I spent the last week in Hanmer and it was beautiful. It was cold and snowy, not a typical way to spend July. We had to take a ferry across to the South Island, it was about 3 and a half hours, but it was a really pretty trip. The map below shows the route the ferry takes.

When we got to Hanmer it was freezing, about 30-35 degrees the whole time we were there. This is a picture of the mountains on the road up to Hanmer.

This is a picture from the Main Street in Hanmer looking at the mountains. The next is a picture of the whole of Main Street from the hill where our house was.

And of course SNOW!!!

The big attraction of Hanmer are the hot pools, they have a huge complex built around them that you can go to. But you can also find natural ones. In the picture are some that we found right along a river.

and yes for the record it was about 28-29 degrees and snowing, and that is a dude in his swim trunks lounging in the hot pool.

On the way back from the hot pools we went on a really quick hike, it was about 20 min off the road and there was a sweet waterfall.

The whole thing felt quite magical.

Now I am back in Wellington, and my mom arrives in just over 12 hours, YAY! Then we hit the road for a mad dash around the North Island. On the agenda: Lake Taupo, Napier, Rotorua, Bay of Islands, Rivendell, Hobbiton, Auckland, and whatever else we can squeeze in:) But, till then one last picture from the South Island.

Part 2 – Everything Else

The first part of my recap was all the school stuff, this is what I have managed to squeeze into the weekends.

Te Paupa

Te Paupa is New Zealand’s national museum. It is in the heart of Wellington and is really an amazing museum. It reminded me of the Seattle Science Center but bigger and with more culture. Plus it was completely free to get in which is always a plus.

This was from a huge display of all the native animal species in New Zealand, it was built around a huge tree house for kids to climb in and play around.

This is a recreation of a Marae, which is a Maori meetinghouse. Obviously this one is a bit more colorful than what you would normally find. But it was incredibly ornate, and each of the Maori tribes donated a carving.

Rimutakas

The Rimutakas are a mountain-ish range that runs along the Hutt Valley on the North Island. Last weekend we went for a drive through them, this is also where they filmed the Rivendale scenes for Lord of the Rings.

Stonehenge

One weekend I made my way over to Carterton where they have built a modern day Stonehenge, which is built to work in the southern hemisphere. The whole place was fascinating, the guide talked about the connection between mythology and the stars, and science and the stars, and navigation and the stars; pretty much how kick-ass stars are.

The coolest part of Stone henge was the giant obelisk in the center that tracked the movement of the sun over the course of a year. It also tracked the zodiac signs, and the seasons.

Up next: I leave on Monday for Hanmer in the South Island for a week in the snow:)

Part 1 - The School Stuff

I can’t believe it’s been three weeks since my last blog, things have been moving so fast. Here is part 1 of the recap:

Two weeks ago I had my observation, and it was awesome. My supervisor came in to observe one of my classes; normally the class she came to observe can be a bit of a handful. But luckily I have gotten to be good friends with their homeroom teacher, and she gave them a “pep talk” before my lesson so they were on their best behavior. It was an amazing lesson, they were a year 9(grade 8) class and we held a class debate. They really got into it, and even debriefed themselves after. After that I just had one week left of teaching, and it went really well, the students gave me a send off, and some of the teachers had a lunch celebration for me. The only thing that marred the whole day was that I was ridiculously sick with some horrible New Zealand cold virus.

This last week I have had off to visit other schools in the area, and my favorite by far was Discovery elementary school. I visited a year 1/2 split and a year 7/8 split, I have yet to see anything more adorable that a little 5 year old with a thick Kiwi accent.

And that about wraps it up for my school stuff. I’ve completed my internship and now all that is left is exploring New Zealand. YAY!!