Follow the Journey

By Nico and Oliver For those of you who emailed headquarters, yes we are still alive! After a challenging two weeks in Fiji, we arrived in the beautiful city of Newcastle. The change in pace was dramatic but offered the opportunity to recover from illness. Much needed. Our evenings were spent eating familiar foods, watching movies, and relaxing. Many of us admired Australia’s strikingly beautiful landscapes and were excited to… Read More

By Ashton Saltz Bula! Elliot and Ashton here to tell all of you about our Fijian adventures and homestay experiences. It has been a hot, humid, and hectic past couple weeks full of both good and bad. Some of the people in the group hadn’t experienced a third world country before this, and it became overwhelming at times for most. On October 25, we all woke up at 3am to… Read More

By Jake and Nico Ciao and Hola from Jake and Nico to all Hongi 2017 fans. We are here to recount this past week’s adventures and experiences. Unfortunately, Jake and I were both out of commission with illness, which meant that a therapeutic Harry Potter movie marathon was called for. We arrived at the Mangarara Farm after spending the night in Napier and were blown away by the beauty of… Read More

By Greg Hart, Owner of The Family Farm The crew checking out the hut in the native forest on the farm. Mulching fruit trees in our “fields of food.” Checking out the Carpe Diem trees planted this winter which are off to a great start.… Read More

By Shai, Sophie, Nico, and Elliot Hi Hongi fans!! Shai, Sophie, Nico and Elliot here giving you the deets of our latest adventures in New Zealand. Our week started off spending two nights at Manu-Wairua Retreat, a Marae in Raglan. Here we endured an intensive healing process that utilized a sweat lodge. A sweat lodge is a small enclosed dome used in many indigenous purification ceremonies. Inside, there is someone… Read More

By Shaiyena and Juan Hello fans of group HONGI 2017! We’re here to bring you the latest updates of our past week in New Zealand. This past week was filled to the brim with adventures consisting of hot water beaches, hiking Mount Doom (kind of), and visiting Cathedral Cove. We started our STD (Student Travel Directed) in Wellington, a big city filled with museums, street art, and Tim Tams. After… Read More

By Elliot Brebner Photos of our journey in Abel Tasman National Park.… Read More

By Lucas and Nicolas After leaving the Maori, we continued on to the city of Nelson where we wandered and explored. Eventually, we came across our next adventure, Whenua Iti Outdoors. We were led by our courageous, cunning, and more-than-slightly crazy guides, Joe and Callum. They had us crawling like spiders through caves, paddling our waka through the treacherous surf, and hiking through dense forests and mountains of the Abel… Read More

By Rickey Matherne III Well, as we head into our second week of travel and adventure with Carpe Diem, let’s recap what happened over the first week. With brand-new faces and green bellies, we oriented ourselves in Christchurch where we formed bonds and started to get to know one another. Having been a complete success, we then moved to our next location: a 103-year-old school building on the South Island… Read More

By Elsa and Ricky Hello friends and family! All 14 of us have arrived safely in Christchurch, New Zealand, where we’ve been for a few days orienting ourselves to the program and each other. We meet in what is called a “circle.” The name originates from the shape in which we gather. Many of us have been surprised by how quickly we’ve come to feel comfortable with one another. Without … Read More

Dear Friends and Families The Hongi crew is safe on the ground in New Zealand. They will move on to orientation over the next few days, exploring the lovely city of Christchurch.  We are so excited for this crew, and hopeful that their travels will be filled with fun, adventure, laughter, and love. Hongi Crew: The blog is now yours! Best Wishes, James… Read More

We have word that all is well with the Hongi Crew! All 12 students and their fearless Overseas Educators have convened in L.A. are are now en route for the amazing land of New Zealand! Thank you all for your support in making this journey possible! It is truly a remarkable opportunity for these individuals to explore the richness, complexity, and beauty of these lands and cultures. We look forward to… Read More

Hey everyone! Jon and Suzannah here, writing to you from Carpe Diem HQ in Portland. Wow, it is hard to believe we’ll finally be meeting you all on September 13th. We hope you’ve had plenty of time to prep, see loved ones, and get yourselves in the mindset to travel the next 3 months with us. We have been training here and in the wilderness of Oregon for the past… Read More

Hard to believe three months has gone by! With teary eyes we said goodbye to the people that has become inseparable to our wellbeing. If you sit down with any member of our Hongi group, we will be telling you stories for days. This trip turned out to be a first time for many things. Whether it was first time away from home, first time in New Zealand/Fiji/Australia, first time… Read More

It seems crazy, but this is our final blog of an amazing three month experience! Nevertheless, these last two weeks have been just as meaningful and fun as the previous ten. After a free day in Cairns to relax after our SCUBA adventure we drove two hours into North Queensland to work in the Daintree Rainforest. In Port Douglas we met John Rumney and Damien Settle who are working on… Read More

Like every other week of this trip, this week was none the less of amazing. So much has happened and we even became open water certified scuba divers.We had an interesting, unexpected turn of things at the beginning of the week when our flight from Alice Springs to Cairns wan cancelled. Which actually ended up being a treat because Quantas Airlines paid for everyone’s overnight accommodation along with $50 for… Read More

Our group had an eventful week in the outback! We started off our days emerging from our cocoons (also known as “swags”). There is no easy way to explain what they are, so if you are confused click the following link- https://www.google.com.au/search?q=swags&rlz=1C5CHFA_enNZ710NZ710&espv=2&biw=1280&bih=618&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjOn83ui7XQAhWITLwKHfgqCREQ_AUIBigB#tbm=isch&q=roll+up+swags . Although it took a little convincing, almost our entire group put our underlying fear of the unknown creatures of the outback aside, and slept underneath the stars… Read More

Saturday November 5, 2016 probably around 6:00pm, the group headed out to a pizza place for dinner. The end of another fantastic week, we were ready to head to Australia and start planting some trees. Not knowing anything about what we would be doing, our lovely OE’ s gave us the mountainous task of dividing the group. Many discussions took place, a vote was made. Zack, Stevie, Teddy, Kate, Tara… Read More

Week six of our journey began with an early morning and a flight out of Auckland, New Zealand. The flight went by quickly, as did the day. We made our way to our downtown hotel in Nadi, Fiji. There the group had an opportunity to walk around for a bit and take in some of the new culture we will be around for the next two and a half weeks.… Read More

Today. we had an amazing day exploring a breathtaking beach with our family and friends at the village. We played countless games of vollyball, swam like fish for hours, played some beach soccer and ate some tasty sandwiches for lunch. We then headed back to the village for preperation of a bountiful dinner as usual. The next day was spent with our home stay families, talking, laughing and exchanging life… Read More