Piha and Karaie Falls

Another Beautiful day in the land of the long white cloud. All 16 of us girls, Jim, Linda, and James all went to Piha beach. Piha is a gorgeous black sand beach with dangerous surf waves. Jim wouldn't let any of us swim the waves were just too dangerous. There have been numerous reports of people that have died because of the strong undertow and high waves. We walked down beach that went out into the Tasman Sea. We had to go at low tide so we could walk around the beach and see the hole in the rock before the tide came up and filled it with water.

It was so much fun to run in the hole in the rock and then try to run back out before if filled with water. We had to climb around to the bay and then walked to the gorgeous Honey Moon Cove for lunch. Running in the waves at honey moon cove and hiking up to the look out above was so much fun. The waves came up way above the rocks as the tide came in. Hiking up to the top of the cove was so much fun and such a gorgeous sight. I wish I could have sat up there all day and just take in the view. It was so spectacular. My pictures could never  compare. The sight of the sea and the huge waves like nothing other. We even got wet on our hike down because the tide was coming in so fast. I stood on the rocks at them end of the lookout almost onto the sea. It was kinda scary being so close to the edge. I hiked back down and had a great picnic lunch with the other girls.

It was so much fun and Katie and I had such a great time hiking up to the bay and chatting during lunch. After having lunch we hiked up the other side of Honeymoon Cove through the jungle back to Piha. I love how you can be on the beach one minute, hike through a jungle, and be on another beach the next minute.Only in New Zealand. It is such an amazing experience. We hike back to Piha and the under 19 surf competition was going on so we got to watch some of that. Pretty sweet.

We walked over to the other side of Piha and hiked up the Lion rock, which was an old protective rock for the Maori people. It was a great hike and I felt like I should have been singing the Lion King song as I hiked. We hiked about 3/4 of the way up and then had to stop because the trail to the top was blocked off because it is so dangerous. We hiked back down and then drove to Karaie beach and falls.

It was a little bit of a hike to the beach on some hot hot black sand and through the Karaie river. Once we got there though it was a gorgeous expansive black sand beach with huge waves. Myself and most of the other girls ran and jumped in the huge waves. It was so much fun. One of the waves was so big it even came up and over and got all of our stuff on the beach wet. Oops. At least is was only my clothes that got wet, not my camera.
After seeing the beach, we hiked back to the parking lot and then took a little five minute hike down the jungle to the water fall. It was gorgeous. I swam in the pool at the bottom and under the water fall. It was so much fun. Christine, Jessica, and I even climbed up some of the waterfall. I just loved every minute of it and it was like being in a dream.

Afterwards I came home to wash all of my wet sandy stuff before going to a combined birthday celebration for Nancy, Anna, and Nicole all of which had their 21st birthday in February. We had a traditional New Zealand 21st for them with blowing out the candles before singing happy birthday, lots of food and cake, etc. It was a lot of fun and it was a surprise to Nicole because she didn't know we were throwing the party. It was great to see the look on her face when she found out and I think Dr. Jacobs had the most fun being a part of a surprise party. It was a pretty amazing day and all of my pictures from the beach and the falls are on facebook.

Hobbiton Trip

On Friday, February 26 Nancy and I left early in the morning for Matamata where Hobbition is. John was our guide for the day and drove us up there teaching us that kiwis grow on a vine and about how Dan Carter and Micheal Jones are amazing rugby players for the All Blacks. We went to Hobbiton and had the most amazing time, but I can't say more because I signed my life way saying I wouldn't tell anything about our experience there, so I will just say it was incredible.

After seeing Hobbiton, Matamata and the Shires Rest Cafe, John drove us up to Tay Street along the east coast beaches. We stopped at two beautiful white sand surf beaches Tay Street and Hybiscus Beach. They were gorgeous and the waves were just amazing. There was even an under 19 surf competition going on. So cool. John treated us to lunch at the Tay Street cafe where I had amazing satay beef kabobs with lots of veggies which I have been craving.  I really don't get many vegetables here.

We then went to the most gorgeous lookout of the Pacific Ocean in Kaiaua. It had a stunning view. I could have spent the whole day just taking in the view from the lookout. We continued our journey up to the Brighton reserve, which Nancy and I would love to go back to. Another gorgeous white sand beach with very few people. I cannot even begin to explain how gorgeous most of these places were.  We met one of John's friends and drove through this cute mining community.

We then headed up to Paeora where L&P is famous for being made. The soda is naturally produced and then the lemon is added no artificial flavoring and carbonation needed. We drove back to Auckland through Maratai and the back of Beachland and went through the Bay of Plenty region, all of which were gorgeous and we didn't think we would get to see.Having the beach on one side and the rain forest on the other is such an experience.We really couldn't have had a more perfect day.

Christchurch Earthquake

On Tuesday, February 22, 2011 a terrible earthquake hit Christchurch, New Zealand. Christchurch was hit by a 7.1 earthquake in the middle of the night last September which caused some damage to the city but no one was seriously injured since then there have been daily after shock and many small quakes have hit the city. Yesterday though, another big earthquake a 6.3 on the Richter scale hit Christchurch in the middle of the day around lunch hour, the worst time for one to hit. This quake caused huge damage to the city many water and electric lines are down, many buildings have collapsed, a 26 story hotel the tallest building in the city is on the verge of collapsing. The beautiful cathedral that has been there for over a hundred years suffered much structural damage. It is so hard for me to believe that I was just in this city, in some of the now destroyed buildings, with some of the people that are now suffering just two weeks ago. It makes my heart weep thinking about it. The hospital had to be evacuated because of the quake.

 There are more than 70 people know to be dead and over 300 people missing so far because of the quake. It is so sad to hear about and see so much devastation occur in a place that is now so close to my heart.

We heard today that the motel we stayed in there 2 weeks ago survived the quake but they have no power or water. We also heard that the woman who had made some dresses for Linda's grandchildren is okay and she has been living in another part of town because her home was damaged during the quake back in September. We are still waiting to hopefully hear that our friend Johnny who traveled with us on the South Island and stayed in Christchurch to visit his mom is doing okay as well as hearing that some of the people we met in the ward there are okay. I am keeping them and all others who have been affected by the quake in my prayers and I hope you will join me in doing so.

links to photos and more information on the damage the earthquake in Christchurch caused:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/christchurch-earthquake-photos/news/image.cfm?c_id=1503036&gal_cid=1503036&gallery_id=116929#7381709

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/christchurch-earthquake/news/headlines.cfm?c_id=1502981

Powhiri

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Today Henderson South had a Powhiri for all of the new students, teachers, and the BYU students. A Powhiri is a Maori welcoming ceremony that is conducted to welcome the visitors/ new people to their school or land. The ceremony starts with a call where some of the women of the land, in our case three of the older girls at the school, call the new people into the hall in Maori. A welcoming speech is then given in Maori, which Mr S our deputy principal gave to welcome all of us into the school and as people of New Zealand rather than as visitors of New Zealand. The children then sang a beautiful waiata or song. The children sang so beautifully.

Dr. Jacobs then gave a speech in Maori and English and offered a gift to the school thanking them for letting us come to teach and for hosting the Powhiri. He gave the school a Navajo sand painting that was gorgeous and shares a similar story to the Maori creation story. After Dr Jacobs gave his speech, we (the BYU girls) stood up around Dr. Jacobs and sang Te Aroha (a maori song we learned for the occasion). It went so well; the students were so impressed with our singing that all of them gave us a paki paki (clap) which does not normally happen at Powhiris. Mr. Diamond our principal then gave a speech welcoming us into the school and thanking us for being there. The children then sang another waiata.

The formal Powhiri then ended and all of the teachers came around to the front to greet the new people with a hongi, which happens by shaking hands and touching nose to nose. It symbolizes a sharing of breath and shows that we are now a people of the same land. So after the Powhiri I am officially a member of Henderson South school and of New Zealand. It is such an amazing ceremony to be apart of and I felt the spirit and such love in the room during the ceremony.

I am so glad we had the Powhiri at my primary school instead of one of the others because I got to experience it with my kids and staff which means so much. The kids did so well during the Powhiri and the staff members made me feel so loved during the hongi and got so excited that I was not officially apart of their school. They just had huge smiles on their faces and gave me huge hugs during the hongi. It was so cool and such a blessing and experience that I will never forget to be apart of the Powhiri at Henderson South. And it is such a blessing to be in the beautiful country of New Zealand and teach at a school with such lovely children and staff. I love how they have a ceremony like that here and invite us to be people of the country just as they are.

After the Powhiri of all of the new children at the school got a biscuit and all of us went to have morning tea. There was heaps of good food for morning tea including keish, brownies which I have really missed since being in New Zealand, meat pie, bread, biscuits/ cookies, etc. It was all so good and I probably ate too much. My class did a story writing on the Powhiri afterwards.

I am doing so much teaching this week. I have taught reading, hand writing and maths everyday, some story writing, topic (health), swimming, etc. It is so fun and I love getting to teach so much. I am going to start swimming with the kids twice a week next week and teaching them, which I am pretty excited about and I have my first formal observation with Dr. Jacobs on Monday.  I hope it goes. well.

Bethells Beach

Monday, February 21, 2011

On Monday, February 21 is was Nancy's 21st birthday!! After a busy day at school with lots of teaching, we Nancy and I came home and made a pineapple topping cake for her birthday. We had to make it with vanilla cake mix since yellow cake mix doesn't exist here. There is also no vanilla pudding here, so we had to use the vanilla frosting mix that came with the cake and add cream cheese to it. Then we had to open the cans of pineapple with a knife and scissors because we don't have a can opener and had to whip the whipping cream by hand since there is no cool whip over here and we didn't have a blender. It was a long crazy process changing the recipe in so many ways, but it turned out really well. I really liked the cake and so did Paea and Cooper.

After making the cake and something for dinner, Paea and Cooper took us to Bethells beach to have a picnic on the beach for FHE and Nancy's birthday. The drive up there was 30minutes of driving basically through a rain forest. It was absolutely gorgeous. We got to the beach and as soon as I stepped out of the car, I saw a rainbow over the sand and rocks. It was so gorgeous. Bethells is a black sand beach and these is quite a bit of walking in the sand before you get to the beach, but the sand felt so nice beneath my toes. That is one of my favorite feelings. Nancy and I were amazed with how gorgeous the beach was and getting there right at sunset made it just perfect. We ran up to the water and jumped in the puddles that led to the water form the rain earlier in the day. It was so much fun and we got so many good pictures that would look great on a postcard. After walking through the beach, Nancy and I went to explore the caves on the beach. It was so much fun and definitely the most gorgeous beach ever!

We sat down on the beach and had a very nice picnic. Paea and Cooper had a blast as well and he was in and out of the water running up and down the beach. so fun. While we were eating we watched the one or two surfers that were there, but we were basically the only people on the beach and had it all to ourselves. It was just a perfect sunset picnic on the beach. After the sun went down there was a gorgeous mist over the ocean and through the caves. Everywhere I looked on the beach, it was just gorgeous. I couldn't have pictured a better way to spend a Monday night in February. The only way it could have been better was if it had been my family at the beach with me.

Pt. Chev, Rangitoto, Chinese Lantern, and Rugby weekend!!

On Friday, February 18 I went up to Pt Chev beach. It is so nice only having to teach 4 days a week and having 3 day weekends. I went up with Nicole, Neeley, Jessica, Christine, Emily, Whitney, Anna,Becca, Katie, and Heidi. We got to the beach around 11. It was so great to see a lot of the girls again. When we got there it was low tide, so after catching up Emily, Nicole, and I went to explore the beach. We walked out to the water through super gushy sand, some tide pools, and stepped on lots of hermit crabs. When we got to the water we tried to make it look like we could walk on water,but only ended up really walking on the crabs which kinda hurt.We also explored through some caves and climbed up some pretty cool rocks. It was pretty fun and I found some cool shells. It was so nice to spend a Friday on a nice sunny beach.

On Saturday, Nancy and I got up really early and went outside to walk to the bus stop where a bunch of the girls were meeting up. As soon as we stepped outside we saw the most gorgeous sight of the moon. We met up with Neeley, Nicole, Whitney, Becca, Katie,and Emily and took a bus into Auckland where we met up with Allie, Kara, Diana, Janet, Jess, and Christine before boarding a ferry to Rangitoto Island.Rangitoto Island is a dormant volcanic island covered in jungle bush and volcanic rock. It is a pretty secluded island with no fresh water available and just two bathrooms. We went hiking to the summit of the mountain twice, to a crater, to Mackenzie bay and to some lava caves. We hiked a total of about 5 hours. It was such a gorgeous, intense hike and really was like going through a jungle. It was way cool to see all the volcanic rock where the lava had flowed down. It was so fun and we got so hot and sweaty.

The lava caves were really cool and I am so glad my mom had me bring a torch/ flashlight to New Zealand so I could explore them and go spelunking in New Zealand. I forgot how much I love doing that. Mackenzie Bay
was a pretty gorgeous black sand beach with huge volcanic rocks that I climbed on. And the water felt no nice after hiking in the hot sun for 5 hours. It was such a fun hike and I am so glad we went. I was way dehydrated by the end though. We caught the ferry back and then went to the Chinese lantern festival at Albert Park.

There were millions of people at the festival. Jess, Christine, and I went and watched some performances by dance and other groups that had come over from China to perform. They were pretty sweet and the little kids in the Chinese costumes were so cute. The lanterns were absolutely gorgeous and so cool. There were so many different lanterns of people, places, animals, dragons, etc. It was so sweet as. I walked through the festival with Jess and Christine, tried on a chinese hat and saw all the booths. When we went over to the food part it was almost like walking into China. There were so many street places to get lots of different food from different Asian countries. We got a pineapple cut in half with ice cream on top. It was so good. I loved it and I am not even a ice cream person but having it in a pineapple was such an experience.

After the lantern festival Jess, Christine, Anna, Heidi, Nancy, Nicole, Neeley, Whitney, Emily and I went to a rugby game at Eden park. We bought out tickets earlier that day which got us on the bus there free, which was a nice surprise. The game was the Blues (Auclkand) vs. the Crusaders (Christchurch)and I was so excited. I was reminded of how much I love rugby and sporting events as soon as I walked into the stadium. We bought the cheapest tickets for $15 and up being basically on the field!!! We were maybe 12 rows up. It was awesome!! We could see the whole game and I loved being apart of it and all the cheering. I love how rugby is so intense and fun to watch and a nonstop game. I wish it was bigger in the sates. I am pretty sure I am going to go home and have to watch every world rugby cup game starting in September just like with the World Cup for soccer last year. I didn't watch every one of those games but I love that world cup too!!! We found out that a lot of the players on the teams last night also play on the All Blacks. We even saw the best rugby player in the world who is number 10 on the crusaders.Such a sweet game. Watching the game cheering like crazy, and dancing in the stands was so much fun. I just love going to sporting events. We even did the wave around the stadium four times and when we did it most people that had bottles threw them in the air which is when we found out that they make all their bottles including beer and things out of plastic so no one will get hurt when they were thrown. It was such a fun game. I was cheering for the Blues and they won in a landslide 24-22. It was such a close intense game with so many amazing plays. What an amazing night!!!! Afterwards we caught the train back to Henderson which ended up being free because of the game too. It was such an amazing fun day. I loved every minute of it.

On Sunday I had church and made a bucket list of things I want to do in GA since I was a little homesick. I talked to my family, which was so nice and made made me feel better. I also called Alison and talked to her which always makes me feel tons better. I am so glad I have her and my family. When I called all of her kids except Emma were in bed, so I talked to her and then to Emma which just made me smile so much. Ben and Sam ended up waking up and coming down too and I am so glad they did even if it was almost 11 at night there because I got to talk to them and they got to tell me about Karate, school, and their valentine's day. It made me so so happy. Nancy and I made chicken enchiladas for her birthday today and they were so good.
What an amazing weekend!!

Room 6

My first week of teaching at Henderson South went so well. The kids in my class are so cute. There is Faith, Sueliti, Skye, John, Konrad, Peleiti, Natalia, Adrianna, Devon, and Orane. I just love them all. I am getting to teach so much already including guided reading, story writing, routines, maths, and hand writing. It is so much fun and I like doing the planning for it as well. The kids surprise me each day with how much they can do. One of my girls told her mom that her new teacher Miss Kern doesn't speak English. It was so cute. I guess having a southern accent really is a different language.  Then on Thursday, another one of my girls said Miss Kern you look different today. I asked her how and she said, "You are a different color. You are white." It was pretty funny especially since I am darker than my cooperating teacher. I love how swimming is part of the curriculum here and how there is so much more discovery learning than rote based learning. The first day I taught the children were completely stunned with having a new teacher, but they were much better today and are really warming up to me.  I like how Ms Manos does her planning and how I am able to easily plan my lessons without stressing on their format. It is so interesting to see how the curriculum is more flexible and different from the states . There really are advantages to letting the school be in charge of the curriculum.I am so excited to continue working with Ms. Manos and the kids in my class. It is so fun and I am learning so much.

I also found out that I got accepted to be an EFY counselor in GA and FL this summer. I am so so excited. I can hardly wait! I have been waiting to here back on it forever and it is an answer to my prayers that I get to be a counselor again. I love the EFY program and having the opportunity to work with the youth and see their testimonies grow.  I also love having the opportunity to teach and bear testimony with them. Having fun and being crazy with the kids and other counselors is also another fav. I am so excited to do it this summer.