What day is it? Yesterday?

After watching a flight safety video featuring words like “hammies” and a naked grannie, we took off from Auckland bound for Christchurch. In flight I had a nice chat with a direct entry midwide and a dairy farmer. The midwife told me all about the birth system in NZed and we compared and constrasted our respective country's models of care. According to her estimate, somewhere between 70 and 80 percent of normal births are attended by midwives either in hospital or at home (direct entry midwives are allowed to practice in hospitals). She also told me about a huge home birth collective in Christchurch and a home birth conference that I may check out here in a few weeks.

The stewardess came around with snacks, and I had the hardest time trying to figure out what her offerings were. “Lollies,” as it turns out, are candies or sweets, really anything made with sugar-- good word to know.

When I got to Christchurch, I met a biology/gym teacher from outside Amsterdam named Marisse and Antoinette Koko, a Maori woman who taught te reo, the Maori language, to students at a Rudolf Steiner school and did work with language conservation. Koko, as she liked to be called, gave me her email and said she would try to help me find a Maori rongoaa healer.

Before getting on the bus to Dunedin, Marisse and I enjoyed a couple ginger beers and watched US Samoa play Wales in the Rugby World Cup.

On the trip to Dunedin I met three med students and a pharmacy student, who were happy to tell me about their programs.

Tori and Jono met me at the bus stop, bless their hearts, and T and I went back to the flat. There, she gave me the most beautiful carved pounamu jade necklace.

Tradition dictates that these necklaces are to be given exclusively as gifts and never purchased for oneself. This particular pendant is a combination between the fishhook and whale tail. Each symbol carries a different meaning and is believed to confer particular protections or powers to the wearer. The Hei-Matau (fishhook) symbolizes prosperity, strength, determination, good health, and safe journey over water. The whale tail's core meaning is speed and strength, but it also symbolizes wisdom and protection because of the help given by whales and dolphins to humans in danger.