Day Three: Hiking and Rangitoto

So today, we went hiking in a Redwood forest here in Rotorua-in the pouring rain.  But it was all cool because we sang Disney songs (and Queen) the whole time and we didn't care what the South Korean tour group thought.  Until they smiled and clapped.  Then we thought we were pretty cool.  Well, after that, naturally, we had to change, so we all returned to the hotel to do so.  Then we bid Rotorua good-bye and we headed to Auckland to visit Rangitoto College.  That was easily the coolest thing ever-a barbecue and another Haka.  Except this Haka was like thirty times better than the pros because because these dancers were high school students.  But more on that later.  

As you may recall, it was raining.

We're just a bunch of tree huggers.  And singers.  What pros.

 This morning, we went for a hike in the Redwood forest, which reminded me of the Redwoods in San Francisco.  Except it wasn't raining when I went to San Fran.  Rain and all, I had a great time; it was quite the adventure.  We traipsed through the trails singing Disney songs, even in front of the South Korean tour group.  Fletch, Lexa, Reilly, Katie, Shelby, Amanda, Madi, and I all sang A Whole New World (Aladdin), The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Lion King), I'll Make a Man Out of You (Mulan), and a ton of others.  We got lots of smiles. :)
This evening, we went and visited our Kiwi buddies at Rangitoto College in Auckland.  It was really cool to meet all of them and to see how different their school was from ours.  For one thing, it's way bigger, with over twice as many students as at North.  They have about 3500, where we have about 1500.  The Rangitoto students seemed a lot like us with all their extracurriculars and sports. However, they are fiercely proud of their Maori culture and background, so they performed an amazing Haka for us, way better than the pros we saw at the Hangi.  The students seemed way more enthusiastic and you could tell they they loved what they were doing one hundred percent,  whereas the pros seemed pretty indifferent as to what they were doing in comparison.  Then they taught us the Haka, which was SO fun, but really hard; I still don't know the words!  The Maori guys looked really scary while they were doing the Haka, and they got all up in each other's faces, which was something the pro Haka group didn't do.  When we were at the Hangi, I didn't understand why anyone would be afraid of someone doing the Hake, but when the high school boys performed it, I totally understood.  Overall, the two Haka groups were really different.

Me and BETH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Awesome Haka!!  You guys are pros!