Marae weekend

Wow so i'm ashamed to see how long it's been since i last posted. well a lot has happened since i moved to Scott's Landing.

First of all, i had the best weekend of my exchange so far when all the inbounds and outbounds went up north to the Bay of Islands College Marae and had a maori culture weekend. we arrived friday and lined up opposite the whanau (family) and sang songs and presented speeches. I was fortunate enough to speak on behalf of all the students and i did so first in french and then in english. i won't lie i threw in a few jokes in french that i didn't say in english :D. that night the maori boys taught us the Ka Mate Haka which is the video on Facebook. At the end of the night my thighs were bruised, my right are was covered in broken blood vessels and my voice was gone.
The next morning we did Waka (massive canoe) training. we learned the the sides and sections of the waka and different strokes. then we took the waka out to this lake and paddled around while singing songs like "pokarekare ana"... you know the usual stuff. that same day we went to Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed. it's a document kinda like the US constitution [oh! props to Obama btw] after learning about it we went back to the Bay of Islands and hung out in the marae, and played touch rugby in the field with the maori boys. Rugby has actually become a huge part of my life here, loving it.
the next day we did Rotary stuff i.e. talked about the south island tour.. 2 weeks from now yikes! and then to cap things off we had a hangi. basically meat and veges and stuffing is all packed together and buried in the ground to cook. it was delicious but signified the end of the weekend..
before we left however the boys stripped down and did the haka opposite the maori boys as a kind of Haka-off. Doing the haka is an incredibly spiritual thing and it really gives you strength, confidence and just an overall feeling of being powerful, i was very humbled to have learned it and i am forever indebted to the boys at the Bay of Islands.

in short: words cannot describe the amazing weekend i had up north.

kia ora,
pete