Hi! Today’s blog is by Ayuka and Chiori. We went to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. It is a terrible and scary bridge for us. Hiromi was most scared but she was brave and crossed the bridge. Today’s guides were Mathew and Hana and they were really great. Mathew is a good singer and Harmonica player. Richard our nice guy, was our driver, we really appreciate him. In the afternoon we went to downtown Vancouver for lunch and shopping. We are now at the YWCA hotel. It is a nice hotel. We are getting ready to go to dinner.
Today’s blog writers are Shizue, Rieko and Youko. We went to Coombs and Market. We thought Coombs was such a beautiful place. It was like the Yakusugi in Japan. There are a lot of negative ions given off ( Did you know about that? ) Cathedral Grove is an amazing Douglas Fir old-growth forest. Vancouver Island has some of the world’s last old-growth. After that we went shopping in the local area. We ate a really big ice cream!! Many people were there and they were all so kind. We watched some goats on the roof. it was amazing!!! Today’s driver was Wayne. He is so sweet and a really good driver! We enjoyed everything so much today.
Mami and Hiromi were in charge of taking the pictures for this blog. They did a great job. It was a beautiful day and the park was full of wildlife and blackberries. Our guides were Wayne and Sven.
Students were all ready to begin their classes this morning. Students met their teachers and teaching assistants. Natsumi, one of our 3rd year students currently studying in Canada for one year, was there and volunteered to help us! We had a home stay orientation, got e-mail accounts and toured the campus and town.
Tags: canada
Some of us weren’t ready to show our faces at Fukuoka airport, but all was o.k. by the time we got off the ferry at Nanaimo. It was a beautiful day and we had a great ride form the air port to Horseshoe bay where we got the ferry to Nanaimo. The families were waiting at the ferry to take the students home. Everyone was happy to see Richard.
We are excited!!
Tomorrow morning these eleven students and Mr. Woolbright will be off to Canada. Be sure to follow our blog.
We are especially excited about going to Seattle to see a Mariners Baseball game and Whale watching in Victoria
After 3 smooth flights we all arrived back in Fukuoka safely to be met by friends, family, and Nishioka-sensei. It was great to be home, but we all miss our Nelson life and the memories we made there.
Thanks to everyone in Nelson for making us so at home during our stay… we miss you all!
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- Mt Taranaki
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- Malcolm’s Dad and brothers
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- Air New Zealand logo
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- Kansai Airport
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- Finally home!
As usual, it was a sad time at the airport, saying goodbye to all our homestay families and friends… thanks to you all!
On Thursday, March 17 a ceremony was held to finalise the signing of an agreement between Seinan Jo Gakuin University and NMIT. This agreement will allow us to expand our activities between the two schools. NMIT CEO Tony Gray signed on behalf of the institute, and this was followed by an afternoon tea with all our students.
Tags: NMIT
On Tuesday, we held our final activity for this trip – a visit to the Riverside Community in Upper Moutere. This is a community created for peaceful coexistence, and showed the students another side to New Zealand life. We learned about the organisation of the community, baked an apple cake together, and had a tour of the farm.
On our way back. we stopped at the Waimea winery and had a chance to sample 3 wines before heading home to Nelson.
While camping in Abel Tasman, we received the heart-wrenching news of the quake and tsunami in northern Japan. Our hearts, support, and sympathies go out to everyone affected by this terrible disaster. Within days of arriving in New Zealand, we experienced the Christchurch earthquake and its effect on the country. To have another disaster on our other home soil has had a huge effect on us. We look forward to returning home and offering our support to those in need.
We took a water taxi to Abel Tasman National Park – very exciting, very beautiful. We could enjoy a loooong bush walk and a swim at Enclosure Bay.
From Friday to Sunday, we went camping in the Abel Tasman National Park at a place called Old MacDonald’s Farm [website] in Marahau. Here are some pictures of camp life.
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- Walking to the camp
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- First dinner
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- Happy Birthday /miwa!!
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- Malcolm’s face treatment
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- Camp entrance
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- Gertrud finally relaxing
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- Love love love
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- Breakfast
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- Akiko’s roast pork
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- Yummy pasta
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- Beautiful skies
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- Cabin shot
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- Inside shot
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- Campsite
Tags: camping
