Aotearoa - The land of the long white cloud

Aotearoa - is another name for New Zealand or the Maori name for NZ. It's what the first explorers wife said when they first saw NZ, "A long white cloud!"

A quick edit to my last post the native people here are the Maori not the Mauri and the house of food is the wharekai not the whatakai.

We just learned that our program will be changed due to the earthquake in Christchurch. Instead of spending a couple of nights in Craigeburn, which is in the damaged area, we will be going to the Nelson lakes region.  We asked if we could do anything to help in the affected area but they don't want any more people coming in where there is no room to house them, no toilets for them to use, etc. When the earthquake happened we found out around 9 in the morning 5 hours after the quake hit Christchurch. We did not feel the earthquake but unfortunately Christchurch still is. They are having something like 20 aftershocks a day ranging from 3 to 5 magnitude and "experts" are saying that there is another big quake still to come. It is an absolute miracle no one has lost their life however, the people there are living in utter devastation.  It's pretty hard to start rebuilding when every couple of hours more things get knocked down.

In happier news, yesterday we went to the local Marae (Ma-rye) which is a Maori meeting house or a sacred place.  We needed to be welcomed onto the Marae by the local iwi (tribes) the Ngati Paoa and the Ngati Whanarnga because we are pakeha (non-maori) or foreign.  Basically we reenacted what would have happened if another tribe had come to visit the Marae to discuss an issue or declare peace.  When we first entered we had to wait to be called onto the Marae in a gate. When the woman of the highest status at the Marae calls the visitors on the women walk onto the Marae first because we are “the most precious people” to show we are not threatening. Then we sit on opposite sides and the speeches begin. When we first sit the space is occupied by tumatauenga which means tension and is also the name of the god of war. First the Maori rangatira (chief) speaks and then he is supported with a waiata (song). Then our eldest man spoke (Jono one of our professors) and then we supported him with a waiata called E tu Kahikatea.  The song is about the tallest tree in New Zealand which has shallow roots but stands next to other Kahikatea trees for support. So basically we talked about how we should stand strong together and support each other.

After the speeches and all that the tension is broken with hongi. Hongi is a Maori greeting where you shake hands while pressing your forehead and nose together. After that we were invited into the wharekai for tea and then we went back out to the wharenui, which is the main building on the Marae, to learn about the history of the local tribe.  It was a really interesting experience and now we are welcome there anytime and when we visit a different Marae later in the program we go representing this iwi. We didn’t take any pictures but hopefully I will get some soon.

So far this week we have had classes on Maori, ecology, biodiversity, and habitat restoration.  A lot of it is review from previous classes but some of it is specific to New Zealand which I am finding really interesting. Some fun facts about the history of NZ:

New Zealand was the last large landmass to be populated, about 1000 years ago.

It was created by uplift caused by the Australian tectonic plate and pacific tectonic plate twisting over and under each other aka why there was an earthquake.

Some characteristics of species here: flightless, gigantism, nocturnal, lack of bright colors, and naïve.