Written by South Pacific Students, Madeleine N. & Treavor O.
Our group traveled to our last contact, Whenua Iti. We spent the next 9 days caving, hiking and sea kayaking. With our leaders Joe and Michael, we participated in many group bonding activities; we learned more about the Maori culture through these activities.
What have been the three highlights of the week?
🪨 Caving – We went to a cave where we trekked through really tough, tight fitting spaces. We were also faced with multiple challenges like climbing down a waterfall inside the cave, getting lost and finding our way out, and fitting through really small spaces. Along the cave trip, we spent time sitting in silence and observing glow worms which were incredible to see.
🥾 Hiking – We had a 13.2 mile hike which took us most of the day to do. During the hike we stopped at many lookouts and ate lunch at a beautiful spot looking out to the ocean. The hike was extremely tiring for our body’s and mind, but we all pushed through and finished with a positive outlook in the end.
🚣🏽 Sea Kayaking – After the hike we camped out for the night on a beach where we then woke up in the morning at 4am proceeding to get the kayaks ready. The kayaking was 36km in total spread out to 3 days. During the kayaking we experienced a lot of really cool sights like natural rock formations, seals, and a beautiful sunrise. Sea kayaking took a lot out of the group mentally and physically which make it challenging to push through. Even though it was a hard process, it was completely worth it in the end.
Growth comes with challenge – what are some of the challenges you’ve overcome this week?
During this week, we faced a lot of challenges we had to push through. One of them was the majority of the group getting sick during the sea kayaking portion of the week. Another challenge we had to face was the weather. The weather was pretty bad to start off our camping portion. It was consistently raining which made some peoples tents get really wet on the inside. We were also challenged by the fact that sea kayaking put an unreal amount of soreness and pain to our bodies which made us really tired and drained mentally. Throughout this process we all stayed happy and calm with a great attitude. During camping we encountered an animal called a Waka, who persisted in stealing many of our belongings and food. Even though this was a slight challenging, it was hilarious to watch the Wakas steal our stuff and chase after them in a panic.
What are you grateful for this week?
We are extremely grateful for our contacts Joe and Michael for pushing us through the whole week with a great mindset/attitude. Joe has taught us so many life lessons and skills to take back home to our families. We are also grateful for the amount of opportunities we had during this week whether it was caving, hiking, or sea kayaking. The amount of beautiful sights, places, and animals we saw were incredible and we are very grateful to have that opportunity. In general, this whole week was a great experience that we will never forget.
