It was finally time for our long awaited Geography Tour and we all excitedly gathered outside the airport for the entire BSC team to arrive. After saying our good byes to our parents, twenty-one students of BSC together with three teachers completed all the airport procedures and headed off for a very long flight to Auckland, the largest city of New Zealand.
Once we landed in Auckland, we were met up by the wonderful gentleman Grant, who was to be our guide for the rest of the tour. Grant led us to the bus we would be travelling in for the rest of the tour. The cold weather with a slight drizzle was definitely a treat as it felt good to get away from the prevailing heat and humidity of Colombo. No sooner we settled inside the bus, most of us were dozing off as it was past midnight.
After about a half an hour drive we arrived at our hotel, The Haka Lodge. The girls were allocated one big room while the boys shared rooms in fours. We were more than happy to hear that we had a late wake up time the next morning as we were all feeling extremely tired. But the infectious enthusiasm of commencing this much awaited tour was quite evident when the students carefully arranged everything required for the following day, despite the exhaustion after a very long flight.
The next morning, we all had a filling breakfast consisting of many different choices. An introduction to all the basic things we needed to know about New Zealand, was given by Grant, our tour guide. We learnt an extremely common phrase “Kia Ora” which meant hello and thank you and also “Kiwi” which was the type of people in NZ, the fruit and also the national bird of New Zealand.
We left the Haka Lodge and had a very relaxing walk through an averagely busy road in the Auckland City. As we neared our destination, we saw the top of the colossal Sky Tower peek out through the clouds. We then arrived at the Sky Tower, the tallest man made structure in New Zealand. Near the counters we saw many posters and advertisement about sky diving off the top of the Sky Tower. Some of us wanted to do it
eagerly, while some rejected the idea straight away. However, the teachers were strictly against it too, and they all unanimously suggested doing it “another time”. We were then shown a video about the history and the general facts about the Sky Tower.
We split into two groups and got into the two lifts to head all the way up. The bottoms of the lifts were made of glass and as we went up we saw the quite scary view below us. Everyone was so excited about that experience, but that was nothing compared to what was in store for us ahead. We got out of the lift and onto the spectacular observation deck. We were amazed by the view of all the buildings far and wide. We peeked down at the cars that looked like ants from the height we were at. On the deck, we even walked on parts where it was glass and looking down from it was astounding. This was a truly captivating experience!
We then visited the Auckland Museum where we learnt much about New Zealand’s history, Polynesian Navigation and about the many Gods and legends of the Maori, New Zealand’s indigenous people. We were able to see many significant ancient carvings and learnt the history of the Maori tribe. In the World War 2 section, the ceiling was designed with 16 badges of countries that were part of the war. Amongst those badges, it was amazing to see Sri Lanka’s badge with an elephant and a coconut tree shining upon the ceiling of the Museum.
That night we all came back to the hotel, got everything organized for the long drive tomorrow and gathered in the TV room. The TV room was a cozy hangout filled with cushions and blankets. The teachers ordered pizza and we all watched a movie together. It was a really great and fun end to the day.
The next morning after breakfast we headed off in the bus on a long ride for the Coromandel Peninsula, which is renowned for its natural beauty, green pastures and golden beaches. The BSC team arrived at the dazzling Mercury Bay and Whitianga, and checked in to the Turtle Cove Backpackers. We had fish and chips at the park for lunch and it was really enjoyable to have our lunch facing a beautiful lake. We also fed some seagulls who kept following us afterwards.
One of the most enlightening experiences of the tour, the kiwi bone carving was the next in our schedule. We were split into two groups and both groups took turns in the activities. While one group carved their necklaces, the other went shopping at The Warehouse. We learnt that the bones were in fact cow bones and we were taught step by step how to make our own pendants using many sculpting tools such as the drill and sandpaper. There were three designs for us to choose from: the Koru (new life and purity), the Fish Hook (prosperity, abundance and strength) and the Patu (authority and power).
Carving and polishing our bones and making our own kiwi pendant were an incredible experience and it was amusing to see everyone excitedly comparing each others necklaces. This was a souvenir that all of us wore right throughout the tour and some, even to date. After the remarkable bone carving experience, we went back to the hotel and rested for a while, before going out for dinner.
That evening, we hurriedly changed and proceeded to the Maori village. We were thoroughly entertained by the host of the main tour as he was extremely funny and was well conversant in so many different languages. We were also taken on a short tour to see many different things in a Maori village. Before we set off for the tour, we were shown our dinner being cooked in the special underground stove. The dinner was called a Hangi Feast and it comprised of chicken, lamb, carrots, potatoes, yams etc. and they were slow cooked in the stove.
While exploring the village we saw a model of a Maori war boat and later we were taken into a deep dark jungle where we saw a group of Maori’s perform a war dance with fire in their boats on a river. Then the Maori people entertained us with some unique dances and songs. Soon after the Maori performance we all took our seats in the place where we would have our authentic Hangi Feast. We had one of the most delicious meals prepared by our hosts, especially the smoky taste given to all the food by being cooked in the special stove for more than three hours.
The next day, we visited one of the highlights of the region and another much awaited experience; the Hot water Beach. Firstly when we stepped into the water of the actual sea we were all quite disappointed as it was cold, in fact not just the normal temperature, but freezing! Then the
teachers handed us shovels and took us to the middle of the beach and advised us to start digging. We then realized that the water there was steaming hot due to the active molten flowing underneath. We made pools of water and once we all got in we could barely stand in some areas for more than five seconds as the water was boiling. Then we dug another hole in a place that would be less hot and it was so soothing to our feet to stand in those pools. We were all truly astonished!
Next, we went to the stunning Cathedral Cove for Sea Kayaking, which is considered as one of the best kayaking tours in New Zealand. We all got into pairs and after learning all the basics rules, we put on our life jackets and got into our kayaks. We moved onto the other side of the sea and after an extremely fun kayak, we arrived at the shore of the other side of the Cathedral Cove. It was quite astounding to note that the colour of the sand in some areas was black because we were standing on top of an area with active volcanic activity. Bathing under a freezing cold waterfall and being treated with a nice and hot mug of hot chocolate and cookies afterwards was bliss! After we were done with eating and playing around on the beautiful shores, we began to kayak back to our starting point. For most of us who kayaked for the first time; this was truly an unforgettable experience.
After a few more hours of travelling we arrived at Rotorua, one of the longest standing tourist destinations in New Zealand. We all realized that when we opened the windows of our bus we were greeted with the stench of rotten eggs. Grant explained to us that this was the traditional smell of Rotorua, due to all the sulfur in the cooking pools and hot springs.
That night most of the year 8’s were feeling tired after a long day of activities, so the five older students went to the natural spa and there we got an experience that was extremely fun and relaxing at the same time. There was one extremely hot pool that smelled like rotten eggs due to the natural substances (which is supposed to be very good for skin) that were in it, and the other pool was a normal pool with a water slide to enter it.
After that relaxing experience, we joined our other friends and once we were all organized and ready for the next day, the tired little souls hit the bed.
On day 5, we visited the Whakarewarewa village which was a living Maori village. We were welcomed by a bunch of young boys called penny divers who swam in a lake and collected the money thrown into the lake, in their mouths. It was fun to watch them swim for the money and grapple over each other. Then we saw many natural pools which all had the distinctive smell of sulphur. We were able to see the world famous Champagne Pool which was the largest hot spring with bubbling mud and steam in the village. We learnt that even food was cooked in some of these pools and we had the opportunity to taste some delicious corn and eggs cooked in those very pools.
While we were there we saw the Whare Tupuna, an ancestral house or the main village house. This house is of great significance to the Maori people as the house symbolized a God; the roof of the house as its arms and the door as its mouth. Around the Whare Tupuna were many fabulous carvings and we noticed that all the people carved on it had only three fingers. Apparently, the three fingers symbolizes the three life processes: Birth, Life and Death.
We saw many more geothermal activity and then we made our way to a place where we were entertained by another tribe of Maoris’s with their cultural performances. Once the performance was over, the boys and the girls of our team were separated and the boys headed off to learn the Haka, while the girls learnt the traditional Poi dance. The girls learnt their dance quite quickly and managed to learn the haka as well, that in fact too better than the boys! In the end, we all learnt the true meaning, purpose and the history of Haka and performed the Haka together and we also look forward to performing for the BSC family at the upcoming Geography tour assembly.
That night we had the preferred fast food of any child; burgers, fries and chicken wings. We had all sorts of food to choose from and the portions were so huge we barely could finish all the food so we all took it back to our hotel, the YHA Treks and had it at night.
The following day, we were on our journey to Taupo, named as one of the twenty most surreal places in the world. On our way to Taupo, we stopped at a thermal park and geyserland at Wai O Tapu to see the world famous, Lady Knox Geyser, which erupts daily to heights of up twenty
meters. It was amazing to see how something so magical could happen in nature itself. We all stared in awe as the water shot up and stayed up for so long and then calmly went back down again.
That day we went to a naturally heated thermal rock pool and we all got into it and spent some time soaking in all the minerals from the quite hot water, after that we all got into a freezing cold lake and had a good swim in the freezing cold water. Some of us even dared to go further where the current was slightly stronger. This experience was pure magic!
We ended that night by having a spicy Indian dinner and it felt so good to eat something that was similar to food back home. On our way back to our hotel, the Haka Lodge Taupo, we stopped near a lake and watched the beautiful sunset and captured some unforgettable pictures with the picturesque scenery.
The next day was our last day in New Zealand and the BSC team who had become one big family by the time, were feeling sad to leave one another and return to Sri Lanka.
However, we decided to make most of the last day and proceeded to see the fascinating Waitomo Glow Worm Caves. These caves were a limestone region with underground streams and so many amazing stalagmites and stalactites. We got into a boat and were silently gliding through the starry Glow Worm grotto in a pitch black cave where we saw myriad of beautiful glow worms glittering and reflecting off the water. Sadly, we weren’t allowed to take any pictures as it would disturb the glow worms.
Our final activity was visiting the Fonterra Farm where we saw the machinery and techniques used to milk the cows and the whole process of how we get our dairy products. We were interviewed by Fonterra for a commercial and were also treated with fresh milk, cookies and ice creams freshly produced by Fonterra. After having our delicious snacks we headed back to our very first hotel in Auckland, the Haka Lodge.
That night we had our formal dinner at a very fancy Italian restaurant with a spectacular view of the sea and the harbor and all the girls and
boys wore their formal attire. After enjoying our scrumptious dinner, we headed back to the hotel and concluded our packing for the tour.
The next morning, after our last breakfast in Auckland, we all said our final good byes with a lot of mixed feelings. While four students stayed back for an extended stay in New Zealand or to proceed to another country for an extended holiday, the others said goodbye to the beautiful New Zealand and headed off on their flights back home to Sri Lanka.
This Geography Tour was hands down one of or probably the best foreign educational tours we ever had. It was not only an educational tour but an unforgettable fun filled experience where twenty one students gained an immense knowledge on many new things. Leaving our comfortable surrounding and staying out for seven days with students from different age groups and teachers, helped us to develop many qualities like self-confidence, self-reliance, punctuality, responsibility, leadership, tolerance and above all general knowledge.
This tour gave us the much required practical experience of the world when we acquainted ourselves with the styles of living, habits, customs and traditions of people. We would like to thank Ms Juri, Ms Rose and Mr Prabash in doing such an excellent job in organizing such an amazing tour and looking after us with utmost care and most importantly coping with us for that whole week. We consider ourselves extremely fortunate to have spent those seven days under your guidance, protection, love and care and we are grateful for all what we learnt from you throughout this tour. Kia Ora Teachers!
