Underwater, overwater, home

Hello Hongi blog followers,

Three months of planes, cars, buses, farms, villages, hostels, pastoral settings, bustling cities, inside jokes, and constant wearing of flannel have come to an end. Team Hongi is home. The last week of our odyssey found us in Port Douglas, a rather quaint vacation spot about 60 kilometers from Cairns, the coastal access point for the Great Barrier Reef. Our dive hub. After lugging around dive texts and spending an impressive number of hours submerged in a swimming pool, everyone made it out to the reef and completed their open water certification.

Prior to leaving for Port Douglas, the group shared a tearful 4am goodbye with Catherine, who left a few days early to attend orientation at USC (Good Luck Catherine!). What started as a group of 11 was, in the end, whittled down to a mere seven. We could all even fit into a single taxi! We returned to Cairns on the 6th and consumed a brain jarring quantity of energy drinks, to help aid in the effort of staying up all night to catch the airport taxi at 4am. Our last hours together officially as a group were spent sharing our admiration and respect for one another, as well as remembering aloud all of the funny and memorable moments from the past three months. At 4 the group said goodbye to Stefan and took off for a marathon travel journey back to LAX, and then on to their respective home states and cities and, finally, families and friends (ie you folks, the readers).

It was a glorious time, team ramrod, and i will miss you all. Best of luck in the future.

Stefan.

Good Bye Fanz

What a trip! A few shout outs too our whole group for either getting Certified to open water dive *Becca C. Becca O. Sarah, Jordin, Shelby, Coco, Maxx* and to Andy for getting his Advance, Suz for continuing her diving! And Matt getting to snorkel the reef!

As our trip comes to a close we all wanted to think back about some of our favorite parts of our 3 month long adventure

Sarah: Marama organics with Graham and Giselle. Our stay there was fun filled, educational and purposeful

CoCo: I loved our neon CVA vests and the OPC wetsuits, also the time we spent in them, even if some of it was type three fun!

Jordin: I loved all the people we met on this trip. We got really lucky with all of them. Without them my trip would not be what it was. Thank you Kali, Graham, Juliane, Giselle, Steve, Ethan, Patrick, and everyone else who made our trip what it was.

Becca C: ill never forget dance parties and kava ceremonies in Nananu. I will always remember my Fijian family and friends and hope to return some day. ROLLER BLADING AND POWER WALKING FOR LIFE!

Becca O: POWER WALKING AND ROLLER BLADING 4 LYFE DOG!

Matt: I will never forget fulfilling my goal of this trip of seeing and touching Koala’s. Also making some money playing my guitar on the streets of Cairns.

Shelby: ill never forget our adventures in Nananu and playing volleyball with all those strong Fijian men. Kava dance parties. New Zealand home stays. The OPC zip lining and caving and abseiling. I had a blast shearing sheep and painting the woolshed with Graham and Giselle. And I’m totally stoked on being SCUBA certified! The people we’ve met are unforgettable. Kali, Graham, Julian, Steve, Ethan; all of them have made this trip a bit more memorable.

Andy: fresh coconut milk from Fijian palms. Mangoes, guavas, waterfalls and crystalline springs. So many beautiful botanical gardens! Outback sunsets, early morning yoga. Sheep herding, cave exploring and breathing underwater. Chess playin, Frisbee throwin, balderdash and bufords of fun!

Suzanne: oh what a trip. So many memories. Dancing our buts off with all the Nananu folk, cooking and eating yummy meals at Graham’s. Exploring the caves at the OPC and laughing hysterically when reflecting on our sleepless camping adventure. Milford sound, yoga, wombats( need I say more) WOMBAT WARRIORS! Along with wombat jobby of course. Sleeping under the stars, grooving the grape with steve and diving WOW! I will forever remember each one of you and our crazy adventures. XoXo

Maxx: What a trip. When I think of my favorite moments on this trip I think of OPC adventures doing things I never would have thought I could do (climbing threw sewers, jumping high ropes, and adventuring in caves!) I will never forget any of the amazing people that I have met throughout this trip and the things I have learnt I will take with me for the rest of my life. Thank you all so much.

Thanks to everyone who made this trip possible

and helped us along the way

Groovy Grape and Beyond!

Hello again family and friends!

We have just arrived in Cairns, Australia. Which means a few things; we have safely made it out of the Outback and from the treacherous beach community of Noosa! During our Outback adventure with the Groovy Grape, we spent seven days and six nights traveling to many of the well known destinations such as Uluru, Coober Pedy, Kings Canyon, The Garden of Eden, and several other beautiful sights. During our stop at Uluru our group did the walk around the base, and as a group decided to respect the Aboriginal peoples culture and not do the walk up the side. During our stay in Coober Pedy we had a tour of an old opal mine and enjoyed a nights stay inside underground caves! Within the city almost the entire population lives underground in cave homes. The reason for this is that they stay at a constant 25 degrees Celsius year round while the land above them is extremely hot. On our last day with Groovy Grape tours, we did a canyon hike through Kings Canyon to the Garden of Eden. It was remarkable having hiked through such hot dry land and stumbling onto a small valley of green plans and pools of water. As a group we stopped here and took a dip. After Groovy Grape we jumped on our last flight together as a full group to Brisbane. After a two hour bus ride we reached our beach destination of Noosa and began our three day stay in a very relaxing community. Some of the activities we got involved in during our stay consists of Becca O. teaching Sarah and Matt how to surf and me*Maxx* watching and passing on helpful words. Matt got up on some waves on his first day surfing! Other members of our group had fun lounging on the beach and doing morning yoga. After Noosa we embarked on our 35 hour train trip from Noosa to Cairns. Even though our trip is coming to an end, we are all looking forward to a week of scuba diving classes, diving on the Great Barrier Reef, and many more great adventures to come!

~Maxx F.

Back from the Bush

We our back from the Bush!
Hello family and friends its your friendly Bilbo bloggins here again to tell you about our adventures in wombat land!
Our merry group got to spend five fun filled, and at times quite goofy, days at the Brookfield Conservation Park. We joined a group called the CVA or Conservation Volunteers of Australia who took us out to lovely Brookfield to help find and record wombat warrens.
A warren is basically a giant mole hill dug out by wombats. For those of you who do not know what a wombat is, it is basically a giant hamster that lives in the brush of Australia.
Our days at Brookfiled consisted of the group splitting up during the day and tramping through the bush for several kilometers looking for the warrens in the ground. As i am sure you can imagine this activity would get very boring very fast so we came up with all kinds of games and dances to do to keep us having fun.
Suzanne made up a entertaining wombat dance for us all to do and a beautiful goat dance as well.
Becca.O came up with a great idea to help us when we got a bit frustrated. She had us come up with what our own ideal personal raincoat would be so that when we got frustrated all we had to do was "put on"our raincoats and have the frustrations just slide off us. This came in handy when the GPS systems were not working as well as it could have been and as a result we all got a little lost in the bush. Along with our new "raincoats" Sarah was there to help us all keep our heads.
Becca.C helped us pass the time by singing songs by Death Cab for Cutie.
In the late afternoon the group met back up at base camp. We all took turns every night making dinner for the whole group. Coco and Becca made us all a delicious spaghetti one of the nights followed by some fun rounds of balderdash thanks to Maxx.
Matt kept us entertained at night strumming on his guitar. Shelby made sure none of us died in the night by being our constant spider lookout. This was put to the test when she found a rather large red back spider in the bathroom, which we later discovered is quite poisonious and can make you very sick.
Andy helped us relax and laugh after a particularly stressful day of warren hunting by attempting to learn to Irish Step Dance taught to him by me (Jordin). On our last day with CVA we all got up extra early, part from CoCo and Andy who had to go into town early to make sure CoCo's ear was not infected (Don't worry all! her ear is just fine and will be able to join us all in scuba diving later in the trip), and the rest of us were in for a treat as we headed off to visit some wombats up close and personal. We went to the home of a woman named Brigit who ran a wombat rescue out of her home. Their work is all nonprofit and to be honest its quite amazing. They currently have fourteen wombats, one dog, one cat, two owls, one echidna, and two opossums all living with them. These woman even shared their bed with these forteen wombats!The whole group took turns cuddling up with these adorable marsupials and holding them in our laps. It was quite an amazing experience that not many get to enjoy.
Now the group is reunited back at Adelaide before we head out again on our next big adventure in the Outback. So keep your eyes peeled for our next blog and keep your fingers crossed as we trek across the big Outback!
Lots of love from us all over here in backwards land!
Jordin and Becca.C

G'day Mates!

We're here to deliver you a little ditty
From this wonderful place called Adelaide
It's Australia's fifth largest city
Near the world's largest uranium reserve, where much of Oz's money gets made!

It's hard to imagine that four days ago
We were at Govinda Valley exploring our spiritual sides
At first bummed to not be studying Buddhism,
We soon found ourselves pleasantly surprised

To learn how to access our kundalini energy
From Patrick, our compassionate yoga teacher
We even got to analyze our astrological charts
From Andre, our very own vedic philosophy preacher

From Matt's chart, he received confirmation
That he'd pursue a career in the film biz
While Maxx became pretty adventurous
Tasting all sorts of new vegetarian dishes

Sarah and Coco really got into the yoga
Contorting themselves in all sorts of poses
They even enjoyed the breathing exercises
Letting the prana flow in and out of their noses

Shelby sure did love all the yoga
But was definitely the most thrilled
When she discovered a rugby ball
And got to play with it in the Aussie hills

The two Beccas rose before the sun
To check out the visiting Vedanta clan
They sat and listened to Sanskrit chanting
Language barrier and all, they maintained a good attention span

We even got to celebrate Jordin's birthday
At our beautifully peaceful retreat
The group and the generous staff there
Got together and made her a delicious treat

One day after class with Andre
Patrick drove us all to the zoo
Where we finally got to see it,
Our very first kangaroo!

Govinda Valley came in perfect time
As our nomadism was starting to take a toll
We were feeling a bit stressed out and tired
But now we're relaxed, rejuvenated, and ready to roll

Back to Sydney we then went
To explore a world famous city
Botanical gardens, opera house, harbour cruise
That we had to leave so soon was really a pity

We are only hours away
From our intense outback excursion
Where we work to save Australia's wombats
What a cool conservational immersion

You may or may not have realized
That there's been a bit of a swap
Your previous rhymers have been replaced
Those originals, of course we can't top!

Becca.C and Jordin

We've finally made it to the land Down Under,
Which means we got through free travel without too many a blunder.
Tekapo, site of the world's best stars,
Was covered in clouds, which made viewing them hard.
At Mount Cook the next day the weather was nice,
We hiked near a glacier and tried to touch the ice!
To Wanaka next our caravan drove,
And into our hostel's hot tub we dove.
At the Rob Roy Glacier rain once again foiled our plans,
But rainforests and rivers were seen by our clan.
Then back in the van to Queenstown we went,
Where "Dennis" was returned with only one dent!
The next day we hopped on a bus to Milford Sound,
where on top of our cruise ship the waterfalls did pound.
While in the fjords the mountains surrounded,
and by the foggy views we were astounded.
Yesterday we jetted to the land of OZ,
and almost missed our flight--april fools was the cause.
And this morning one of ranks joins the Crimson Class
and next fall through the Harvard gates she will pass.
Of her all of us couldn't be prouder
but we would've died last night had our hostel been louder.
Today to govinda we take the train at two,
And after a week of yoga, we'll report back to you.

Ode to Lyttelton

There once was a woman in Lyttelton

Named Dee whose house we are livin' in

Tonight she's having a barbie for us all

and since she's in charge we know we'll have a ball.

Dee has a neighbor named Sue,

Who's hosting some of our crew,

And also a bestie named Ann,

Who's housing the rest of our clan.

Lyttelton harbor is a picturesque place

located near an old volcano's base.

Here we work with fences and dirt,

to restore the land is our main effort.

On Monday we went to help out Yvette,

And Maxx and Gavin made a fence for her piggy pet (s).

She taught us all about Maori culture and tradition,

And with Jordin's help cooked us lunch in her kitchen.

On Tuesday we hiked to a house on the hill,

Where Peter showed us which invasive plants we could kill.

Armed with deadly blue goo and clippers alike,

We made the land much more pleasurable to hike.

While we hacked away at weeds galore,

stinging nettles attacked and gave Matt a sore.

On Wednesday we went out to Godley Head,

and through this old army post we were led.

We planted some grass and ripped out a fence,

Andy and Shelby made sure a pinecone war commence (d).

Come Thursday to Godley Head we went back,

and the Beccas, in style, moved brush into stacks.

Decked out in weird hats, they were quite a sight,

wearing 3-D glasses to block out sunlight.

Suze, meanwhile, remained reliable and funny,

though the outlook on her parasites isn't so sunny.

And today, it's Friday (but thursday for you)

We're having fun in Christchurch, but we miss you too.

Tomorrow we leave on our free travel trip,

to Mt. Cook and Wanaka after a Tekapo dip.

With Andy and Suze at the wheel of our van,

We'll end up in Queenstown, or at least that's the plan.

So now you've reached the end of this blog,

and we've run out of rhymes, our minds are afog.

And if we make it through free travel without going loco,

there will be an update next week from Sarah and Coco.

OPC

Hello again everybody!
We just got into Christchurch after a week at the Outdoor Pursuits Center and a full day of travel. I know we're all glad to finally be off that six hour bus and into Christchurch. Our time at the OPC was sweet as though! I know many of us arrived at the OPC with some less than enthusiastic attitudes, but our leader, Julian, changed those attitudes right quick. Between abseiling (rappelling), the high ropes course, caving at night, and a seriously cold overnight, I think our time there was something we'll never forget. On our overnight, the weather was all great until Wednesday night when we all basically froze. It got down in the negatives and none of us were ready for that one. Overall though our time at the OPC was an awesome experience. Friday we headed out back to Wellington for the night, but our hostel reservation got slightly messed up so we had to scrounge up a place to stay for the night. Everything worked out fine in the end though. Saturday was spent completely in travel. A huge two hour ferry ride and then a six hour bus ride to get to Christchurch. Starting tomorrow we're with our Kiwi families for a week long home stay here. I know we're all very excited to be staying with our families and are looking forward to our free travel plans next week.

Love to all our families and friends!
- Shelby

Check out our photobucket for new photos!

http://s1044.photobucket.com/albums/b442/FANZ_2010/

Wellington

Hello again everyone!
As we say our goodbyes to Graham and Giselle and all of Marama Organics, we look forward to Wellington and Sir Edmund Hilary's Outdoor Pursuits Center. We'll definitely all miss the fun we had on the farm. Flying out of Dunedin, Wellington was having a spot of rough weather. Despite the weather, I know many of us were more than happy to be back in the city. Friday and Saturday nights in Wellington are crazy. Lots of things going on and the city is awake all night. Saturday, being our only full day in this city, was full of activity. Most of us made it over to the Te Papa museum at some point during the day. Matt organized a sweet tour for anyone who wanted to go. Becca C, Jordin, Matt, and I ended up having a blast re-enacting scenes from The Lord if the Rings for a few hours, just your average day being a Hobbit. Tody we're off to the Outdoor Pursuits Center (OPC) for a week of ropes courses and rock climbing and hiking and who knows what else is in store for us! Wish us luck as we take on the challenging activities at the OPC!

Game on.

- Shelby

Check Out Pictures on Photobucket!

http://s1044.photobucket.com/albums/b442/FANZ_2010/

Marama Organics!

Hello everyone! The group arrived safely in Dunedin last Thursday after a very early morning flight out of Auckland. It was a bittersweet goodbye as we said farewell to a fantastic city as well as two of our friends, Ethan and Kyle. We hope they are doing well! After a few fun shopping stops and a lunch in Dunedin, we snagged a bus out to Marama. The bus actually dropped us off at some remote intersection. From there, Graham and Sonya picked us up in a couple trucks to take as to our home for the week, Marama Organics. All week we've been doing various jobs from weighing thousands of sheep to painting an entire wool shed! It's been very exciting. We've been pairing up into teams cooking and clean up the meals everyday. Gavin and Jordin are always eager to work with the sheep. Becca C. spent some time being lifted on a tractor to paint the high parts onthe wool shed. Matt and Maxx have become quite good painters during our time here. Sarah has been letting us eat her amazing cooking. Coco and Becca O always seem to be finding new things for us to do on our free travel (which is coming up in a few weeks here). Everyone is working hard and having tons of fun while we're at it!

Love to all of our families!

-Shelby

Sail City

The work is finished! The group pulled together and worked hard until the much needed pathway was finished. At completion there was a small gathering where the minister of the local church came, a nice conclusion to a fun project. In the following days we did various activities including horseback rides to the nearby waterfall which we could slide down and jump off, a tour of the Fiji water plant, a trip to the beach, and time to bond with out host families. Overall the things that we experiences and the knowledge we gained about their way of life was priceless.
The final nights were filled with dance parties, performances, and lots of food. The village kids prepared various performances for us each night and in the end we shared one of our own with them. The final day was one of mixed feeling. Sad to leave but excited to be continuing on our travels to New Zealand. After a slue of goodbye kisses from our sad host mothers and waiting for a van in Fiji time we were finally back on the road. The first stop that we made was the Mc Donalds in Nadi, a tasty little reminder of what we all left behind in the states. Then we were off to the airport for another length of goodbyes and photographs taking in the last moments of Fiji with the villagers that accompanied us to the airport. With spirits high and not knowing what to expect we were off the ground in Fiji, in a very luxurious plane, and well on our way to New Zealand.
Auckland, I don't even know where to start from the moment we all touched down here knew that this was going to be a great city. A big change of pace after sleeping in mosquito nets and washing clothing in the local river and taking bucket showers. getting in late we went straight to our hostel and after a pleasant and comfortable night we were all ready to get out and go explore the city of sails. Some people raced of to find the nearest fast food, some people raced off to find the nearest TV and catch the USA versus Canada game, but one thing was the same, everyone loved this city and after a day packed full of exploring and immersing in a new culture we can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store for us.

Again, Gavin & Becca

Taki-Taki

Hello again guys, gavin and becca here blogging from tavua. We've been away from internet and telephones for a while in the beautiful classical fijian village of nananu. Working under the hot sun and getting to know the amazing generous people of the village while also getting alot of down time in the shade getting to know each other better, this down time is called what the people like to call "fiji time".
so this is what we have been up to...
After a long and interesting system of public buses and sitting in the back of trucks we finally arrived to the village. we were welcomed by a colorful party of children dancing laughing and singing and host mothers embracing us and giving us fat sloppy kisses even though they never meet us before, just a small example of how warm and welcoming everyone here is. The group was split up into pairs and after the welcoming ceremony had come to a close we were handed over to our host mothers and quickly swept away to meet our host families. The group was slightly skeptical about the living conditions at first but it was all put to rest when we found out there was running water and showers and the food was certainly nothing short of incredible.
We have been treated to four meals a day: breakfast, lunch, tea, and diner. Breakfast is a combination of kinds of cakes, pancake like things cut in the shape lightning bolt, and fresh fruits. The favorites are usually the rainbow cake (multi-colored cake with frosting on top) and bananas (in which we put penut better that we bought in town).These are the same kinds of food also found at tea time. We also try the mystery meat of the day at lunch and dinner loaded with their version of ketchup (which we place on everything) Oh but the highlight of one of our days is when a fan was installed by Collie in the dining room, its not exactly winter over here it reached a peak of 103 one day.
During the day we work on building a cement road that goes through the village. We collect small rocks from outside the village, mix cement, dig some dirt, or a large amount of time napping in the shade. After our work is done we go soak ourselves in the river trying to get cool. One day we were rewarded for our hard work and the villagers took us up to a waterfall right out of national geographic.
The people here are very spirited, the nights are never quiet. On special accosions they will offer us an ancient Fijian tradition of kava. It was interesting to gain insight into their culture through this age old tradition. During this time music is a large part, they listen to Chris Brown and other popular American artists along with a lot of native island music, while they dance to the early hours of the morning.

Till next time....

Gavin and Becca

**BULA**

A warm hello from FIJI!!! With new Fijian words flowing from our mouths and sweat dripping down our faces from the beautiful sunny days, we are finally all together as a group. After our long yet exciting journey, we reached Nadi at 5:30 am on Feb 13th. Since then,we have been busy learning important information for our semester, scavenger hunting around the city, buying sulus (a sarong that will soon be our main attire in the village), watching rugby while eating breakfast, learning about "fiji time", swimming in the pristine postcard perfect beach water but most importantly, beginning to get to know each other. Tomorrow we head to Nananu for our first homestay, where we will be for almost 2 weeks. (we will be out of touch during this time but will write as soon as we can).
Sending lots of love**

Moce mada (bye for now)

Andy & Suzanne

It's some sort of miracle

It's some sort of miracle that we managed to get everyone, from the East Coast, from the West Coast ... well ... everyone! Despite cancellations from weather in NH, MA, and NY, we pulled some sort of rabbit out of our hat and sure enough everyone is together, safe and sound, in LAX.

Thank you all (especially the East coasters) for your perseverance and communication as we navigated one heck of a last 48 hours.

Stay tuned and check back often for more group posts,

Yours in spirit,

Ethan Knight

Executive Director

FANZ Spring 2010!

Dear FANZtastic crew 2010 Kyle, Rebecca, Ethan, Jordin, Shelby, Maxx, Cordelia, Sarah, Rebecca, Mathew, and Gavin....

We hope you have all been enjoying your winter breaks and are getting excited for an amazing semester down South! We are super pumped to meet you all and begin our adventures together! Expect a call from one of us in the next few days to introduce ourselves and answer any last minute questions you might have. Guess what...we fly in 6 days!

This is our travel blog where all of our friends and family back home can keep up with our adventures. Each week one of you will be our official "blogger" and will get to write our travel tales for our dedicated followers around the globe. We encourage you to peruse past blogs to get an idea of what they might look like. Also, please inform your family and friends of this site, and show them how to log in, so they will know what an amazing and authentic experience we are having. In addition to gaining responsibility of the blog, there will be other roles assigned and rotated every 1-2 weeks to help you take ownership of our trip and get the most out of the semester. Contemplate which one you are most enthusiastic about taking charge of for the first couple weeks of the semester...

Cribs: Organizes any sleeping accommodations we need. ie: hotel/hostel/camping

Hotwheels: Coordinates our transportation to and from cities, activities, hostels, etc.

Captain: The leader of our team who creates the overall vision for the following week, makes sure we are getting places on time, staying within budget, and ensuring that others are accomplishing their roles.

Regulator: One of the most important roles, the regulator makes sure we are leaving places cleaner than when we arrived, organizes games and other activities during down time, coordinates displays of our gratitude to communities we visit like thank you letters, gifts, performances, etc.

Clark Kent: News reporter for the group, Clark Kent helps us stay up to date on local, national and global news by giving brief presentations on current happenings.

Bilbo Bloggins: Blogs our adventures for friends and family back home.

Fun Finder: Researches and presents to the group potential activities and fun stuff to do during free time.

National Geographic: Researches and keeps the group informed about people, place, culture, language, cuisine, etc. of the unique cultures and communities we visit.

We are so excited to head to summer time in the South Pacific and hope you are too! Be sure and enjoy all of your favorite things at home before we head into the unknown :)

Peace.

Suz & Andy