Wellington

We were only in Wellington for two nights, but it seemed like an amazing city and we definitely made the most of it! Going to museums, on a long hike to the top of Mt. Victoria, walking around the city, and eating at the best dessert place in the world! Think passionfruit cake and ginger vanilla cookies.....

LOOK AT THIS SLIDE!  right on the waterfront! wear just socks, and you are golden!!!

Beautiful view of Wellington from the steep hike up Mt. Victoria - so worth it.

Talia on the BEST SWING.  doesn't it look like you are just going to fly into the city?  I name Wellington the best playground city I've ever been too!!!

Tongariro Alpine Crossing

Soooo --- I'm way behind, probably about two weeks behind.  So I think to catch up quick, I'm going to let the pictures do the talking with just brief explanations!

About 2 weeks age we were in Tongariro National Park on the North Island (for those Lord of th Ring fans - Mt. Doom is there!)  We went on an incredible hike - 8 hours and we saw the most amazing things!!!

 Volcanic Crater at top after climbing the Devil's Staircase

 Where I ate lunch :)

 Volcanic Lakes

 Not on the same hike, but the sunrise on a shorter walk, see the pink glow? That was way in the distance!

Drawing while sitting along side a road (watercolor and colored pencil).  P.s. We has some snow too! On the mountains of course......

Quick Stops!

So here are some places we stopped, just while driving from one place to another - -but they are so wonderful, I had to share them!

Cathedral Cove (about 2 weeks ago, while going from Auckland to Tongariro)

Isn't this the funniest little rock island? And birds were sitting right on top!

 The archway at the beach...

 View from the top of the 30 min. down to cathedral cove.  We spent about 3 hours there, just drawing and playing games and running around and swimming -- this was one of those places where i got to it, and we had just been in beautiful places before - and i realize, in order to not get overlysaturated with all this beautiful - i really need to take it all slowly and one day at a time - and it has been amazing!

Pupu Springs (About 4 days ago, while driving from Wellington to Abel Tasman National Park)

 This is one of the magical places I have been.  The water is so clear - I think the clearest in the world.  You aren't allowed to swim in it, but the ducks can! And I could see the feet of the duck paddling underneath, it was so cool! And if you can see in this picture the rings or water a little right of the center -- that's where the water comes up for the spring - it just comes out of the ground, with no rhyme or reason - truly magical!

 Look how clear it is! So beautiful!

Printmaking

So we have left Auckland, but this is what I accomplished in the studio.  I worked on it the whole time in wood relief, and am so proud of it! It's an accordian book, so you can either read it like a book, or open it all at once.  The story is one two boys told me in Raratonga.  It goes like this:

(Sorry, they are all sideways.)  There used to be giants on Raratonga.

And they had the biggest mountain in all the Cook Islands.

One time, other giants came and stole the mountiain from the Rartonga giants and brought it to their own island.

But that new island didn't have the biggest mountain because it was cut off, and now that is why Rartonga doesn't have the biggest mountain anymore.

The end!

I have a lot more to update you on, Tongariro National Park and Wellington.  We are heading to Abel Tasman National Park for 3 days on the south island of New Zealand, then we have midterm break (can you believe we are half way through?), and then we are leaving for Australia! Ahh!!

Coast to Coast Walkway

On the last studio day in Auckland, my friend Talia and I woke up at five in the morning, and ventured out to walk across New Zealand (okay, the skinniest part, but still) by walking from one coast to the other of Auckland.  We kinda followed a map, kinda followed the yellow signs, but mostly just got lost, found hidden fruit stands, secondhand bookstores, playgrounds, and AMAZING, wonderful views.

Sunrise from Mt. Eden, a volcano in Auckland.  We thought we had missed the sunrise, we got to the top of this volcano, and we had the most beautiful sunrise ever. There was a man next to us filming the sunrise.  When the sun had risen, he sang happy birthday into the camera - how great would that be for a birthday gift!

Views from the top of Mt. Eden

Melville Park - a cricket field.

Cornwall park - huge and so many cool trees!

One tree hill - a commemoration to the Maori people (I still have to look this up, because the guy who commemorated it seemed a litttttleee strange...)

The best part!!! The playground.  Talia is on the flying fox - which is a zipline, and you swing into tires at the end and fling back and it's so much fun!!!

We ended up walking 19 km for about 7 hours! It was a great way to get a way from the studio and to spend our second to last day in Auckland!

Waipoua Forest

So two weekends ago, we took a break from Auckland to go north to the Waipoua forest.  We stayed two nights with Fred, our professor's, good friends Manos and Alex Nathan.  They are both artists, ceramic carver and metal jewelry maker, and they are both part of a Maori tribe.  The Maori people are the indigenous people of New Zealand, similar to the Native Americans, and they have shared similar consequences that come from being colonized peoples, a big one for Manos and Alex has been the loss of their tribe's land to the crown, which they have been fighting for 20 years and have finally gotten back, although only 7%. 

Learning about Maori culture, art, and their history has been an important part of our trip as we have read many books, articles, been to museums, and everything - so this trip was amazing to learn about their culture personally and to meet new people and learn about New Zealand more!

We got a walkthrough of parts of the Waipoua forest - a beautiful, amazing green area the this Maori tribe, including a man Stephen who is an amazing naturalist in New Zealand - showed us.  This is a hugging tree! 

  This is a Kauri tree. The Kauri trees are very important to the Maori people, but forest upon forest of them got cut down with the European settlers who wanted to use them for masts.  Stephen, Alex, and the other people we met have worked hard to start regrowth forests, and they have been doing amazing jobs so far. These Kauri trees are akin to the Redwoods or the giant sequoias in the importance, and even in their size.  They are beautiful!

We stayed at the tribe's marae deep in the forest.  The marae can be described as a meeting house, where everything from births, weddings, funerals, and important tribe meetings take place here.  We were very lucky to to be invited here and able to stay here and it was an amazing experience.  When we first got here, we took our shoes off to enter the marae, and then the family was lined up on the left wall while we sat down on the right side, for the welcoming ceremony.  They spoke their piece in Maori, then we sang our Maori song we learned, then we walked through the lines to do a hongi - where you touch foreheads with everyone, share the breath of life, and after that you are welcomed in and are no longer a stranger.  And it really felt like this. 

This place is amazing.  Children and grandchildren of Manos and Nathan came back to the marae for this weekend while we were there - even if they live farther away, like in Wellington (a plane flight away, or really long drive).  It really felt like we were at home here.  It was so easy, the transition, it was incredible.  We went swimming in the river, played games with all the kids and learned traditional Maori games.  Alex and Manos shared with us about their culture, the land rights fights they have been through, the stories about their ancestors, and how important the ancestors are to them.  The marae is thought of as the womb of their ancestors, so it really is amazing that we slept in the marae.  Something amazing they said, is that when the welcomed us in Maori at the opening ceremony, they not only welcomed us but all our ancestors and family that were coming with us - because they believe that we are never alone.  We are always with our family and our ancestors wherever we go - and I love that thought - especially being so far from home.

We went on walks, enjoyed the beautiful nature that they work so hard to live close to and to preserve.  We walked to a lookout point to watch the sunrise.

And we went to the beach on their land, and it was the most beautiful place with crashing waves, white sand that had the texture of snow, magical cliffs in the distance, and bluegreen shining silver abaloni shells sprawled on the beach.

We learned about their way of life, and the joy they have of being at the marae with family and having this as a meeting place, for their tribe hasn't always been like this.  At the end of our stay, a few hours before we left, we all were in the marae and we had a ceremony type thing where everyone goes around, stands up, and says whatever they like - thank you for having us, why it has been so amazing, what they have learnt about themselves, the group, and the larger world; sang a song; shared personal things.  In just this one weekend, I felt the group get so much closer - and everyone just let go and had fun and was so happy and joiyful -- I haven't smiled or laughed that much for a while, and I think that's saying a lot for me.

This weekend was really amazing - I learned so much, but at the same time, the learning came in such a relaxed and happy environment it just felt so natural.  It truly was a one of a kind experience I hope I never forget.

Rangitoto Island

For one of my afternoons off, I took a 25 minute ferry to Rangitoto Island, a volcanic island that was formed really recently - I think starting in the 1400's, and the last eruption was in the 1600's! So people were on or near the island when it happened!

I took this trip by myself, and it was the most wonderful alone time in the world.  I really think this is one of my favorite place's on earth. 

It was about an hour steep hike to the summit of the volcano.

The pathway was so green, but also every once and a while covered with giant black gorges of lava rocks! I kept forgetting I was on a volcano - so besides the gravelly path, these rocks were quite the reminder!

The summit was stunning.  All around, I could circle, and see the ocean, the horizon, islands, the amazing clouds, the city of Auckland.  I danced and sang and twirled and sat and looked and wondered - especially because no one was up there I think it was so peaceful and special and seemed like my own spot.

It was the best place - and guess what? I wasn't even totally alone - guess who took this picture?

 A family - FROM ARGENTINA! So I got to speak spanish to them whenever I saw them!

It was the most perfect outing - and this sight was on the ferry ride home - something out of a fairytale! The one little island with its own little cloud. 

 Seemed like the whole day was out of a fairytale...