June 10

         Today started off a nice and early with our trip to the Redwood forest.  Right off the bat it started raining, and it didn't stop.  We took the bus to the forest then took a hike for about 45 minutes.  It was cool to see all the vegetation and silver ferns.  We got split up from the other group of students so we went to the parking lot and kicked around a soccer ball while we waited for the other group.  After about 30 minutes of waiting in the pouring rain the other group showed up and we took the bus back to the hotel.  We then cleaned up changed out of our wet clothes and got on the bus and headed for Rangitoto college.  After a 2.5 hour drive we arrived at the high school.  I was immediately amazed by all the sports fields they had, and the views from the college.  We walked into the meeting room and saw a bunch of kids to the Haka which is a Maori war dance.  It was really intense and cool. After that they let people out to start mingling.  We ate our food and stood around for a little thinking that this was going to be really awkward and not very fun.  But then we met some girls that were pretty cool.  We ended up hanging out with them and talking to them the whole night.  After talking for about 1.5 hours we walked around their campus.  They showed us all their sports fields and explained their school.  It was really cool to see a different type of school.  After the guys that did the Haka showed us how to do it and it was really fun.  I felt really bad ass when I was doing it.  This was probably my favorite part of New Zealand.  After saying goodbye to our new friends we went to our hotel in Auckland with a clear view of the harbor.  We then went to bed and prepared for our day of travel to Sydney.