Yes I Am Actually Teaching While I'm Here!

So I know all I’ve really been posting about while I’m down here has been the fun trips we’ve been taking, but I have actually been teaching! As I said in my last blog, I have been teaching a Year 9, a Year 11, and a Year 12 class. These are all with different teachers in different classrooms, so it has been a really exciting way to learn new teaching strategies and skills. Plus, I have the advantage of getting feedback from multiple teachers on how I’m doing rather than just one.

I've already shown a picture of this, but here is the math department's office. It's very convenient!

My Year 9 class is basically the equivalent to an 8^th grade Algebra 1 course for the part I have been teaching. They don’t have standardized tests here like we do back home, so they pretty much teach at the pace they want. They still have standards to meet to prepare them for the future, but it’s not as focused on tests as it is in MN. Also, they don’t just teach Algebra for the whole year, but instead they mix it up. When I started in Petro’s class just observing, they were learning about number operations (adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing) with negative numbers. Then I started teaching right after that on rounding and percentages. The first lesson I taught them was on rounding and significant figures. I found a little rhyme I liked that goes “4 or below, let it go. 5 and above, give it a shove”. Now for those of you who understand math, you should understand the rhyme, and for those of you who don’t, then don’t worry about it. I think they liked it and I quizzed my students on it a couple weeks later and they still remembered it, so that was good! Then I spent a couple days on scientific numbers which are used with really really big numbers or really really small numbers. I looked online and found many distances such as here to the sun, the closest star, from NZ to MN, etc. and then measurements such as the height of a US dollar bill (which I showed them) in kilometers so that the numbers were large and small. They thought that was pretty cool. After these concepts we moved on to percentages. This included just some background information on percentages, percentage increase and decrease, percentage change, percentage of a number, and GST (which is their tax that they put on basically everything here. It’s 15% and is already included, so the price doesn’t jump up when you go to check out). For the most part, my notes consisted of some lecture and then a lot of practice. I like to let my students have the opportunity to try out the concepts on their own after learning about them, so I gave them time to work on some homework and ask questions at the end. I did, however, find a fun song on percentage change that goes to the tune of “You Spin Me Right Round”, so feel free to check it out on YouTube. Once we were all done with notes, I came up with a percentage project for the students to complete in groups. Basically, the students had $1000 to spend, and they had a given list of items with certain conditions to apply (certain percent discounts, adding GST, shipping taxes, different BOGO deals), and then they had to create a poster showing all of their math that they completed. I had walked around Thames the week before to gather a bunch of ads from different shops, so the students found what they wanted in those ads and then cut them out. For the most part, I think the students really enjoyed getting to do something other than maths notes, and it was fun watching them go through the ads and talking about prices and discounts and whether or not they had enough money for everything they wanted. I had the students each choose one major category from the unit (the ideas mentioned above that go along with percentages and rounding) and then they went through their notes and picked out key information and examples to write down on a poster. I then had the students to present their posters to the class to help them review everything from the unit before they went on break. It seemed like this was one of the first presentations they gave, so I think it was good for some of the students to get out of their comfort zone and speak up in front of everyone. This is the class I have for Roopu, so I’m starting to really get to know them and they really do respect me as their teacher. This class is a lot of fun to work with, so I look forward to my last two weeks with them where I’ll be teaching ratios!

This is one of the classrooms I teach in. They basically all look the same.

In my Year 11 class which is basically a 10^th grade Algebra class (hard to tell if Algebra 1 or 2 because it depends on the material and skill level of what they’re learning), I haven’t done as much. The very first day, Richard had me present an example up on the board. At that point, the students had only been working on problems, so I had no idea what they knew, how Richard would normally present a problem to the class, or if I even did it right since it was on bearings and I’ve never learned about those before. Luckily I did okay, but there was also only half the class there since the others were on a trip. Then the next two days, the students were preparing for a test in their workbooks. They had two practice tests to be working on. I took half the students to another room where I oversaw their work and completed problems on the board with them while Richard got the other half of the class who were gone to catch up. It was basically like a little review session that I led, and it was a really nice way to start getting to know some of the students. They were reviewing trigonometry and right-triangles, so it was something I was really comfortable with being in charge of. Then the students began linear equations. In this class, it is really difficult for them to just sit and take notes for a long time, so Richard gives them a lot of work time to practice. A lot of what I have been doing in his class is noting how he teaches and then walking around and helping students during work time. I did come up with my own Gas Mileage problem which was a linear story problem in which they had to come up with an equation, graph it, and then find missing values with their equation. This kind of problem is one they could possible see on their external exams. I led the class in an activity in which they had to work on the problem on their own for 10 minutes, then they got to meet up with their groups to fill in any gaps and answer any questions, and then we went over it as a class. Other than this, it is a lot of work time in the class while Richard and I assist them which is good because they really need the practice of doing it on their own. They are starting something new after break, so Richard said he may have me teach some actual lessons before I leave. Honestly, I’ve been teaching the other two classes I have since like the second or third week, so it has been nice having a class where I’m not planning a lesson every single day. After one of my lesson where I went over some problem at the front of class and then walked around and helped students, Richard said that I was going into the right profession and that I was a natural. It felt really good to hear that!

Petro is great and packs our lunches (we're spoiled, we know) which usually consists of a deli sandwich and some fruit. Lunch is one of our favorite parts of the day! Besides teaching of course because we love that.

Finally, I’ve been teaching Zac’s Year 12 class which is like an 11^th grade Algebra 2 class. I started off working with about five students on excellence questions. These are the hardest kinds of questions students will see on their big external exams, so it is nice that they can practice them. Zac came up with the problems and I worked with the students towards methods of finding the correct solutions and ways to write really neat solutions with all the necessary information for scoring. At the time they were learning about quadratics and applications of quadratics, so during my second week, I taught a lesson on Area-Perimeter problems. I came up with a nice 5-step process in which these problems could be solved and it made it so that the solution would be nicely written in the end. After applications of quadratics were done, I began my unit on indices (or exponents) and logarithms. I taught six lessons on indices which consisted of the basic rules of indices, negative indices, fractional indices, and negative and fractional indices. For this class, I created a PowerPoint presentation for notes which helped guide what I was going to say and already have the examples on the board. I usually presented notes at the beginning of class, gave the class work time, and summed up what we learned at the end. What I’ve been doing with this class is having them guess the activities I’ve been doing by putting some sort of relevant math problem on the board that has an answer of some distance or height of something I had done. Then the students had to guess what I did. For example, one of the problems led to the answer 19.4, so I told them I walked 19.4 km and asked them where I went. Eventually they guessed Tongariro Crossing which was correct. I think it has been a nice opener for me to get to know the students and then they can learn about what I’m doing while here. After indices, I had about 5 lessons on logarithms. My first lesson I did some background information of logarithms which I think they liked because it was a break from doing work. We got to go back and look at how people calculated things way back when without calculators, and I think they actually begin appreciating how logs helped in the past and why they were created which was my point. I’ve taught them the basic definition of logs, the properties of logs, and how to solve index equations using logs. One activity that I thought was pretty neat was having them complete logarithm speed dating. Basically they were in two lines facing each other. They each had a logarithm to be solved in their hand. They would have to solve their partner’s problem quickly (I gave about 30 seconds) and then I would say next and the students would shift down one and go again. I thought it was a pretty fun activity, but it got kind of chaotic after a few switches. I’ve taught them for a few weeks now, and Zac said the students are really responding to me now as their teacher which is great. I’m having a lot of fun with this class. I feel like I’ve been able to try so many things with them which is nice. Zac has some really helpful feedback as well, so it’s been nice working with him.

Here's a cool mural that's in our building on the way up to class.

One thing I thought was pretty cool was that Shaina and I set up Pi Month (March of 2014, 3/14) at the school. We assigned all the Juniors a digit of the number pi (we had to look them up of course) and then gave designated lists to the roopu teachers. All the students were supposed to decorate their assigned number, and then Shaina and I went into school early one day to hang them all up in order. Unfortunately some of the teachers didn’t actually have their class complete the numbers, so we had to make some filler numbers so that the kids who did make a number still got to see theirs on the wall. We hung them all down the maths hallway. It ended up looking pretty neat and it added some color! It was really neat because the students were excited to see their numbers posted. Since Thames had never heard of pi day (just March 14^th) before, Shaina and I decided that’s how we’d leave our legacy at the school! They already told us they’ll be celebrating pi day next year, too!

Here are all of our numbers! We ended up with about 150 digits total!

See, there is no way I could be making all that up. So although it may seem like all I’m doing is going on adventures and having fun, I am teaching as well (which is also a lot of fun). It’s been a great experience so far teaching at this school. The students are great, the other teachers are great, the weather is great, and everything has been going really smoothly. I look forward to my last two weeks after this break before going home! 

A Little Background of the School

Alright, so most of my posts have been about all of my travels, but I promise, I HAVE been working at Thames High School. It turns out that some of my information that I had mentioned in one of my first posts about the school was wrong, so I'm just going to clarify on some things now that I know more about it.

Here's the school I am at!!

First I’m going to talk about the scheduling, which I know I already talked about a little bit before. Basically, the school has six-day weeks in which each day is a different schedule. There are two periods, then a twenty minute interval for morning tea, two more class periods, lunch, roopu/whanau, and then the last period. Depending on what day it is, I have a different schedule, so some days I have only two open periods and others I have three (since student teachers take on three classes).  It’s pretty interesting because the teachers here do not necessarily have to teach only one subject. For example, I could teach the math classes that I’m doing now, and I could also be teaching an English class if I wanted. They don’t get a degree in teaching a certain subject, however they get a teaching degree and then take certain additional content courses at University. These courses they take are generally what they teach, but they just don’t get certified in one subject like we do. It’s pretty interesting, but I’m sure it is nice for those teachers to have a variety. This isn’t necessarily a New Zealand thing because I heard one of the teachers saying that a lot of schools rotate on a 10-day schedule instead of 6. Regardless of how many days there are, I think having a change in the way the schedule is each day is a neat idea. Then you don’t get stuck with the same class first period every day, or the same class last period every Friday. It gives students a relief from having to have the same monotonous schedule all the time as well.

Here is the staff's "Pigeon Holes" or basically just their mailboxes. The copy room is that open door to the left of them. These are inside their administrative building. If you walk right, you would hit the front offices and if you go left you would walk into the staff room.

This is as you leave the staff room. You have to go outside to get from building to building. The building straight in front of the picture is the library, and if you go to the left of that you will hit A Block, which is where the math and science rooms are. They do provide roofs for students to walk under in the rain, but students eat outside as well so they just need to find somewhere to huddle under and eat when it rains.

I teach a Year 9 class (which is like an 8^th grade class) which is Petro’s class, Year 11 (grade 10) which is with Richard Janutka from Canada, and a Year 12 (grade 11) which is Zac’s class. After lunch, the students all go to their roopu or whanau class. Roopu, meaning “group” in Maori, is for juniors (Year 9 and 10) and Whanau, meaning “family”, is for Seniors (Year 11 – 13). Roopu classes stick together for all of their classes for the most part, and they will be in the same class again for Year 10. If you can remember one of my first posts was “Roopu Day Out”, this was a bonding exercise for the Year 9 class because they will be together for two years. I ended up really enjoying working with these students, so that’s how I wound up teaching Petro’s Year 9 class. I have them for maths class (yes that ‘s’ is supposed to be there because that’s how they say it here) and also after lunch for roopu with Charles Carruthers (who is a history teacher here). During their roopu time, the students get a chance to work on homework, set school goals, silent read, or any other activities that the roopu teacher assigns. Some roopu classes have feeds in which everyone either pays money to get food or each student brings something to share. It works our pretty great! Then in Year 11, you join a new Whanau class for the remainder of your school years, and they tend to put immediate family in the same whanau. Therefore all the years are mixed in these classes. 

This is Petro's room here that I teach in. That door in the back leads to Karien's room, and then there is another door connecting to Zac's room where I teach as well. There is also a door on the opposite wall of this door here that leads to the maths office. It is really convenient being so close in case you forget to grab something.

Here's our office, and you can see where it connects into Petro's room. There are two other classrooms where Richard teaches (also one of my rooms) and Doug (who is filling in for Linnea who I was supposed to work with). Those rooms aren't connected with the office but are connected to each other with doors.

Here is me hard at work in my little station.

On Wednesday’s the school has assemblies instead of roopu/whanau. The students are all placed into four houses, named after four past principals, based upon which house their families were in. The students can earn house points (just like in Harry Potter!) based upon their actions and behavior in school as well as athletics. The school uses Loyalty Cards as a motivator because these cards can be turned in once they have a certain amount of signatures on it. These signatures are provided to students based upon behavior in class. The school uses the philosophy of Positive Behavior for Learning (PB4L) in which Respect for Others, Self, Learning, and Environment are focused on. Each week one of the four categories is stressed, and students work towards meeting these actions to get their cards signed. At school assemblies, the students all sit in their houses and then loyalty cards that were turned in are put into a drawing for a chocolate bar. Students who had more than 15 cards turned in got tickets to an amusement park!

This is their assembly hall. As I said, they are all sitting according to their houses and there are four houses total.

It turns out that students come from all over the Coromandel Peninsula to come to Thames since it is one of the bigger high schools and provides more opportunities. If you remember from my trip around the Coromandel, we went up to Coromandel town and also Tairua, these places were over an hour away and some students take busses all the way to Thames. One of my best students is one who travels a long distance to get to school each day! At least it’s a pretty drive. They also do some distance learning here, so one of the teacher basically skypes all the students and they try and do some learning over the internet. It’s not as common, but if they don’t have enough students at school to take the class, they will open it up to other schools. 

Here is the entry to the library. They have to leave their backpacks outside of it which works pretty nice because then students can't take anything from their without permission.

The students’ uniform consists of a navy blue polo with their logo on it, either a blue skirt or blue knee-length shorts, and black shoes. They have sandals that they need to wear or they can also where black, close-toed shoes. The students really hate wearing their sandals (nobody in NZ seems to like wearing shoes) so if they are wearing them improperly (standing on straps or something) or not wearing them at all and are caught by a teacher, they get put on trash duty and need to put on a reflector vest and pick up garbage around the school during lunch or interval. The students are also allowed to wear either a Thames jacket, sweater, or fleece if they have one. I’ve seen students wear a variety of things. Apparently they can wear pants if they want to, but it is really “uncool” and I have never seen a single student wear pants yet. The Year 13s get to wear white polos and can wear any kind of black sandal or nice shoe, so you can tell who the older students are. As far as the teacher’s dress code, we can pretty much wear what we want. I stick to my black pants and a v-neck shirt since I didn’t pack much, but for the most part teachers dress pretty casually. Many people like to wear long flowy shirts or dresses, so that’s common amongst women. The men usually wear khaki shorts and a button up or something. The only teacher who wears black pants and a tie every day is one of the maths teachers who is only 23, so he thinks it makes him look older and more professional. 

This building is the staff room from the outside now. If you were to go into the building to the left, that is C Block where there are social studies classes. This is where my roopu class is since the teacher I work with is history. You can see some of the regular blue uniforms and also the white polos for the Year 13s.

Finally, this school has a liquor license…a liquor license!! I don’t know if it’s that big of a deal to anybody else, but I just thought this was crazy. Basically, they have a locked refrigerator with beer in it and on Friday they open up the bar. I haven’t been at the school any Friday yet since we’ve been traveling right after school, but apparently that’s what they do. I’m not sure if they make teachers pay for the beer, but I just know that they just sit in the lounge after school on Friday and drink it. I find it hard to believe that any school district in MN would allow a liquor license.

Here is the staff kitchen. There is complimentary hot tea and coffee every day which is super convenient with plenty of coffee cups and dishes to be used to eat. There is an oven and a panini press as well!

This is where we all sit during our staff meetings, lunch, and morning interval. It is a pretty big room and it's really fun sitting in there with everyone and talking to them.

This is the story of our lives. Petro spoils us and makes our lunch which consists of just a deli sandwich and some fruit. I don't know what it is about her sandwiches, but they are always delicious! Whenever we try and make one they just never turn out the same. You can definitely say we look forward to lunch every single day.

I plan on adding more information about how their testing system works here, but I figured I’d keep the posts separated, so be watching for that! So far, this school has been great. All of the teachers are super helpful and friendly, and they are all so interested in what we are doing while here. It’s been a really fun experience at this school, so I’m looking forward to another two weeks after this holiday is over!

Rotorua

So this weekend was one of the best so far! It was the first "big" trip that Courtney, Shaina, and I got to go on together. We went down to Rotorua, which is probably one of the most touristy, but awesome, places in the North Island!

The drive was about 2 hours long, so not too bad. I navigated the map on the way there and did a pretty good job! We didn't get lost at all!

Petro took our picture before heading out. We were supposed to take the school car, but someone else had it and we didn't want to wait, so Petro let us take their car.

After school on Friday, we went home quick to grab our stuff and were on our way! Shaina decided to drive to Rotorua (her first major time driving on the other side of the road) while I navigated. We had made CDs to listen to since the radio can be spotty there. Unfortunately they didn't work in the car, so we propped up my laptop and listened to them through that. We're hoping we can figure out the music situation before this Saturday when we leave for our two-week roadtrip! The drive probably took around two hours. We didn't make any stops because we wanted to get their before it got to late. Once we got their, we did have a little bit of issues finding our place (which you would think wasn't too hard since it is the only backpackers lodge with a rock wall), but it was dark and we had to drive around a few times. Luckily us three used our brains and were using the numbers on the street sign to help us find it, which we eventually did!

This was where we stayed. It was pretty cool because it had a rock wall inside of it (which we never had time to do) along with a bunch of other cool things. It was located right in the middle of all the shops, which was super convenient!

Our 3-person room! It was perfect for us three to spend two nights in.

We were all obsessed with this place when we entered it. It was our first time staying in a backpackers lodge, so we weren't sure what to expect about how nice or clean it would be, but this place was great! There was a kitchen with dishes and pots we could use, a clean (ish expcept for the spiders) bathroom on our floor, and a nice lounge on the second floor where we could get unlimited free WiFi. Our room basically consisted of what it shows in the picture: 3 beds. But they did provide us with sheets and one of those micro-plush blankets which was great! We're hoping some of the other backpacker hostiles we stay out are just as awesome!

Here's the main lobby where you could check in or hang out. You can see the rock wall in the background. The people at the front desk were super helpful in telling us the good places to go and how to get there.

We got to Rotorua about 6, so after we got everything situated in our room, we decided to go out to eat at a place called the Fat Dog. It was recommended by one of the teachers at Thames High, so we decided to check it out. The environment was pretty cool, and you got a TON of food. I got a chicken burger that was DELICIOUS along with some fries (or chips as they put it). It was a very satisfying meal, but we're all still getting used to the expensive prices of eating out. We don't plan on doing too much of it down in the south island since we're all basically digging for money wherever we can find it at the moment for this wonderful, wonderful trip.

My delicious meal for the night. We had to walk to and from the restaurant to our hostile, so that burned it off...I'm sure...

Once we were done eating, we got a bottle of wine and went back to our hostile to drink it. We were just chilling in the kitchen playing some games, and then some people at the table next to us invited us to play a game with them. The game was called Cheers to the Governor which was basically a memory game, and it was pretty hard. Basically, you sit in a circle and take turns numbering to 21, If you get to 21, you say 'Cheers Governor', and the person who was last gets to make a rule. The rule is generally something you do instead of saying that number. For example, I made the rule that instead of saying the number 11 when it was your turn, you had to stand up instead. If someone messes up, then you start back at 1. It gets really hard when almost all of the numbers have a rule that you have to remember, but it was really fun! There were three guys we met, all from Seattle, Washington, who were there just traveling together. They had previously been in Southern Asia for about a month and are spending about 5 weeks in New Zealand. After our game was finished, we headed to one of the bars called the Lava Bar. It was a pretty fun environment. It wasn't too crowded since I don't really think it is prime travelling time at the moment.

Here are two of them. John is the normal one on the left, and Mitchell decided to look like a weirdo. The other one who took the picture was named Nathan. All of them are friends from back home.

Friday night was fun, but Saturday was when all the awesome adventures began. We woke up early on Saturday because we had a lot planned. The first thing we did was go to Starbucks (which was the first one we had seen in NZ yet) where Shaina and Courtney got drinks. I was trying to save my money (and secretly wishing there was a Caribou, instead - which Shaina and Courtney have sadly never heard about). Then we headed to the Rotorua Farmers Market. It really wasn't that big, and honestly, it was just like every farmers market I've been to. It was enjoyable to walk through, but we didn't get anything. After the market we went back into the center of town where the shops are. There are these pants that everyone in NZ seems to hand. They are kind of baggy at the top and then get tighter at the bottom. Shaina and Courtney REALLY (like really) wanted a pair, so there were some shops they wanted to check out. They have seen them in the past, but they are always really expensive. They finally found some that were on sale and both bought a pair.

They are essentially like this. There are a lot of variations (and some are way more baggy down to the ankles) but they both bought ones kind of like these. I had found some super cheap ones that just go past my knees earlier which I bought. They are extremely comfortable.

After shopping, it was finally time to Zorb!! If you watch the Bachelor, then you saw them do this in NZ on the show. I don't watch it but Shaina thinks we went to the same place that they did. Basically, for those of you who don't watch the show or have never heard of it (which I hadn't), you go into this big blown up ball and roll down a hill. Now, that may not sound that exciting, but all three of us got to go in one with water in it and we could not stop laughing the whole way down!

Here are one of the zorbs. You had two options: the first was to get strapped in and then you are literally going around in circles, which I would hate, and there is no water. The second is that you are just chillin in the innter bubble with some water, and then when you go down the hill you just keep sliding along down with the zorb as water sloshes around you. 

We chose to go all three of us together, so we had to do the one with water, which was just fine with us! There were also three different tracks, one that went straight down (which is the one we had to do) and a couple others with some turns. To get into the zorb, you have to take a running dive into a hole. For the most part I was successfully, but being so tall I had to pull myself in a little bit to get my legs through. It was cloudy, so we were all cold before getting in, but luckily the water inside was pretty warm. All of a sudden, we were just rolling down a hill. It was so fun being in there with the other two. We kept bonking into each other and just going all over the place. It was way more fun than I thought.

We were absolutely soaking afterwards and freezing, so we ran to snap this shot quick and then went to go get our dry clothes to change into.

Classic tourist photo with the zorb sign.

So here's where the zorbing gets even greater. If you have a usb device, they take pictures so you can buy them for $15. I just so happened to have my flashdrive, so I asked Shaina and Courtney if they would pay $5 each for them since they are pictures of something we would probably never do again and we couldn't take pictures of ourselves on our own cameras. We decided to do that, but once we got to the picture stand, the worker couldn't find our photos anywhere. She thinks they accidentally got deleted. So what did we get to do? Go zorb again for free!! We had already changed into our dry clothes, so we ran back to get our sopping wet and cold swimsuits and clothes to put them back on...cold but totally worth it. Then we were on our way back up to zorb again. The second time was just as fun as the first! Plus I was more successful at getting into the zorb the second time. You just feel like a hamster rolling in its ball, and it is really fun just laughing and bouncing off of each other inside...plus it was free which made it way better!

This is actually us rolling down the hill this time.

Here we are inside of the zorb. The picture is a little foggy because of the moisture and steam. We're sitting inside an inner bubble, and then we are surrounded by a larger bubble connected with bungy-looking cords for cushion.

To get out, you have to slide out with your feet first. It's not hard really, but you get a ton of water coming out after you. The ball almost rolled over me on my second time getting out! 

Here you can see the size of the zorb compared to us. They make you take a thumbs up picture. You can see how soaked you get with the water. When you're rolling down the hill, it really does just keep rolling up the ball and splashing in your face. Plus, you are basically laying down and rolling with the ball down the hill, so it gets all over you then too. Very fun to do it with water!

They also make you take a picture like this, so no judging. Although, it did turn out pretty cool. 

Obviously, we got the pictures this time. We ran to go get out of our we clothes...again...and picked up our pictures. It was pretty great, and super awesome that we got to go for free a second time! We definitely weren't mad that they lost our pictures the first time!

After zorbing, we headed back for lunch. We wanted to find a somewhat cheap place to go, so we went to a burger place called Burgerfuel. We all got the regular cheeseburger and fries, but I got kumara fries (made from kumara potatoes obviously) that they have here. It tastes kind of like sweet potatoes, so it was pretty good! The price was pretty decent, and it was enough food to last until dinner!

This isn't what we got, but they did have some pretty cool and tasty looking items here!

After lunch, we headed to the next event for the day, luging! There are three different tracks you can take at this luge site, and it was only like $7 more to go down two more times, so we decided to buy the deal where you could go three times. The first thing we had to do was ride up the gondola. I thought it was pretty cool, but it was similar to the skyride at the State Fair. Being able to look at the city of Rotorua was pretty cool though while going up.

You can see parts of the city in the background. It is a pretty big place, and all of the activities are on the outside of all the shops and houses.

Once we got to the top, there was a cool little gift shop (typical) and a really nice restaurant. There was even a dress code at the restaurant, and they had a note saying they could refuse service if you didn't meet the standards. We figured this place was probably just a tad over our budget, so that's why we ate before. Then once we went and picked out our helmets and headed up to the line for our first ride down! The luges are pretty simple to navigate. You just pull back on the handles to stop and just basically pull them back a little to get them going so that there isn't anything interfering with the wheels. Then you just steer them like a bike! It is really surprising how fast you can go on one of those things. For first-timers, they suggest the scenic route first. There aren't as steep of hills and it is a little longer. It was really pretty going down, and there were a couple places you could pull off too (including what looked like a tent for a party or something).

I stopped to take a picture with some random dinosaurs they had on the track. It is really hard to hold the handle bars up to stop with just one hand, so pictures were difficult. Plus, you never know when the next person is going to come zooming up behind you around a corner if you're stopped. 

To get back up to the top, rather than taking the gondola, you take a chair lift back up. It's pretty nifty because you get on it just like you would when you go skiing, and then they set up the luges so that as the chair swings around it latches onto the handle bars and then pulls the luges up with you underneath the chair.

Here is Courtney and I on our first ride up. They only fit two people per chair, so we all took turns riding by ourselves. Once you get back to the top, you just get back in line and go again. They punch your ticket so they know how many times you've gone.

This is what the beginning looks like. You just wait in line and then when it's your turn you grab a luge and choose a track. The beginner (or scenic) line is the one that goes over the bridge, so you have to do the scenic one, but there is another line to the left of the picture where you can choose to go on either the intermediate or advanced track.

Here we are before our first time going down. The helmets add a great touch to the picture.

These two pictures above are on the different tracks. It was really hard to take pictures while you were moving, but we did our best! It was a lot of fun, and these other tracks had steeper hills to help you go faster and then some fun turns to go around. It felt like a mini race car. 

Here is Shaina and I on the lift. In order to get back down to the carpark, you have to ride the lift back up and take the gondola back down.

It just so happened that there was a Jelly Belly store up at the top that we went through. The jelly bellies that they sold were WAY too expensive for what you got (not that we were surprised) so we didn't buy anything. However, there DID have a huge Harry Potter portrait made from over 14,000 Jelly Bellies! There was a little sign that it said it took 50+ hours to complete. I need this job in my life. They had other pictures too like Starry Night, but obviously this was the picture I wanted.

Jelly Belly Harry Potter!

After luging, we were pretty tired, so we went back to our hostile and looked around at some of the souvenir shops in town and then went back to shower and get clean. Originally we were going to cook pasta for dinner at our hostile, but we didn't feel like going to get ingredients so instead we decided to go walk throughout the town to check out the restaurants. We ended up finding a pretty decently priced Tunisian restaurant. I have never had or ever considered having Tunisian food, but it was FABULOUS! I love spicy food, so it was perfect. I got a noodle dish with curry and a sweet sauce on top. It was great and way cheaper than a lot of other places we had seen. After dinner we walked back and rented a movie to finish the day. We were all pretty tired and had plans to get up bright and early in the morning again so we didn't want to be up too late.

On Sunday morning we woke up bright and early and got ready to leave. We had heard that there were some good hot springs in Rotorua, so we really wanted to check one out. We had asked three different people their suggestions and they all said the same place. It was about a half hour drive from Rotorua, but totally worth it! The place we went was called Hot and Cold because there are two streams (one really hot one and one really cold one...go figure) that meet in this open area. The water kind of mixes together in some spots, so if you can choose if you want to be in cooler water or warmer water. It was crazy how cold the water was in some parts by the cold stream, and then you can just move thirty feet over to the hot stream and you are in super hot water. It was like the perfect bath. The great thing about this place was that it was completely free! Many people (mom and dad I'm talking to you) had paid to go sit in one of these, but ours was nice and free! They say that there are usually other people there, but we weren't really there during prime tourist times, plus we were there pretty early, so we had the whole pool to ourselves! We were a little skeptical to get in at first because we didn't know how deep it was or what it would feel like at the bottom.

Here we are before getting in. Shaina put her foot in to see how warm it was but wouldn't step in first. You can see the cold stream behind us where those bubbles are. That is where that stream came in from, and the hot stream is in the direction we are facing in the picture. So it makes for a nice, mixed pool.

We weren't even sure if we were in the right place (although there were steps going down to the water and signs that said no putting your head in because you could get fatal amoeba in your nasal passages...yikes!) so I figured it was legit. Eventually, since I had the longest legs, I decided to stick my leg down to see how deep it was. It only ended up being to a little over my knee, so we were worried for nothing. For the most part the bottom was sandy, and there were rocks throughout the pool. We kind of just sat in it at first, but we weren't sure if that's what we were supposed to do. Only us three would sit in a hot pool and assume we were doing it wrong. 

Here is the main pool. Straight ahead is the stream where the hot water came from. You can kind of see some steam. We never when all the way into that because it would have been way too hot for people. Behind me in this picture is where the cold stream was flowing in.

Once we got a little more comfortable wit the fact nothing was going to eat us (since NZ has like no scary creatures...and definitely no snakes which was reassuring in that murky water), we decided to venture around to explore the different hot and cold areas. For the most part we were squatting in the water or crawling on our hands. The water was never deeper than up to my thighs. We headed to the hot spring first since we had been cold before getting in. As we got closer, obviously the water got hotter and hotter. It felt great. Plus, it was a stream, so the water was flowing towards us. It was basically a constant warm bathtub with a comforting feeling of water flowing into you. It was great. We got hot pretty fast and then ventured over to the cold side. The water was freezing! Kind of like the water during early June or late May on the lakes in MN. I didn't like that too much, so I mostly stayed by the warm water. It was really nice because there were many areas where you would feel warm water flowing at you, and then you would feel a little cool water just to the left, so you could really adjust your temperature pretty easily. We all found our perfect spot where the temperature was just right, and then we could walk around and adjust as necessary. We were probably there for about two hours in total. It's so easy to stay in the water when you aren't super hot or super cold. It was pretty cool. I was kind of glad nobody was there, but I could see it being a fun place to go hang out with a ton of people. We even saw some burnt out candles along the rocks which we thought was pretty cute. We were all definitely glad that we had decided to make time to drive down and do that because it was very relaxing! And after the amount of money we had spent this weekend, we were thankful for something so enjoyable that was free!

The final adventure on our list for the weekend was Paradise Valley Wildlife Park. Like the number one thing on Shaina's bucket list was to pet a lion, and this place had lion cubs that you could go and pet! So this is exactly what we did.

This cubs name is Xavier. There were two total. His brother was named Xander. 

Xavier and Xander were a little over 6 months old, so they had to be in cages. If we would have been there like a month earlier, we would have been able to actually play with them, but they said they were too big now and could cause some damage. They were pretty mellow though, but the trainer said if someone who wasn't familiar with them went into the cage, they would definitely just pounce all over them (kind of like students and substitute teachers I suppose). She said they are just like typical cats. They sleep about 20 hours a day, but they don't purr. However, they do snore quite a bit when they sleep! The trainer said the only big cat that purrs is a cheetah.

This is Xavier again. Xander wasn't really in good picture taking places. I love this picture. He looks so happy.

We got to pat the lion cubs!! They have them out for about three hours a day with a break in between. you are allowed to pat their backs or paws (if they aren't by their chompers) but not their heads. They don't like their back paws to be pet either. I'm not really sure why.

The lions aren't the only animals at the wildlife park. We also got to see some deer, goats, alpacas, some fish, and some cool birds. We were able to feed most of the animals at the park too. Some of the goats were a lot more greedy than others!

This deer was crazy as you can tell with the crazy eyes he's got going on. Right as we walked up he ran over and stuck is head under the bar to be fed.

Here is just a nice picture of us three on a bench in the park.

It was really cool because it seemed like most of the park was a natural habitat that the park just built a path through. The only animals really caged in were obviously the larger ones, but none of the scenery was set up to look a certain way. You were just walking through native trees. There was a stream that ran through the entire park that is a fresh water spring. You can walk up to the top of it and fill up a water bottle, and the park as their own bottling factory set up that you can watch. The water is pretty refreshing. It is also one of the biggest streams in the North Island where a majority of rainbow trout are found. It was cool watching them facing upstream while waiting for food to go in their mouths. We were able to feed these fish and the ducks.  

I took a selfie with some wallabies. Unfortunately, they all seemed super depressed. We tried feeding them, but they just wouldn't move. There were probably like eight total, and all of them were just sitting with their heads down. I know nothing about wallabies, so maybe this is just normal.

This alpaca was one of my favorites. He was super cute and super soft. I liked him.

The final thing after this little petting zoo (there were goats too, but I didn't feel the need to post pictures of those since I'm sure you all know what a goat looks like) was to go and see the lion cage! There were two males and about six or seven females in one (kind of tiny) fenced in area. I was talking to the trainer about it because I thought lions were really territorial, and she said usually they are but these ones are okay being together. She said the older male is pretty mellow which helps the situation a lot. Both cubs are males, so they will eventually be moved here as well. Four male lions in one area...she said they have already started introducing the cubs to the males to try and get them to cooperate, and she said she is lucky to have the mellow male lion. Normally, the male cubs are kicked out at around the age of two to prevent them from mating with that males females, but in this case she said the lions kind of know that they have to share their space. I find it fascinating learning about the natural instincts of lions (and other animals) about how it all works in the wild. For example the fact that they kick out the males at a certain age who then have to go and hopefully start their own pride, how is this communicated? It's just instinctual to them to do it. It's weird. And then the fact that they can understand that they have to share that area and don't get upset about their own territory. All the lions currently at the park have been born there in the park. Although I'm not a crazy animal activist, I do find it a little sad seeing their small cage with so many lions in it.

Here is one of the males just chillin. I find lions so beautiful and majestic.

Here are some of the other females just chillin as well. That's all it seems like lions do...just chill. Sounds like a great life. I do have a couple pictures of some of the lions playing with some tires, though. 

After seeing the big lions, they had another cub-patting session, so we went back one more time to see them. They were a little more awake this time, but there were more people, so we didn't get to stay there as long. The trainer did say that the cubs are there during the day but then go back to their mom over night.

They are just little balls of fur. So cute!

We had found some silver ferns at the park, and I had just been explaining to Courtney what they were, so we had to take a picture. They are basically just green ferns, with silver (or white/really really light green) underneath. They aren't like a national symbol or anything, but you can see the silver fern on many uniforms of sports teams and also on many articles of clothing. I bought a hat that has a ton of them all over it. 

After the park, it was finally time to head home. None of us wanted to leave since it had been such a wonderful weekend! It was my turn to drive, so I drove us back to Thames. When Courtney and I went kayaking last week and then when we headed to and from Rotorua this past weekend, we drove through a town called Paeroa. New Zealand has this brand called L&P which is essentially a lemon fizzy drink and they also make white chocolate with lemon pop rockish things in it. Apparently it was founded in this city, and the other times we had driven through we saw L&P banners hanging along the streets. We had heard there was a huge L&P bottle in the town, and we stopped to take a picture once we found it! 

If only it actually contained some of the drink inside!

Then we just continued on back home. It was such a fun-filled weekend with so many new experiences. It was so different from my other weekends in the past (more touristy things and not really any physical activity). It was supposed to rain, but it actually was a beautiful weekend for us. I can't wait for our adventures to come! We head out on our two-week holiday this Saturday, so we are all really looking forward to that!

I swear I am teaching while I'm here. I plan on writing a post about how my classes have been going and everything. Today I plan on taking pictures of the school, and tomorrow I'll get one of the math staff.  Speaking of L&P, I had been talking with two students about how I love chocolate so they were telling me to try L&P. Then the next week in class, they brought me a bottle of L&P and a small L&P chocolate bar. They were right, it was really good! It was so nice of them. But teaching is going great, and I will be posting about it soon!