Birds, Sheep and Cher

What a day.

We started the morning off waking up in the sacred room of the Marae, the sun came through the windows and showed off all the beautiful and intricate carvings that revealed so much of Maori culture. Before we had too much time to admire the morning late, breakfast was being eaten and our Maori host, Brett was leading us outside for a morning lesson. Then things got interesting, we were each given staffs similar to those used by Maori warriors and learned a few basic fighting techniques, some of us were more graceful than others.

Next was our hike, while it was quite blustery nothing gets in the way of these Kiwis and an opportunity to learn. We were allowed to go into the Hutton's Shearwater 'Man-Made' Colony and learned a lot from Brett, the man of many trades. It is believed that the Hutton's Shearwater birds (aka Titi's) were once found along the coast but that they have since moved into the Alpine regions to avoid predation from invasive pests. This colony is being established by taking about 150 chicks from the Alpine region, hand feeding and monitoring their weight for about 40 days and then allowing them to take off (with the assistance of some launch pads) into the ocean.

Last but certainly not least we were introduced to Daryl. Not only did he give us a breakdown of what it means to be a sheep farmer and explain his essential involvement in the Greening Waipara Project (a project that involves bringing in natives to vineyards), he also had us as his dinner guests. Dinner was truly delicious and could only be rivaled by the entertainment that followed.

The annual Lip Sync Competition.

From Frozen performance to a surprise appearance by Sonny and Cher, the competition was close but the win was well deserved as Tupelo accepted her place on the podium. 

Then we were off to bed in a rail car, this one goes in the books.

-Lauren H.