February 7th, Wednesday
Night of the Haka!
Wow, what a day! Tonight was the Haka contest and the Tui tribe won! Yayy!! Bill Watkins, himself came to our table after to toast us and said it was the best d#*@ haka he’d ever seen from an Eco Seagate Tribe. We were all so STOKED! We won 130 tokens for our tribe. Everyone was so emotional and excited. It was awesome!
We’d practiced a lot for it and I am so proud because 2 of my teammates were the two male leads – Joel and Tommy. And, they ROCKED! Before the contest, the Tui men warmed up with some pushups. I was privileged to be one of the female leads with Deb. We had such a great time and everyone said we did a great job.
The other tribes were all awesome, too. I couldn’t believe we were better. The yellow Tribe – Pateke – had some great costumes and moves and the men were really fierce. They came in second and were very good.
If you'd like to see a short clip of part of our Haka click here.
Moke Lake at the site of the Haka contest
On to other things – this morning we had a motivational speaker –
a TaeKwon Do expert who talked about a lot
of things, including commitment, which was the theme for today. He actually
had us break boards and I was nervous thinking
there was no way I could do that – but I did it! But, I think it must
have been really weak wood.
This afternoon we went kayaking and rafting on the river. It was really cool. I can’t say quite as much fun as the biking but we had a great time and it was relaxing because we let the current take us a lot. We did learn how to fall out and then pull ourselves and our teammates back in. That was the best part because the guys kept “falling” in and yelling “Man over board!” I went in once, as required and that was fine for me. It was more fun watching them, anyway. We also rafted over rapids, which was cool. Torsten got to swim over one set of rapids and as we looked back, we once saw someone on another raft sitting on the front end of a raft over the rapids and then they fell off! We later found out this was Lisa Logan and she’s got the best clip on the video that we have seen.
This is not us in the kayaks because there are exactly 0 pics of us doing the water sports. But, this does show the cool "high-five" we would do with the oars.
Another cool thing was that we saw 2 things from the Lord of the Rings movie.
We saw the Mountains that they shot for the Mountains
of Mordor and on the river we saw where they
digitally imposed the Pillars of the Kings. That was really neat. The scenery
was beautiful and the water was great – cold but great.
I still have the best team ever! 3 of us played lead roles in the Haka and we’re just so cool that I’ve decided t hat we’re the best team on the best tribe!
This morning Charles Pope spoke about commitment, which was really good. I
enjoy hearing him speak. He made a lot of good points about commitment and
priorities and other things.
I have to say a word or two about Cath, Malcolm
and our Haka support team. Cath is our tribe leader and she is great. She’s
a taskmaster when she needs to be and really cares about us. She was so thrilled
when we won the Haka and we were glad to do it for her. She was so sweet and
grateful to us and was there at the finish line so excited for us. We just
love her! Malcolm has been with us every day, too. He M.C.s all the meeting
and get togethers and is very funny. He's been around for almost all of the
Seagate Ecos and is an Eco Icon! Rodney and Kate
are part of the Maori performers that helped us learn and perform the Haka.
They were both great and very good at what they do. We enjoyed them a lot.
Tomorrow is Orienteering!
|
Adventure starts |
Ropes Training Eco Starts! |
Mountain Bikes |
Paddling |
Orienteering |
Race Day! |
