After the first week and a half of orientation students are immersed in Kiwiana, Maori, Kaikoura, and CCSP culture and are ready to take on the semester full of new experiences and new knowledge. "Kiwiana" culture (or New Zealand culture) was introduced with a dinner of fish and chips on the beach, a New Zealand iconic foods night and Kiwi word game, a "barby" (barbecue) attended by heaps of new friends, and a visit to the farm of Kevin and Sandy Topp who graciously showed us around their beautiful place and demonstrated sheep shearing for us.

Many were exposed to Maori culture for the first time with a talk from Brett and Darran who taught us about their culture and even taught us a haka dance. The next day we visited the Takahanga Marae which is the local meeting place for Maori people. We participated in the hongi (the traditional nose-to-nose greeting) and also got to see the intricate designs in the carvings which adorn their main meeting room.

Students got to know Kaikoura and some of its people through a photo scavenger hunt, the previously mentioned "barby", church, a trip to the recycling center, a forest walk with Barry, a walk around the peninsula, and a climb up Kaikoura's signature peak, Mt Fyffe. This was much easier said than done but after a few hours of continuous uphill hiking everyone reached the goal of getting to the hut near the summit.

CCSP culture is a thing of its own with "Big Red Chair"- the 5 minute hot seat where everyone gets to ask random questions of everyone else; group bike trips, a birthday party for our friend Lisa, a learning how to can nectarines from our own tree workshop, a lot of practice doing laundry by hand, and our first community night where we showed pictures and told stories about our friends and families back home.





As if that weren't enough students got another dose of New Zealand in smaller groups for their weekend away. Some went South to experience the big city of Christchurch where they explored the various museums and botanical gardens. Others biked North back to the Topp's farm for an "epic" weekend of hiking mountains and eating leftover pad thai, old canned peaches, and a little bit of gravel...

And that was just the first week and a half.