Aotearoa Day 8

So I am writing this one pretty early, since I don't really write it till minutes before I sleep. I am writing this one early, because I'll be leaving for Auckland in about 2 hours for the weekend. The "Hawaiians" and our friend who is also an international exchange student from Jersey, we decided to head up to Auckland for the weekend. Our hopes is to watch the All Blacks rugby game. So we booked this bus called the NakedBus and No you don't have to be naked to ride it. Weird huh? Thats the name of the bus service and it is pretty cheap too to travel around Aotearoa. Anyways we leave Hamilton at 5 and should arrive in Auckland at 8. We are packing light and will be staying at a cheap hostel. If we can't watch the game then we are probably just going to go around the city and explore this land of the long white cloud. Will be coming back to Hamilton on Sunday around 2pm. So I probably won't have internet during the weekend to keep you all updated daily. But as soon as I come back will definitely fill you all in, especially with the pictures!!!

Anyways today, we had a special orientation by the School of Māori and Pacific Development. Since we asked, so there were only 3 of us from UH, 2 of us from UH Mānoa and the other from UH Hilo aka the Hawaiians!!! It was the first time they every did something like this, since, 1) we were Hawaiians, 2) we are in their School of Māori and Pacific Development and 3) cuz we asked. So pretty much just went over basic Uni (University) stuff, about the school, short introduction of one of the associate deans who will be one of my kumu about the Treaty of Waitangi. Funny thing too is that she will be leaving for Maui because her nephew is marring one of the Hawaiian language kumu at UH Mānoa. So we met the faculty at the school and did a campus tour and they also bought us lunch. Only cuz had 3 of us Hawaiians! The school is really awesome and I hope to see our schools at UH increase and grow and have governance authority. They are really nice people, since many of them have been to Hawaiʻi or have contacts to many Hawaiians back home, usually at the University. They were also hinting to us (me and Leo) to stay another semester because the other girl from UH Hilo is doing a year exchange. We will see about that.....

I really enjoyed today and really can't wait to start school and learn and compare! So I'll take a lot of pictures when I am in Auckland. So stay tune....Aloha for now!