Bus to Kerikeri to Kaitaia (Woofing Begins!)

The scenery from Auckland up north was beautiful and always changing. I was about to begin a week of Woofing. Woofing is short for Working On Organic Farms. I had been wanting to have the opportunity to do this at some point and now was perfect. I was greted by Rebecca who owned the house i was going to be staying at. She was very sweet, and welcomed me with open arms. We headed back to the family home where i met the three children Brody 14, Ruby 11 and Hamish 8. I then met Mike, Rebeccas partner. They were a lovly family, very community orientated and a focus on self sufficiency. There was no television in the house, which was actually a nice break and meant the children had to use their imaginations to entertain themselves. I was happy that there was another 'woofer' Lauren who was woofing at the same time which was good. Our first night was spent attending a cultural evening which Rebecca had been invited to. It was a crazy experience. The group was celebrating the winter solstice, Matariki the traditional maori celebration is marked by the arrival of constellations in the southern hemisphere and the changes between the seasons. I found myself taking part in greetings, song, dance, poetry, lighting candles and eating lots of food. There were a few speakers throughout the evening who had been invited to say a few words. I learnt alot about culture and ideas and peoples views and opinions. However the conversation did getbehated when a German man, living in New Zealand was trying to compare his culture and traditions with the Maori! Pete Smith a local Maori man was not happy and explained that there are no similarities and the fact that the native people went through a huge change when the Europeans came, they had no choice and wee forced almost to change their life styles. I found it interesting as it just showed that the European influence still hurts some of the native people. I think it is important for people to speak their minds and have an opinion about the events. The issues are still vey much alive and maori people feel very strongly about what happened and that is why some are trying to educate new generations about the importance of New Zealands history before the Europeans came. I guess it was passion speaking, which im all for. Unfortunately Peter ended up leaving the ceremony and invited people to his marae. It left a wier atmosphere in the circle and every part of me also wanted to leave, but i saw myself as a fly on the wall, an outsider, i considered my own beliefs and thought about the crazyness of different peoples beliefs and opinions and how ot makes the world go round, creates conflicts and helos people with their journey. An intense one!