Follow the Journey

Greetings families and friends of the Carpe Diem FANZ Hongi crew, I just got word that the whole group has arrived and are settled into their orientation site!  They are going to try and stay up all day since they just arrived at 5am Fiji local time.  The next blog post will be from the group in the next couple days, stay tuned for news from them in the coming… Read More

Hello Family and Friends of FANZ Hongi group, Gwen and Mac  are about to depart the U.S. with their  tremendous ten (10 students). They are all excited as shown in the picture below.  Energy is high and they depart the U.S. at 9:30pm PST.  Go Team Hongi! Sincerely, Carpe HQ … Read More

Bula!! Werte marda!!Kia ora!! Hello everyone! Welcome to the humble beginnings of our adventurous, exciting, and delightful blog for the FANZ Hongi group. We (Gwen and Mac), your gallant leaders, are here in Portland, OR putting all the finishing touches- dotting our i’s and crossing our t’s, in order to be fully ready for the epic journey that lies in front of us. After a biking LITERALLY thousands of miles… Read More

A gracious goodbye, bittersweet bon voyage, and a heartwarming hello: this is the final blog post. Back home, my friends and family know I’m not always great at goodbyes but this is no ordinary goodbye. I’m writing on behalf of the amazing, hilarious, adventurous, and charismatic Hongi group that have worked, traveled, eaten, and lived together for 12 weeks. A simple sign off wouldn’t be fair. If you read back… Read More

Hey guys! Today is our very last day in Cairns to veg out before our flight home tomorrow. We have been enjoying our decompression day by walking around and exploring the beautiful city of Cairns. We have spent the past week taking part in a class to get scuba certified. The class involved, watching introduction videos on diving, practicing surface and underwater skills in a pool (such as mask removal,… Read More

 … Read More

G’day all! It’s Amy here checking in from Cairns (that’s pronounced “Cans”, for all those unaware) as we’re starting to wrap up our long and wonderful journey with Carpe Diem. This past week has been a whirlwind of activity. As Shelby stated in her blog, we spent the majority of the past week doing an outback tour with Wayoutback Tours.  The week involved a lot of getting up early, hiking,… Read More

G’day mates! We just spent one of our final weeks down under camping in the outback and exploring Australia at its finest. Our days were spent battling flies in the hot sun and our nights were spent sleeping under the stars in the fresh outback air. We all slept in what’s called a swag: a “waterproof” sleeping bag/mattress combo; essential for every authentic outback experience. Our perpetually energetic guide, Tam,… Read More

Hi all! Bex here with your weekly update! We’ve just finished up our week with the Conservation Volunteers of Australia (CVA)!  For this week we split into two smaller groups and worked on separate projects in separate locations.  Amy, Anya, Caitlin, Wade, Ryan, and I went with our project leader Stefan to Toowoomba, Queensland to help the conservation organization Friends of the Escarpment Parks rehabilitate Redwood Park.  Redwood Park is… Read More

Hi friends and family! This past week our group was split in half by the Conservation Volunteers Association (CVA). We both stayed at two different campsites and worked on two different projects in the Aussie Bush. My group members were Shelby, Brandon, Gracie, G, and Cheridyn. We also were so lucky to be accompanied by Chris, a CVA leader and Captain Jack Sparrow look-a-like. For our project, we worked on… Read More

For the past 4 days Carpe has been staying at an awesome hostel called Flashpackers. Its located dead in the middle of a surf town, with a 10 minute walk into town on one side, a 10 minute walk to the beach on the other side, and a 5 minute walk to the National Park. And to top it off it has a free shuttle that drives us to each… Read More

What’s up Family and Friends, We are here enjoying our down time here in the beach town of Noosa for a couple of days before we head out to the Outback to survive and do some wild life preservation for two weeks.  Our family is still incomplete with the loss of our two brothers but we are still living it up here taking surf lessons, paddle boarding, swelling up at… Read More

Hey everyone! As you may already know, today marks our 8th day in Australia. Already the Hongi family has experienced everything from mediation with Buddhist nuns to visiting the Australia Zoo on Steve Irwin Day. Despite the loss of two beloved group members, we have still managed to carry on (albeit heavyheartedly at times) and enjoy the amazing opportunities we’ve been granted. On a more personal note, this week has… Read More

Hey family and friends, We just arrived in the small town of Noosa, Australia. Our 5 day stay at the Chenrezig Buddhist Institute was a great place to clear our minds and relax which was much needed after the past week. Unfortunately we lost two group members our last night in New Zealand. We were all heartbroken saying goodbye and have been adjusting to the loss of their presence since.… Read More

Kia ora, everyone! Shelby speaking. We’re here in one of Christchurch’s finest jails–the historic Addington Jailhouse-turned-hostel, that is– saying our farewells to New Zealand and recovering from a week of nonstop kiwi adventuring. After hours of planning, booking, bargaining, and a little creative budgeting, we finally arrived at one of the most highly anticipated weeks of the trip– free travel! We began our student directed travels in the coastal city… Read More

A traditional Irish song, “The Parting Glass” seems appropriate this week, as we’re preparing to leave beautiful New Zealand and all the lessons we’ve learned along the way! I’ve been charged with writing a farewell post, and while there have been many great writings about our time here, I’ll fill in some spots with what I know. Our first few days in Auckland left us amazed – a huge city… Read More

            Becks here! Sorry I couldn’t post pictures before! Here are some now for your enjoyment, though I see Peter has been doing a great job keeping the visuals up to date! In order we have Tia climbing Mount Doom; Patrick, Tia, and Caitlin also on Mount Doom; Gabrielle abseiling with Dan’s help; the group on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing; the group chilling for lunch… Read More

Greetings from all of us here in New Zealand! We just finished up with our tough but rewarding week at Blue Mountain Adventure. (BMAC) During our time there we all become stronger as a group and as individuals. Throughout our trip Lord Of The Rings has been an ongoing interest due to how incredible it is and the fact that it was filmed in New Zealand. As a result our… Read More

Greetings all! Becks here with the weekly update! Right now we’re in Wellington exploring the city and preparing for free travel.  We just finished up at the Blue Mountain Adventure Centre (BMAC)! Dan and Meghan, our activity leaders, lead us through some awesome activities this past week! BMAC is in the small town of Raurimu right on the edge of the Tongariro National Park, so our first adventure was trekking… Read More

Parents, Friends,  and Followers of our Hongi Adventurers, We had a wonderful day in Auckland and we are now headed south for a week of adrenaline pumping activities  with the Blue Mountain Adventure Center. We are hoping for a tramp around/up Mt.Doom as well as any other Lord of the Ring locations we can find! We won’t have access to Internet, so stay tuned until next Monday.   Ryan and… Read More