Last few days in New Zealand...

Yesterday was my last day at school before I leave for the States again, and it was actually kind of sad! I'm really going to miss all of the kids and the teachers who I have met since I've been here. My Room 1 kids were so sad that I am not coming back to teach them on Monday! I can't believe that this experience is already over, because it's flown by so quickly. I would recommend every single person to do this because it's such a great experience!

My kids and I:



And a silly one:

Student Teaching

So after Easter, I took full control over the classroom. I was really nervous about it, because my class are quite the characters ;) (meaning they're a little wild), but it has actually went really well. The kids behavior has improved this term, and I'm enjoying teaching more than I was in the beginning here. Hope it continues this way!

Rotorua and End of School Holidays

Yesterday my parents and I took a trip with my host mom to Rotorua, where there are tons of boiling mud pools and thermal areas. It was so cool! We went to a park where we walked around and saw the mud pools, and soaked our feet in a thermal pool. After that, we went to my host mom's brother's camp area and stayed the night. The next day we went to Lake Taupo (possibly the deepest lake in the world), Hunua Falls, and a place called Craters of the Moon. It was pretty fun, but then we had to drop my parents off at the airport so that they could go back to Indiana. It made me a little sad because I am starting to miss home a lot!

The mud pools:


Lake Taupo:


Hunua Falls:


Craters of the Moon:

West Coast Beaches

I was so excited because yesterday we got to go to the West Coast of New Zealand! The west coast beaches are completely different than others because they are black sand beaches. It was so cool! They were probably the neatest beaches that I have ever been to because of the black sand, and the huge black cliffs that were on them. I took tons of photos of them, and I will put a few of them up!

Piha Beach:


This is one of the most popular places to surf in the world!


That's my Dad standing out on the cliff!




Karekare beach:

It had even more cliffs, and darker sand!


My Dad and I taking photos!



The black sand with footprints in it:

Waiheke Island

My dad and I both like wine sampling, so we all went to Waiheke Island. We took a ferry over to the island, and then hopped on a bus. The buses take forever to wait on though, and they are very unpredictable! =) Our favorite winery was Stonyridge, which has a very pretty view, and good wine!

Here are a few photos:

My mom and I outside of the winery




The vineyards


A New Zealand version of a scarecrow!

My Parents in New Zealand

My parents are in New Zealand now, and we have been doing so many neat things! For the first 3 days, we traveled around Auckland, and did things around here. We went to the Maritime Museum, and Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic world, which is kind of like an aquarium with tons of penguins, stingrays, and sharks. The next thing that we did was go to the Coromandel peninsula which is North of Auckland. It was beautiful! There was a mix of farmland and tons of beaches that were really pretty!

A few photos of the farmland:


We hiked up a hill, and saw this great view:




One of the neat beaches that we went to was called Hot Water Beach. When you dig a deep hole in the sand on the beach, there are hot water springs underneath. If your hole is deep enough, you can lay in the hot water that's in your hole. The photo with all of the people on the beach is when they were trying to dig holes to feel the hot water!

Easter Break

So, it's now Easter break, and my last day of school was yesterday, my next day isn't until April 27th! My parents are coming in 3 days and I'm sooo excited! I can't wait to see them because I've missed them so much! My host sister is also getting married in 2 days so it's been pretty busy around here. It's hard to believe that I will be heading home in about 6 weeks, the time has been flying by pretty quickly! I'm pretty sad to be missing Easter at home though because I always get this big Easter basket filled with all kinds of chocolate, but I'll cope! =)

The New Zealand All American Soap Box Derby

I have been watching my host mom and dad help to create a soap box derby car for the New Zealand soap box derby race. My mom's year 7 and year 8 class were going to race in the derby, and this weekend was the semifinal. I went with them, and the kids were so excited when we got there! The prize for the 1st place car was two plane tickets (1 for the driver, 1 for an adult) to Ohio in the States to compete for the American Soap Box Derby Race! When the race started, we ended up getting into the top 8. We were the ones competing for the two plane tickets to compete in the states, and Parnell School ended up winning the entire soap box derby!! It was so exciting! The soap box derby in Ohio is in July, and I told the kids that I will go to watch them in it! I have pictures from the day, but they won't upload right now, so as soon as they will, I'll post them.

Waiheke Island

Yesterday I went to Waiheke Island with Catherine and Naomi! The island is about a 45 minute ferry ride from the city of Auckland, so it was pretty close. It was really fun, because it had a ton of beaches and vineyards that were so pretty. We bought an $8 bus pass for the day, and just traveled around on the buses looking at all of the sights!

Some pictures of the beaches:



A few of the vineyards:

Hiking on Rangitoto Island

This was one of the neatest things that I've done so far! Naomi, Kevin, and took a ferry out to Rangitoto (a volcanic island) and hiked all the way up to the volcano's summit. It was actually really tiring, but really interesting. We got to see the crater of the volcano, and we also looked at a few lava caves on the island. After doing all of this, I had to figure out the public transport system, and find a bus to ride back to my host family. In the end, I found my house okay and was able to get home! =)




The view from the summit:



The City of Auckland:

Poly-Fest

Naomi and I were able to go to the Polyfest which is a Polynesian Festival that's held every year in Auckland. We went with our school, with kids that were year 7 and 8. It was really neat to see all of the different dancing, and we had a lot of fun.

Here are a few photos:

Funny Things

So I've noticed that many things have different names in New Zealand. Erasers are called rubbers, crayons are called jovies, and cookies are called biscuits haha! The accent is also an interesting thing because sometimes it feels like I'm speaking a different language. The other day, I asked my host dad what their god daughter was doing in the evening, and he looked very confused saying, "We don't have a guard dog." =) It's funny to try to understand what each of us is saying! I figured that I would add a few pictures of my school, and the plants that are in the yard of my host family. I'll definitely be taking more!

Here are my school and classroom:



Here are pictures of my backyard: