Scotch College

Year 9 geographers explore New Zealand

In December last year, an opportunity arose to tour the North Island of New Zealand. Naturally, I was keen to travel overseas.

We all met at the airport and although the hair colours had changed, all the boys were there in bright spirits, as the summer holidays had just began.

With faces pressed against the windows of our 757, the wheels hit the tarmac of Auckland International with a screeching thud, some cheers came up from the back of the plane. We went through customs without any cavity searches or seizures of property and were raced off to our accommodation.

Early the next morning, our Pavlovich coach driver greeted us for a tour around Auckland - everything from climbing down into scoria cones, experiencing Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World with its Antarctica penguin enclosure, taking the harbour ferry, driving over the Harbour Bridge, viewing the America's Cup yachting village and of course, the essential shopping stop.

Over the next seven days we visited many places of Geographic interest including: the Waitomo glowworm caves where we went black water rafting in an underground stream, Rotorua's Whakarewarewa geysers and bubbling mud pools and finally, the new interactive Te Papa Science and Cultural Museum in Wellington. At the museum we experienced two Time Warp journeys - one back into the past and one forward into the future - which involved excellent special effects. The tour had a good mix of Geographic and exciting 'adventure' activities based on things that we discovered along the way. One night, we experienced many aspects of Maori culture, including a Hangi, which is a traditional Maori feast. We watched a Maori concert outlining Maori culture and the journey of their ancestors.

After such an action packed trip everyone was glad to get home for a decent snooze, but we had certainly enjoyed ourselves and learnt a great deal about our neighbours across the Tasman. We thank Mr James and Mr Watson for the hard work that went into the tour.

Sam Shields 10FS