Fun
Today was our final activity – taking part in a pottery class at a local potters’ group. The students had a chance to create a clay pot, decorate a piece of pottery, and some had a chance to use a pottery wheel. Lots of fun, and a great chance to learn a new craft.
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Wellington was a chance for the students to explore, shop, eat, and meet people on their own. For 2 days, they explored New Zealand’s capital city.
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Our Backpackers Hotel
Hotel
On the streets
Abbey Road?
Nice statue
At Te Papa Museum
Marae in the museum
Mural
New Zealand’s [...]
Today, we visited one of New Zealand national parks at Abel Tasman[website]… this is one of New Zealand’s most popular parks because of its golden beaches, beautiful weather, and places to enjoy hiking, kayaking and other outdoor sports. We went in by Aqua Taxi, and were treated to some wild water play, and a chance [...]
Today the 1st year students had a chance to meet my parents. After our trip to Founders’ Park, everyone came back to my place to enjoy a delicious afternoon tea together. My parents said our students are delightful, and they really enjoyed meeting them! Tomorrow they will come with us to Abel Tasman National Park.
Tea [...]
Wow, hard to believe we’ve been here 2 weeks! Half our time in New Zealand is gone! Today was a free day, so most of us went to the weekly Nelson Market… this is a special market with 100s of stalls selling only handmade things such as food, vegetables, jewelry, clothing, and so on.
In the [...]
Today (and tomorrow), we split into 2 groups. The Year 1 students went indoor rock climbing while the Year 2 students did a cycling tour of Stoke – a suburb of Nelson. The cyclists had a chance to visit some of Nelson’s original historic buildings – both over 170 years old!
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Continue reading about Day 12-13 – Cycling and rock climbing
New Zealanders love watching cricket and rugby – especially when the games are against Australia! On Wednesday, New Zealand played a 1-day cricket test against Australia (and we won), so Nao invited me for dinner with her homestay family. It was a great night, and Nao’s yakisoba was very delicious. She did a great job, [...]
After a day and a half of hard study, we decided to give the students some fun. Happy Valley is the place in Nelson for outdoor adventures. It’s located about 30 minutes from the city [see Happy Valley website].
Ten of us decided to try the Skywire experience. This is a cage with 4 seats that [...]
Some video from our stay at the Riverside Community…
Bright and early on Saturday morning, 5 girls, Yoshi, Miho (centre member) and I walked up to the hilltop to view the sunrise on a beautiful cloudless day! We then started another busy day:
View the sunrise
Breakfast (toast, fruit, yoghurt, etc)
Peace activities: A series of discussion activities and songs on peace
Scone and breadmaking
Tour of the large [...]
Over the last few days, we’ve had an amazing stay at the Riverside Community [website]. This is an alternative community near Nelson based on the ideas of pacifism and cooperative living. They have a property of about 200ha on which they raise animals, fruit, and vegetables, run a cafe, host events, plus other businesses. We [...]
The students are discovering that the morning lessons are hard… really hard! There are only about 3 students from Seinan in each class, so they’re having to use English for the full 3 hours! This is a great chance for them to brush up their skills!
However, we decided to give them a break this afternoon [...]
On Wednesday, we had a chance to cook our own lunch in the international center’s kitchen. Helped by Emily, we prepared a delicious meal, and everyone left very full! Our menu was:
Pzza (Salami & vegetable, ham & pineapple)
Nachos
Nanaimo bar (a popular local sweet treat. Read about it here)
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Today was probably our most exciting adventure! We went out to Wild Play, and did the Tree to Tree Course! This involved climbing rope ladders, walking across rope bridges, and sliding down zip-lines. All of the students finished the first two stages, which took us up to 15m off the ground. Nine of the students [...]
