Today we woke up extremely early, the sun was shining, I got out of bed with a smile on my face and the birds were chir--who I am kidding? We woke up at 4 something in the morning, it was pouring down rain, and today was the day we were going to go hiking into the Redwood forest. So all those things I just mentioned sound like a recipe for a bad time, right? Wrong! I had the time of my life, despite the bad weather and early wake up call! Thank goodness, I packed a big warm sweater and a raincoat, they saved my life today. It was raining kiwi and sheep! (I don't know if that's the phrase there...we rain cats and dogs, they might as well rain kiwi and sheep) I' pretty sure we all got lost trying to find the bus stop because it took a very long time, so by the time we got to the Redwood forest we only had an hour, but we made the most of it. We hiked triumphantly through the woods belting disney songs, "I'll make a man out of you", "A whole new world", "Hakuna Matata", and many, many more. I'm pretty sure some other tourists took pictures of us...we must've been a sight. We returned back to the hotel afterwards soaking wet, packed up things, and left Rotorua for good on our way to Auckland to go to Rangitoto College. It was sad to leave that rotten egg- smelling place behind, I was so excited to meet the kiwi kids we've been emailing for the past few weeks, like my penpal Rebekah! |
| Me and Rebekah pose for our picture! |
We may have only spent 3 hours with these kids, but I have never in my life, become so close with people in so little time, they prepared so much for us, decorations, food, dance, music, they obviously put a LOT of time and planning into it, and they were some of the sweetest, outgoing people I've ever met! We had a blast! The evening started off with a group of their students in Maori dress and they performed the Haka and we did a Maori greeting with them, they sang a beautiful Maori song for us, and they wanted us to sing a song in return! So we sang The Star Spangled banner as best we could and they loved it From there, we all meshed together, laughed, played,shared stories, goofy moments, took lots of pictures, I met Rebekah, she was the sweetest thing, we exchanged gift bags chock full of candy, and other cute things, best penpal ever! Then, they wanted us to learn the Haka, so to our best ability we learned and we all had a Haka - off, it was epic. Sadly, the 3 hours came to an end, we all shared long hugs and goodbyes and as we drove away on the bus, some of them ran after us waving, I had tears in my eyes. I'm going to miss them. I will make sure I see them again, we'll remain friends for a long time, I'm sure.
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