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| my 'sheep' alarm one morning! |
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| one of the stars of the show - NOT me! |
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| the dog is running over the backs of the sheep! |
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| Aunty Bea and me |
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| Maori warrior sticking out his tongue to show fierceness |
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| hold up a camera and kids act the same all over the world! |
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| Valerie and Alex - FF hosts in Rotorua wearing their Amelia Island ball caps |
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| Wanda brought a rose to the pick-up place so Rose would know who her host was! |
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| Mayor Glen Leach and me at FF's official greeting to Thames |
sheep there are in NZ, a dog running on the backs of the sheep and I got
to go on stage and milk a cow.
* Ngongataha ( nong -rhymes with song - ga-tah-ha)is the town where I stayed with
Valerie and Alex, wonderful hosts! Many town/place names here are in the
Maori language. Ngongataha is just outside Rotorua.
* Valerie and Alex live on a farm just outside Ngongataha with sheep mowing
the grass in the front yard and cows making 'pies' in the back. I finally got
the sheep to not run away from me by figuring out the 'baaah' sound they
liked the best! Ann and Claire stayed there, too. Got a run in over and around
the hills near their farm.
* Went to a school in Rotorua - our guide, Aunty Bea, taught us a song to 'sing' haha
to them and they greeted us with the Haka - the Maori war cry that the All Blacks
NZ rugby team starts each game with! Fierce! (If you saw the movie Invictus, you
saw it before the game was played)We were the first group to ever
visit the multicultural school. I held up a camera at the end and they posed like
all kids anywhere would - making faces! The kids here don't have to wear shoes
in school or on the playground. Saw a schoolgroup at the forest preserve near
Thames - they had stayed a week camping out learning about the forest. As they
were starting a hike, one of the girls was barefoot and I asked her if she was
walking that way and she looked at me funny and said yes!
* Aunty Bea showed us how to make a flower out of a long flax leaf. She took
mine and made it, then said I had to make one on my own. I told her that I have
no craft talent - my talent is the "Tom Sawyer" one - getting others to do my work for me!
* Rotorua used to be a spa center. The building is now a museum and we saw the
bathtubs that were filled with the geothermal water that boils up from the
ground there-and then- the attendants put an electrical wire in the tub! Health spa
or torture chamber?
* We went with the Rotorua club to the "Melbourne Race" big Ozzie race that
we watched on TV. Patricia, the president had fancy hats for all of us to
wear just like the Ozzie ladies at the real race.
* Saw a log truck going through Thames today! Just like being
home in Fernandina!
* Went to a Maori presentation and a springs close by and saw 3 KIWI'S!!!
They are the size of chickens and very skittish and only come out at night.
* We were officially greeted by the mayor of Thames today! I guess it's a
usual happening with Friendship Force clubs all over the world. Was
a bit of a problem when the Russian club came to Chicago, though. They
didn't understand why they couldn't meet with Mayor Daley!
* My allergies are really acting up since it's spring here. Wanda made me a
hot lemon, honey and brandy drink and I slept all night!
* Out of Wanda and Roy's picture window, I have an overlook of Thames - the town,
the river and the mountains in the distance - beautiful!
* Wanda was the women's champion in squash and golf in the same year
when she was younger! She still has more energy than I do!
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