Category: Oceania

This past Saturday, I had my last final for my study abroad at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. One week prior, I had my second final, but now my study abroad time is officially over. I’ve said goodbye to all my friends I’ve made over the semester, and just like everyone told me, I’ve made genuine friends that I’ll keep in contact with and hopefully go and visit. I still have a couple of weeks until I leave New Zealand because my parents are coming to visit at the end of November, so I’ll post a couple more blogs after this one, but this will be my main reflection of my time here.

What I learned

Traveling by yourself is the easiest way to grow as a person and really get to know yourself. You find out how you do in a crisis or even under stress. I’ve done a bit of solo traveling prior to coming here, but there are a few things that rival the stress of navigating airports for international flights. From all of this, I’ve learned to give myself more time than I thought I would need to help minimize the stress.

In New Zealand, I found that everyone likes to be extremely casual, from the way of dress, to events, to taking trips. This was originally hard for me when I would plan trips with my friends because sometimes, we would go into the trip with no solid plan and an attitude of “what happens happens” and figuring out activities as we came across them. While this is definitely not my style, I learned to embrace it while I was here and just keeping my eyes open for opportunities to try new things.

As an accounting major, I liked to think that I had a plan for how I was going to spend my money in New Zealand, but there are always little things that come up that I would spend money on. Eating out was a big part of that. You can plan your meals for the week, but it’s hard to say no when your friends want to get dinner or go out for dessert.

I learned that the best way to see the island and to meet people was to just say yes to everything and get out of my comfort zone. This led me to go on a couple of trips with some people that I wasn’t very close with, and end the trip with great friends. Even just in my everyday life, I would say yes to doing little activities throughout the day or night, and I got a lot of new experiences from it. One of my favorites was going to the night that only opens at 11 pm on Thursdays.

I learned that studying abroad is a balance between experiencing the people and place you’re in, but there is also the important part of school. At Otago, there were very few assignments that were due during the semester; it was mostly just midterms and finals, which gave me a lot of time to explore, but when it came time for those assessments, I knew that I needed to put my exploration on hold and focus on school.

What I wish I had known before coming

I didn’t pack very well for study abroad. I brought too many clothes that I didn’t end up wearing, and I didn’t consider how cold the winter in New Zealand would be. I would have brought some warmer clothes with me and fewer summer things. I could’ve looked at the weather and done some more planning for this, and not packed at the last minute.

In orientation, instructors had mentioned that a lot of people bought cars when they went to New Zealand. I originally thought that it was super weird, but my friend did it, and it made things a lot easier. We were able to take a lot more weekend trips for cheaper this way. It also helped with going to the grocery store, as the cheap one is a couple of miles away by bus, and the car made it a lot easier. BUT remember the importance of getting insurance because the roads in New Zealand are hard to drive on, and being on the other side of the road is a little tricky at the beginning.

Going to a less popular study abroad country like New Zealand (in comparison to some of the popular European countries like Italy or Spain) can bring some FOMO to the experience. Some people from DU came to the University of Otago, but not many. We hung out a little in the beginning, but we all found our own groups and split off. I think this is great because we get to make friends from other schools and countries, but it could be hard to see all my friends in Paris or Amsterdam together. Just being aware that I would be missing out on some of those experiences was a little difficult originally, but it’s important to remember that everyone feels like this at some point during their study abroad.

Highlights

In hindsight, getting stuck in Auckland for a day on my way to start my study abroad was one of the best things that could’ve happened to me. I met one of my best friends this way, and we might never have met otherwise.

Participating in Otago’s REO introduction week, where I met another one of my best friends and got to meet a lot of Kiwis.

Weekend trips to Queenstown, Milford Sound, the Fiordland, Christchurch, Lake Tekapo, Mt Cook, etc. Just getting to explore the island and see different towns and cities was incredible.

I loved my classes; it was nice to take different courses that had nothing to do with my major but were interesting to me personally. My crime, shame, and scandal in New Zealand history class was my all-time favorite. The schooling system over here is different from DU, which was confusing, but it worked out in the end.

Being able to meet people who live in Dunedin was cool because everyone was so proud of their home and were excited to talk about it and recommend places to go and things to do. The people overall in New Zealand have been incredible. Everywhere I went people were friendly and welcoming.

My living situation was great; I lived with four other girls in a two-story house. We all got along really well, and it was fun to live with random people and become friends with them; it reminded me of my first year of college at DU.

Lowlights

Due to the weather and all the people in Dunedin, I was sick a lot. I caught every cold that went through the school, got strep, and dealt with sicknesses that just circulated through the flat. The cold medicine over here is a lot weaker than in the US, and you oftentimes have to get a pharmacist to prescribe stuff stronger than Advil. Aside from getting sick, I had a couple of orthopedic issues that prevented me from being able to go out and hike as much as I would have wanted to.

The public transportation is not great here; the buses run infrequently, Uber is not very popular, and without a car, it can be difficult to get around unless you have a lot of time or are willing to walk. I spent a lot of time walking around Dunedin trying to get to the grocery store and to other appointments.

The biggest lowlight of my time in New Zealand was the feelings of homesickness and loneliness. While it didn’t bother me very often, there were days that I would wake up and miss my family and friends from home and college so much that I didn’t want to do anything with my day. On days like that, I found that getting outside and going on walks was helpful. I’d call the people that I missed, but what helped the most was hanging out with my friends that I made in New Zealand. While it didn’t necessarily take away the feeling, it helped me remember that it’s normal to feel this way, and it’s just part of the experience of studying abroad. It also helped to put it in perspective that this is a temporary experience, and while there are some parts that are harder than others, it always gets better.

Final thoughts

Studying abroad has been something I’ve looked forward to for years. When I was applying to DU, one of my favorite parts about it was the ability to travel and the opportunity to study abroad. It can be an overwhelming experience, but one that I wouldn’t trade for the world. It feels like I just got to New Zealand yesterday and also like I’ve been here for the last four years. I’ve loved my time here, and I’m really sad for it to be done, but I’m excited to go home and then back to DU!

Hi guys! I’m a little behind on posting blogs as I was out of service for the last week and now have some major catching up to do.

This past week was the last little bit of free time that I had before I have my two finals. Asha, Josh, and I used this time to go WWOOFing, which is essentially a farming homestay program where you trade manual labor in return for food and accommodation. We had picked this farm 30 minutes outside of Christchurch (a 6-hour drive from Dunedin, where I go to university) that had goats, sheep, chickens, ducks, and a couple of dogs. We had prepared to do some gardening, a little animal care, and whatever other random chores that Merel, the lady who owns the farm, assigned us to do.

We rented a car and made the drive to Christchurch, where we spent the night in a hostel with a random guy who snored so loudly that it kept us up all night. The next day, we made the drive up to Merel’s farm. As soon as we met Merel, she jumped right into the personal questions of religion, politics, her beliefs on climate change, the government, and our fundamental ideas on life. While we all had some conflicting ideas, it was interesting to meet a Dutch woman who moved to New Zealand and her two young grandchildren who lived with her. She has a house that uses hay as the foundation and insulation, and doesn’t allow phones, computers, or any smart devices, as she said she was sensitive to the EMF that they radiate. After this explanation she showed us our rooms and then proceeded to give us our first tasks.

Day 1:

Merel had gone to the farmers’ market and picked out some flowers that needed to be planted, so I did that while Asha and Josh planted some vegetables. Once I had done my task, I helped with the vegetable garden while Josh started to dig a hole for the persimmon tree she wanted to plant. Asha and I were then given 12 cabbage trees, and we planted them in between the goat and sheep pens, as the birds love to nest in them. We had a quick lunch of jam and cheese on bread before Josh went back to his hole, and Asha and I started to mulch her garden. After a brief dinner, we all went to explore the closest town over called Rangiora, where we went to the beach and walked around a bit before playing Hearts back at Merel’s.

Day 2:

We started the day with a yogurt parfait before Josh went back to digging his hole. Asha and I watered her garden and the cabbage trees we planted yesterday. We then pruned the bigger cabbage trees and weeded the vegetable garden before it was lunch. Another meal of bread, jam, and cheese before we were sent to cut the flowers off the rhubarb plant and feed them to the goats. Next, we weeded the side of her house while Josh was still digging a hole for the tree. We helped break down boxes and find other organic material to help her compost pile. That night, after dinner, we got to feed the baby goats and sheep, which was a lot of fun, and Josh finally finished planting the tree. We then went into town again and went to a pub and met a couple of locals. We had an eclectic mix of people at the bar, but it was fun to hang out with Kiwis from more rural areas than Dunedin. I learned about the few New Zealand gangs in the area and played a couple more rounds of Hearts, in which I lost every game.

Day 3:

Day 3 was when our time on the farm started to take a little bit of a turn. After breakfast of yogurt, granola, and fresh goat’s milk, we were given a bag of ash and told to ash the sheep field. This is exactly what it sounds like: Asha rolled the wheelbarrow through the field, while Josh and I would grab handfuls and scatter them throughout the field. This is supposed to help keep carbon in the soil and absorb nutrients so that when it rains, the water won’t wash away as much of the fertilizer. It felt like a medieval task, and we were covered from head to toe in ash by the end of it. Our next task was to clean the chicken coop and check for fleas. I can’t say that this was the most pleasant job, but we got to collect eggs while we were at it. We planted five more cabbage trees before it was time for lunch. This time there were no jam sandwiches and instead I was given four boiled eggs with some lettuce. I’m a vegetarian and I don’t eat fish, which normally is easy for me as I cook my own meals, but I had a little bit of trouble at Merel’s as she ate a lot of fish. As we were in rural New Zealand, there wasn’t anything close by, so I ate my eggs and had to wait until dinner for something more substantial. Asha and I transplanted a couple of trees before we all spread woodchips over the ground we had mulched earlier. While Asha and I took a break, Merel came and talked to us for the first time outside of giving us instructions. She told us the importance of zinc and how that would clear skin from any issue, from acne to rashes. She then preached the use of urine to clear skin, treat wounds, and to drink to help purify the gut. We learned that Merel is a bit of a conspiracy theorist and believes that celebrities are kidnapping young children and draining them of blood so that they can isolate the platelets that are related to youth so that they can stay young forever. This conversation took a little bit of a turn when she suggested that Asha and I both start washing our faces with urine, especially after working on the farm all day. We weren’t sure what to say and got back to mulching pretty quickly after that. That evening, we left to go to a different town and beach, where we got food from a small fish and chips store and walked on the beach for a couple of hours. This is when we decided to cut our stay at Merel’s farm a little short. We planned to stay for one more day, and then we would leave in the morning the day after.

Day 4:

Josh got the short end of the stick on Day 4. He had to flip the goat shed and clean it from poop, mud, while not getting attacked by the brooding duck who lived inside. It took him almost all day, as there were a couple of sheds, and he only had one tiny wheelbarrow. Asha and I were given the task of weeding all of the flower beds, the gardens in front and behind her house, along the driveway, and the road leading up to her house. This task took us from breakfast to dinner, when Josh finally finished the goat sheds, and I mowed the lawn. It was pouring rain that evening, so instead of going to the beach or into town, we stayed at the house and played Hearts and Catan. We had a quiet evening just chatting until we went to bed.

Day 5:

After leaving Merel’s farm, we drove to Lake Tekapo but got stuck in a small town called Fairlie due to road closures because of a sudden snowstorm. While it’s winter in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s currently springtime for us, so this was a big surprise. We took this time to look at the Fairlie Heritage museum before hanging out in the library until we could get to Tekapo. We got lunch at an Indian restaurant before driving around and exploring all of the lakes and mountains in the area. We went on a walk around a lake that had a ton of abandoned trailers, which gave the walk a very dystopian feel. Once we finished our walk, we got ramen for dinner and played more Hearts (I finally won a round) before going to bed.

Day 6:

This was by far the best day that we had overall. We got up early and made the drive out to Mount Cook National Park, where it was a perfect blue sky, and we did the Sealy Tarns Track. The hike itself was a little treacherous as there was still a lot of snow, and it was icy. We weren’t able to make it to the top because the snow got waist-deep, but we made it within 50 meters of it. On our way back down, we saw a small avalanche come off Mount Cook, which was incredible. We spent some time in the visitor center before making the drive back home. We had a chill evening at the hostel watching The Lord of the Rings, playing cards, and chatting with some of the other guests at the hostel.

Day 7:

We finally started the drive back to Dunedin as I had a final I needed to prepare for. On our drive, we made a stop at a gorgeous winery that was tucked into the mountains and did a wine and cheese tasting before wandering the vineyard property for a couple of hours. After a while, we finished the drive back to Dunedin, where I spent the rest of the day trying to prepare for my Crime, Shame, and Scandal test.

It was a really busy week; there were a lot of strange moments and interactions, but we had a great time seeing different parts of the country, having amazing experiences, meeting new people, and spending time with each other. While I’m feeling a little stressed about my final, I still think this was the best way to spend a week in New Zealand. I know this was a lengthy post, but if you made it this far, congrats! See you next time!