couldn't bring in any drinks or food because it's very sacred. All 40 of us stayed in the giant room and slept on the ground next to each other... we wanted to sleep outside but they wouldn't let us bring out the blankets.. (although I think a few people still slept outside anyway). Here's a picture of our sleeping arrangements!
When we arrived we had a Powhiri, which is a welcome ceremony that the Maori people do when visitors come onto the Marae (I'm also learning about all this in my Kapa Haka class so I'm going to be an expert by the time i leave! I'll do a post about that class soon, its so much fun!) Every meal they had was a giant feast with delicious desserts and we all had like 3 cups of tea a day with some biscuits! (cookies!) After we had dinner we did Whakawhanaungatana (the "wh" is pronounced as "f" in all Maori words) This giant word means getting to know each other... so each person in our group stood up and introduced themselves, talking about family and what we like to do. It was kind of intimidating talking about yourself in front of so many people but very interesting also! After this they put on Whale Rider, which is a movie taking place in NZ about the Maori culture, but some of us stayed outside because it was so nice out and just layed out and star gazed. The stars here are INCREDIBLE the entire sky is lit up by them... especially when we get away from the city. We saw about 5 shooting stars and it was just a great night to relax and chat with some friends :)
The second day they split us up into 4 different groups. My group was Fa which means four. Today we got to learn how to be Maori WARRIORS! It was so much fun but kind of intense. We learned how to do different stick fighting moves and how to defend ourselves in a fight. We had to go for a run to warm up and do sit-ups and push-ups haha so we got a little exercise. I kind of felt like I was in warrior boot camp or something because the woman kept making us jump until we were completely exhausted. Pretty cool though! Here's my friend Lori and I posing as warriors.
After this we made Poi which are these things the Maori women use in dances and singing... kind of like a drum that you swing around. I made one of these in my Kapa Haka class too but it didn't come out very good.
The next day was awesome!! We went snorkeling and then kayaked around a little island! Snorkeling was pretty neat, we saw a giant stingray and a bunch of giant fish. Kayaking was probably the highlight of the trip for me. Our guide had us playing kayak tag and let us go into some caves! We couldn't go too far though because the water was rough and we could have gotten sweeped deep into the cave forever haha. Towards the end of the loop around the island our guide told us to all try paddling standing up which was actually a lot harder than you'd think it'd be but I was pretty good! I fell in though... but that's ok. Here's some pictures I stole from Todd from kayaking (he had a waterproof camera!) The first is all of us in a cave!
about to go snorkeling!
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