June 28 - Village and Waterfall

After a great night's rest, we were refreshed and ready for a new day of adventures. We were all pretty tired last night, leaders included. When we went to breakfast this morning, we were amazed to discover that the ocean was just beyond the dining room!

We had several iconic experiences today. First, we traveled to a small Figian village by longboat. When we got there, we all word our sarongs and sulus to show honor to the village.

We began with a traditional kava ceremony. For that, our selected "leader of the tribe," Alex, represented us and shared the kava with the village elders. We were then given the opportunity to try the kava,  too. It gave a slight numbing sensation on the tongue, but wasn't too bad.

Then, the villagers treated us to some music and dance. Both men and women danced to traditional music and we ended by joining into a conga line. After the dancing, we went out to see where part of our lunch was being prepared. There was a small pit with chicken, fish, pumpkin, tapioca and taro baked in palm leaves. It smelled so good!

We ate lunch back in the ceremonial room where we had the kava ceremony. I wasn't a big fan of the tapioca,  but everything else was wonderful.

The high point of the day, for me, came at the end of our visit to the village. The village guide explained that we were the very first PTPI group to participate in their ceremonies. Mr. B had brought with him a $7 Fijian Bill which was minted to commemorate the Fijian soccer team's Olympic win. He had Alex present it to the guide, who was so overcome with emotion. He had not seen the bill before, but had heard of it. He cradled it in his hand and kept repeating how special it was. What a great moment!

Then we got back in the longboat for a trip down the river to the waterfall. It was exhilarating with the cool breeze, the rapids, and all the friendly natives we encountered shouting "Bula!" and waving. When we arrived in the area of the falls, we had a short hike back to reach them. Even though the guide in the village had told us about them, I wasn't quite prepared for what I saw. There was over 300 feet of water dropping into a substantial pool for us to enjoy. They water was a little cold at first, but refreshing. It was the perfect end to the day.

Tonight 's dinner was a stir-fry very similar to Mongolian barbeque style. And, of course they had all the usual sides and desserts at the buffet. Have I mentioned how good the fruit is?!?!

Tomorrow we are headed to school.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

July 10 - Bondi Beach, Opera House

Image
What a great day we had today! We started off the day at Bondi Beach, the world premiere site for surfing. We were told that some people will fly into Sydney just to go to Bondi Beach to surf and then fly home again. It was the picture perfect day to have surfing lessons at Bondi. The temperature wasn't too cold, although we did all have wetsuits just to ensure that our bodies wouldn't get too cold in the water. We also took a 2 hour cruise in the harbour of Sydney. The cruise took us past the Opera House around the light houses and even under the Harbour Bridge. After the cruise we walked over to the Opera House and were able to have a tour inside. We even had a special treat while we were touring! The personnel at the Opera House were setting up for tonight's performance of a special group of students from throughout the world but mostly the United States. They were a string orchestra, and while we were there they began practicing together so we were able to hear the w...
Read more

July 5 - Council, Bath, Thermal Valley, Marae

Image
We had a full day of varied activities. We started out by meeting with Council member Trevor Maxwell. He is responsible for cultural exchange and tourism. He shared that all of the tribes in New Zealand stem from seven original tribes. Tourism has become a major component of Rotorua's economy. I was very proud of our students. They asked good questions and had good discussions with the councilman. Then we went to the Blue Bath for a swim. The water was fed by the springs and was nice and warm. We pretty  much had the pool to ourselves. We also had lunch at the Blue Bath dining room. It was a variety tea sandwiches that were very tasty. On our way to the Waimangu Volcanic Valley we stopped at Waiotapu geothermal pool which had bubbling mud.  It was so funny to watch the mud spurting up all over the pool. We hiked through the Waimangu Valley and saw Frying Pan Lake,  Echo Crater and Inferno Crater Lake. It is such beautiful country. We learned a Maori song to sing dur...
Read more

July 15 - Cooya Beach

Image
Our last activity took us north to the Port Douglas area for some sand crabbing. We traveled the Captain Cook Highway up the Coral Sea coast. It's said to be one of the most scenic drives in Australia,  and I believe it. The drive took about 1-1/2 hours, and it was breath-taking! We started the morning by singing to Will who is celebrating his birthday today. He gets the benefit of an extra-long birthday, too! :) We did our crabbing along Cooya Beach. We walked through the mangrove of boxwood trees. It was wet and muddy in spots on the trail. We walked quite a distance so we could walk through the water looking for crabs on the way back. It was slightly overcast, but comfortable in temperature,  and the water was really warm. It was a pleasant way to spend the morning. As my grandfather would say "It's a good job" we ordered our lunch previously,  because only one if our entire group got a crab. It was a nice-sized one, and our guide cooked it up for us to try,  a...
Read more