I arrived at the entrance to the Coromandel Forest Park as if at the threshold of a legend. The air smelled of coolness and moss, and the forest seemed to hold its breath. Time flows here by different rules: one step forward, a rustle of leaves, a surge of water-everything seems to tell you that you are entering a world older than human memory. I was searching for Wentworth Falls, hidden near Whangamatā, which Māori elders whisper was once the place where water learned how to fall, endlessly...

We left Auckland before dawn, the city still half-asleep, its motorways humming like a giant beast dreaming of movement. The bus pushed south through the Waikato plains, past fields stitched together by mist and early light. For the students, it was just another school trip; for me, standing at the front as a teacher with my first school, it felt like crossing a threshold—responsibility mixed with anticipation, authority balanced by wonder. Dawn followed us like a slow revelation. The sky...

Hongi is the traditional Māori greeting in which two people gently bring their foreheads together and touch noses, in a calm and solemn gesture. The act symbolises the exchange of ha—the breath of life—an essential concept in Māori culture, closely linked to existence, spirit, and continuity. Through the hongi, a guest ceases to be a manuhiri (stranger) and becomes, if only for a moment, part of the community (tangata whenua). The gesture conveys respect, equality, and peaceful intentions,...