Kevin Buccini | EDU-265-TS May Experience 2019

Hi all!

We kept the fun going bright and early this morning as we met in the lobby at 8:20 for our full day excursion to Waiheke Island! To add to all of the excitement, today was also Charles’ birthday! Our guide from the Education Abroad Network, Ashley, met us in the lobby to take us down to the pier, which is only a ten minute walk from the hotel, in order to catch a ferry for transport to Waiheke.

After a windy ferry ride with great views of the Auckland skyline, we arrived at the island and met our Maori guides, Bianca and Brandy, who showed us around the island for the day. Our first stop was a lookout from the top of one of the many hills on the island. From here, we could see the Auckland skyline in the distance, as well as the Motutapu volcano which formed in the bay only 600 years ago.

Our guides then took us to to their sacred meeting house called the Piritahi Marae, which had elaborate wooden carvings. Here, they explained the significance of this building to the Maori community on the island, and connected it to a similar marae we had learned about in the Auckland museum the day before.

We then drove to a library (powered completely by solar panels) where Brandy showed us a music video she had been a part of that was filmed for a very famous song in New Zealand, and she explained how she has broken out of the traditional Maori role of working as either a teacher or for Maori TV. Bianca showed us a video of her TED X talk where she described her background growing up on the island of Waiheke and how that shaped her professional career in working in outdoor education with young people as well as the tourism industry. After these presentations we got back in our vans to head to lunch.

As a group we ate lunch at a cafe called Charlie Farleys. There we ate some great seafood, fish and chips, and burgers. Some of us also had some of their specialty coffee which was very good. The restaurant was right next to the beach and after we were done eating we all took pictures by the water. As part of Furman laking tradition, we picked Charles up and almost threw him into the ocean, but we decided to spare him from the cold water.

We ended our trip on Waiheke Island with a trip to a local vineyard. At the vineyard we sampled some of the best wines in all of New Zealand. After the vineyard we headed back to the harbor to catch the ferry to go back to Auckland. When we got back to the city we all went in separate groups to get dinner. After dinner we all met in the lobby of our hotel to go out for a night of karaoke. We ended the night singing our lungs out before going to bed and preparing to visit the University of Auckland.