A Trip to Opunake

Today I drove solo up the Surf Highway 45 to the pretty surfing village of Opunake. I was invited to the primary school by a teacher I met last week. Today was their last day before having two weeks holidays. They were displaying their Inquiry projects. Think science or history fair(which occurs once a year back home) and times it by 10 and they put these on for every term except the Oct-Dec term. For this term they always put on an opera or musical. Not sure if they call it a xmas concert or a holidays concert. But they include all 230 kids - and guess what- there isn't a music teacher. All the teachers work together and are in charge of their classes performance! They have 4 terms of 10 weeks each with 2 weeks holiday between each of the terms except their xmas break which ends up being 7 weeks off (Dec. 15-Feb. 1)
A neat thing also occurs here. Kids enter school on their 5th birthday no matter when it occurs. There was this class of 5 year olds being led around the school to look at the projects and one little guy really stood out with his behavior. The teacher looked at me and apologised for him and said that it was only his 2nd day in school and was still learning the rules!

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Well I had a very warm Kia Ora! Two kids were assigned as my guides and they showed me the projects. Each room decides on a topic that interests them and the kids brain storm on questions they are curious about. Then they are assigned or are asked to tackle one of the areas and they focus on researching and displaying their knowledge. For example, some of the younger kids researched about what lives underground. A gr. 1 room made mouse houses but they had to use planes, wedges, screws, wheels, fulcrums etc.

Older rooms ( the school was age 5-12 yrs) studied WWII or how things were invented or the 7 wonders of the world or Famous people. When one entered the school they had to pick up a card and upon entering each room you had to find a letter, enter it on the card then unscramble the letters to find out the mystery word. The kids were very excited about their work and were engaged in their learning. They seemed pleased as punch when I was taking pictures and were asking questions about their work.

The kids were very polite and the school was clean and bright. I'm still amazed at all of the bare feet! They are allowed to have bare feet all day long if they want. Hence the dirty feet and legs during this rain and muck we have been having. I might rethink our no-bare feet rule in the gym back home. They don't seem concerned about germs or warts!


The last hour of my visit I watched a class learning a traditional Maori dance. They sing while they dance and the girls have intricate hip movements and lots of steps, while they swing this ball of yarn around their chests and faces. The guys have more stomps and aggressive chest pounding moves. I think it is called a Haka dance and you can youtube it. The All Blacks Rugby team does a scary Haka dance to scare their opponents before a match.

I asked about substitute teaching (relief teaching). There is a special manual for these teachers and they are a profession of their own. They plan and teach their own lessons for the grade they are called for. Hey! That means no planning for the sub for the permanent teachers! That makes a lot of sense because it usually takes tons of time to tell someone what your program is and how you do it. For short absences it makes sense that the relief teacher would come in and do some music, art, gym, LA and math basics and learning games.
It is a break for the kids and the poor sick teacher. If they can't come in to work because they are sick they are probably not in great shape to make an excellent sub plan either. I don't know what they do for longer absences because now one has to think that the curriculum might not get taught.

Before I left the village I bought some Take-away (corn fritter and coleslaw) and ate it looking out over the ocean. There were some great rollers and the sea was a beautiful teal colour.
It takes 40 min to drive 42 km. I know why I like driving here. With the ups and downs and hairpin curves one feels like a rally car driver. Also with driving on the left one can't help but be thinking about what they are doing and being on their toes!
When I got home to Hawera, Cary, Simon and I went up the water tower. It is steeped in history and - steep! 207 steps. It was really blowing up there and it was neat to see the town from a bird's eye view.

Cary and I then went for a walk on Waihi Beach ( aka Denby Beach) and walked towards Ohawe Beach. The tide was out and it wasn't easy walking on the rocks. The cliffs were amazing. A poor cow met his demise  munching on grass too close to the ledge. There are warning signs up on top warning walkers about edges being dangerous. I guess the cow couldn't read- but I can, and I am going to take them seriously from now on!

 Tomorrow we are going to our first NZ garage sale and are going to try and find some second hand bikes. Also we have heard that Hawera has some hot pools so are going to scout those out too. On Sunday we are going on a tramp to Kahui Hut so stay tuned. Thanks for reading!

Jobs

Cary is in full swing now with his job. He's not wearing a tie but he's looking pretty dapper with dress pants and nice shirts. It's upscale to what he is usually wearing back home. Whenever I would protest as to what he was wearing, he would always retort," I'll be wearing a lab coat!" or " "I'm not seeing patients today!"
 Anyway he marches off with a big black umbrella and his backpack and running shoes and he's only a few minutes walk from work.

Simon and I are not having much luck. I phoned a farmer who was looking for asparagus pickers. After taking my name and phone number and experience(?) he paused and then asked me my age. After I told him there was another long pause and he said he was full up with workers and he'd call me if someone dropped out. Many people have said nice things about having some work contacts but nothing has happened yet.
Simon went to see a work centre today but they basically said they have 300 people registered and they are all out of work as well. He might have to go out of this region and think about horticultural work and he will look into that.
If some of you would like to leave a comment on this post or any that have been published, just go to the top right corner of each post, click on Follower or google icon. Follow the prompts. I think you just need to leave your email or gmail as a tracker. The next time you click on 'leave a comment' it would just recognise that you are this blog follower. I would love to hear from you!
Thanks for reading!

Welcome to the Tribe

Today we were privileged to be welcomed into the (Iwi) tribe. They own and manage the clinic that Cary works in.(Ngati Ruanui Health Clinic) People need to enrol with clinics and there are about 3500 members. They feel very flushed with doctors at the moment because there are 3 of them now. But one leaves in October, and one leaves in Feb. That would leave Cary until the end of March unless they recruit some more. They have been without  doctors in past times and people seem to wait until one arrives.

This clinic has  great programs for patients. Not only are there health services but there are social and mental programs as well. They also have youth programs, and an educational stream as well. They have a dual language daycare and an immersion Maori daycare program. They also run retreats for out of touch(culturally) Maoris and non Maoris which are referred to as Pakeha (sp?)

We were asked to be at the clinic for 8:30 am. I was wearing the brown, stone necklace that my brother, Peter, gave to me 37 years ago, when he had returned from NZ when he was 19 or 20 years old, after having lived here for a year. Well I was wearing a dress too!
 We arrived on time and we sat for a bit as people gathered. One person said they usually start the day with reading the paper and a cup of tea before they start to work.
We met Hemi. He was quite a big man and his whole face was tattooed with wonderful swirls and designs. He introduced himself as our guide to this ceremony that was about to take place.
He is the 'quit smoking' guy for the clinic. He usually says he just scares people into quitting. I don't doubt it!

We went to another building and we were asked to wait outside. A few people stood with us and talked  us through the steps.
An older lady came up to the door and starting singing in her language. Hemi, Cary and Simon walked on one side of the hall and I and two other women walked behind and on the other side of the hall. We entered the room and there was a long line of people that we had to walk by. The women hugged us and touched their cheek to our cheek. And the men shook our hand at the same time as pressing their noses and foreheads against ours. They also made a Mmmmm sound deep in their throat as if we were a yummy apple pie. The cutest thing was they had about six preschoolers ( girls and boys) at then end of the receiving line. We touched cheeks and pressed noses with them, respectively, but there was this tiny little girl standing with her arms crossed and refusing to participate!

Then we sat on our own side of the room(with Hemi and two ladies). Everyone else sat across from us. There was some standing and singing and sitting and listening to the beautiful Maori language in speeches. We only recognized one word- and that was Canada!

The CEO spoke and he basically explained what was just said but in English. He basically said that they think of us as family now and that he was hoping we could stay longer than 6 months- in fact 10 years was mentioned!

Cary was then asked to introduce himself and state the reasons for coming to work in this community. He spoke very well and said that he and I have experience working on reserves back home( we both started our careers on reserves) and are looking forward to contributing to this group. Cary also introduced Simon as an outdoor loving person looking for work experience.
Warren, the project manager, spoke as well. He mentioned that I was an early childhood specialist. Everyone in unison went, Mmmmmmm! again. Warren said that they felt that have a double win with bringing us in.
We then were invited to cross the room and join their side. We're in! We then were asked to eat and drink tea with them to consummate the union. It was quite the honour to take part in this ceremony.

Beach Walks

Now we're based in Hawera we have been visiting some beaches within a few km from us on a daily basis. There's Denby Rd, Ohawe Beach, Kopaukotunui, Opunake. They are all black sand beaches around this area. Black and sparkly! I have collected a bit and hope to collect some sand from both sides of the island. The small rocks here look like speckled eggs, and there is some really round rocks, like half an an orange, round. I only have 3 beach glass and there aren't really shells here, not like in the Bahamas. There are only some mussel shells that the seagulls have used and discarded.
There are some squishy blue/purple tubular things with long tentacles lying on the beach. They apparently are called bluebottles related to the jellyfish.

There are some incredible cliffs! We came across a shark fisher and he was standing off to the side of his rods about 10 metres away and close to the water. I asked him why doesn't he get closer to his rods? He nudged his chin up towards the cliffs. He said there is a real threat that they can break off and slide down quietly and bury him to death. I now walk with a wary eye casted upwards.

We're Here!

Wed Sept, 15,2010
Wow! It will only have been 1 week that we have been in New Zealand and so much has happened.
Firstly it's very weird that I'm not preparing lessons and teaching at Sigurbjorg Stefansson.
Now some updates:
We flew Wpg to Denver to LA. The 5 hour wait in LA was a bit tedious and smelly.

 Boarded Qantas at midnight and it was great. Quiet, roomy and each seat had it's own video so one could watch 50 different things. I dozed until supper which was at 1:30 am and then donned the eye coverings, pulled on the blanket, took a little blue pill, and viola! Woke up in Auckland at 8am!
Auckland airport is quite nice and airy. But look out! If you mention that you have hiking boots and tents and stuff you are hauled to the side and frisked by a team wearing plastic gloves. They are very concerned that mud and seeds are not brought into the country. They are also anal about food being brought in. The sniffer dogs found Baba's egg sandwiches (sorry Baba). When we were one check stop away from clearing customs they asked me, " Now, Do you have any more food?"
I said , "Well I have some gluten free buns but they are vacuumed packed and we are going camping right away and I'll need them." He said alright. "Now do you have any more food? You can be fined $400 if you are caught with some.
"No", I said. "That should be about it"
Well unpacking later I found a bag of Pistachio seeds, dried cranberries and cheese buns! Sorry NZ!

Well now on to getting the rental car and manouvering across Auckland so Cary can attend the final  interview.
A nice white Toyota Camry. We packed and unpacked the car 3 times(6 bags and 3 backpacks).
Simon front left was going to be driving coach. Cary, front right, driver, and me in the back was the navigator (and at every round-about I would yell out Keep Left! which was not appreciated by the driver)

Cary drove around the rental parking lot 2 times at a turtle pace with me praying to the drive-safe gods and Simon was rolling his eyes.
The first round-about was painful, the second was kind of fun and the third Cary was being down right confident- until we got lost.
The navigator actually got it right in the end and we arrived 10 min early for the appointment.
For the whole 45 min drive Cary constantly moved the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal, but it worked out because it was raining the whole time!
We stayed at Auckland City Oakes on Hobson, and I would recommend it because it was spacious, clean, central and reasonable. 107 dollars with parking and breakfast! That's NZ dollars. The conversion is 1.00NZ=0.75 CA
We walked down to the harbour and went to the information centre also known as the i-site. There will be a trend starting here because at the end of a 5 day road trip Cary was compulsive about visiting i-sites and he filled a backpack full of pamphlets. Can't have too much info!

Anyway-no joke the fellow in the first i-site asked if we were from Canada. Yes. Would you be from Gimli, MB? Cary shot around thinking he was being punked! This guy wanted to know if we knew Marie Markusson. He had been conversing with her for several years because they share common interests(?!)
It is truly a small world.
Well the next day we were off to see the Northland. Up the east coast , over the top, and down the west coast to New Plymouth where we dropped off the car. Spectacular! Everything is giant here. Giant ferns, giant trees, giant sand dunes, giant waves!

Well, we are now in Hawera, in our house, we're driving a black Honda Jazz, we're hooked up to a phone and internet and we have bank accounts. On Monday, Cary starts his job and Simon and I will start to look for work.
Everyone is very helpful and kind. Everything is new to us. We now know how to use a pay phone. Each plug has to be switched on.There are a lot of vowels in their words, there are no long vowels, and they say every one of them!
 There is so much more to say, but I will add more news soon. It gets dark here early-6:30pm and since it's coming up to 9pm it has been our bedtime.

Going south with these guys!

I really identify with the Pelicans. They are one of the first birds we look for when spring is upon us. This last spring there were about 200 of them in our estuary and they majestically led us out to the island we call Pelican Island(funny enough).

I wish them well on their journey south because they will be challenged when they settle in the south with all of the gushing oil in Gulf of Mexico. So Adios boys and return with your feathers in tack and that goofy grin!

Getting Close

Four more sleeps!