From Auckland to Rotorua and back to Auckland, this final week in New Zealand has been filled to the brim with new explorations and activities. We have explored NZ history and culture at the Auckland Museum, experienced an incredible evening with the Maori family at Mitai, gone zorbing, bungy jumping, kayaking, felt the heat of the thermal pools and the scent of the mudpools in Rotorua, and enjoyed a glimpse of the agriculture life at the Agrodome.

Today we visited the Auckland Museum which is featuring an exhibit entitled Vakamoana: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Exploration. The exhibit traces a journey that began 4000 years ago and portrays the human settlement of the Pacific Islands including New Zealand. The rest of the museum contains exhibits about the Pacific People (Polynesian, Maori, Pakeha) who settled New Zealand, the natural history of New Zealand, and the emergence of New Zealand as a nation. The Auckland Museum represents the pride of all New Zealanders in their country and their diverse cultures.

From Wellington: Most evenings one of our cooking teams prepares dinner and we eat together and share our day's activities with each other. We generally meet after dinner for class to discuss our responses to our readings and official sessions with guests and tours of local sights. We've had a city tour to learn about the Wellington land and seascape, investigated the magnificent Te Papa, New Zealand's museum. Te Papa is Maori for "our place" and indeed it is a very wide ranging set of exhibits and experiences.

Today we visited the National Library to learn more about NZ children's literature. Lynne Jacket, who has been working with the collections for 30 years, gave us a fascinating history of the collections and then helped us find all the books of authors that we will study in depth for our final project. Lynne's enthusiasm and knowledge of the authors, both biographical and literary output was invaluable. We were able to consult handwritten reviews of all materials added to the collection until 1992 and also tap into the online Oceania reviews called The Source.

In our final meeting prior to departure on January 6th, we decided that we have many questions about our host country and that our notions about New Zealand are formed by films we have seen and other media such as the advertisements for Travel New Zealand. We know that the country is filled with beautiful land, sea, and mountain scapes. We suspect that we won't be disappointed in the exploration of both the North and South Islands. We found that our impressions of the people of New Zealand are positive and we look forward to the friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable people we are likely to meet.