Lattitude Global Volunteering

Fiona with her students

Holi was on the 8^th of March this year, and it was absolutely amazing! A lot of the other volunteers in India met up in Siliguri (the plains celebrate Holi more enthusiastically than the hill people), and some met in Darjeeling, but Martha and I stayed at our placement to celebrate with the boarders, and I am so glad that we did! I love all the kids to bits, so it would’ve been fun spending the day with them regardless, but nothing anyone has told me about Holi prepared me for just how fun it was. Ghayabari is just a small village, but the shops were still stocked to overflowing with Holi colours (we mostly used the powder, not the wet paint) in the most radiant shades imaginable. The purples were my favorite, but all of them were beautiful. We spent the morning chasing each other around throwing the colours and yelling “happy Holi!” at everyone we met, then headed down to the river to spend the afternoon trying to get our skin clean again. Everyone spent the whole time laughing at us, because our lighter skin was a lot harder to clean, but we got there eventually. We had to walk through the jungle to get to the river, and cooked our lunch inside bamboo stems, so the whole day was completely different to anything I’d ever experienced before. India is the most incredible place, and while not everyday is quite as crazy as Holi, ever day offers something new and exciting… I don’t think I’ll ever be ready to go home.

I’ve been in Rimbick for 12 days so far and it’s been amazing. The first night I arrived at 6pm, the dinner time at Sakya Choepheling monastery. I had my first non vegetarian meal served to me in months! Tugpa is a kind of Tibetan soup made with chunks of meat and thick doughy noodles. I tried my best to eat around the meat and aim for the noodles. The monastery has meat meals 3 times a week and I think it’d be a bit under nourishing to only eat vegetarian meals with the limited supply of crops that are available Rimbick. It seems like every grocery shop sells only garlic, potatoes, tomato, chilli, cauliflower and a kind of Asian spinach. There is one cook at the monastery that lives with his wife and child in a single room attached to the kitchen. I am so grateful to him for the mountains of food he single handedly produces for all of us every meal.

During the week played cricket and football with the monks and even lost 200 rupees in a Tibetan gambling card game with the monks.

Although Rimbick is a 4.5hr drive further into the Himalayan foothills than Darjeeling it sells a lot more things than I would’ve thought.  I have seen DVD players, large speakers, SKY sets, mobile phones and they even have a 24hr doctor all on a one road town centre.

As well as teaching English at the monastery I went to help out at Rosarium academy yesterday for the first time. The other two volunteers, Lily and Lucy, have been telling me about how difficult it was at the school and I finally realised what they meant yesterday. As soon as I got there I was left alone with a class of 6 year olds who would not focus on me for more than 3 seconds and who were constantly asking to go to the toilet. I admire Lucy and Lily for being able to go and teach at the school every day.

Rimbick is a beautiful village perched on the side of a massive hill looking straight across at another massive hill which is the beginning of Sikkim state. The walks I have been on so far have been amazing. Today 3 of the junior monks and I walked one and a half hours down the road to where the road ends and people have to start walking. We came to a bridge and across it a small cluster of buildings called Sirikhola where tourist trekkers can stay the night. It was truly breathtaking, especially on an almost perfectly clear day.

George with a friend

Hi there!

I flew home to New Zealand from the UK the week before Christmas, 1 year, 27 countries and an incredible lifetime of experience later. I’d never kept a diary before but got into the habit for the year I was away, so in my hand-luggage (didn’t want to risk losing them!) was FIVE completely full journals full of all sorts of things as well as writing like drawings, ticket stubs, entrance stickers, sprays of perfumes, pictures, random poetry, and all my amazing memories. I spent a few nights in Hong Kong on my way back and started reading through the diaries whilst I was there, I couldn’t believe how much I had changed in the kinds of things I was writing about and the kinds of emotions I was recording, I grew up so much because of this experience and to do a Gap Year was really the greatest decision I’ve made so far. All the friends I’ve made from all over the world, all the things I’ve seen and done, and all the things I’ve learnt about myself are priceless and I can’t help but smile every day at what and opportunity to learn about the world doing a Gap Year offers you.

My advice to anyone on a Gap Year is one: Keep a diary, you do so much you want to make sure you remember it all later on. And two: Don’t be afraid to say ‘yes’ to things, you never know what crazy things might happen, like hanging out with Ian Somerhalder in Barcelona, being in North Africa when rebel forces killed Colonel Gaddafi, or making new best friends with the person you ended up sleeping next to squeezed up on the shores of Gallipoli the night before ANZAC Day…..

So thank you so very much Lattitude!!!

-Georgia

When the kiwi’s take over…

After an eventful trip through customs requiring Emily to be drug and gunshot residue tested at every stop we made it onto Canadian soil. Where we were met by the lovely Pia, Stuart and the Lattitude team with a box of  our newly beloved Tim Hortons donuts, we then ventured through the streets of Vancouver, where Emily immediately began regretting over packing although she did manage to con some poor guy into carrying her bags, while Hazel played tourist taking as many pictures as humanly possible.

We then arrived at our hostel where we collapsed into tired heaps on our beds before being summoned to head on out for a night of five pin bowling and pizza.

The next day we rose from our warm beds to head to the Vancouver library where we were orientated about our upcoming year. After an eventful morning many of us headed off to the airport to catch our flights to our final and most fabulous destination. But not before Canada airlines booted Emily off our flight because of a faulty door, which was when Lattitude came to our rescue. Several hours later we landed in Calgary full of excitement and feeling slightly relieved to be met by several staff members from our beloved Kamp Kiwanis. They took us on a very eventful outing to Walmart to get supplies, at which we were slightly overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the place. We then were taken to our camp, Kamp Kiwanis. Upon our arrival we were met with an extreme scavenger hunt around the icy, snowy unfamiliar Kamp in the dark. We then began to create our new Kamp personas whilst trying to demolish ice cream cake. We finally decided on our camp names, Emily is now referred to as Fern, Hazel as Tui and Emma as Tiki. Over the next week, we learnt many programs and a had great time getting to know our new colleagues whilst continuing on our mission to finish the ice cream cake.

It then came time to have kids at our Kamp and our energy levels sky rocketed. However the week was a lot of work and the Canadians predictions that we would all start drinking coffee soon came true when Hazel and Emily in a moment of complete exhaustion reached for a cup of the strong stuff, this aside we had an amazing first week and we were sad to see the kids go back to school. That weekend we had our first major experience of travelling on our own when we had a weekend in the ski and snowboard haven that is Banff. We learnt how to book hotels, use Canadian public transport and most importantly that Kiwis have a built in radar and can find a fellow country man anywhere, we’re pretty sure we meet all the Kiwis that live in Banff.

This past week has been Spring Break here in Canada, so we have had a maintenance week here at Kamp meaning Emma spent at least three days painting two precise replicas of the Earth to be used as table settings, whilst everybody else completed their’s in less than half a day.

It is a great relief to know that Lattitude is there to support us and help us out of any situations, shown by our experiences so far.

We are having an awesome time and we are also looking forward to the rest of the Lattitude gappers coming to join us soon.

Emma (Tiki) Neal , Emily (Fern) McDonald, Hazel (Tui) Buchanan.

Lattitude was pretty stoked to receive the following email from a parent of one of our volunteers in Argentina. This is what it’s all about!

Hi Ladies,

Apologies for the late message, it has been exactly 7 sleeps since Chance left for Argentina last week.  We have since skyped & I have met his Host Brother Thomas, seen around the home & meet the 4 family dogs that Chance will I am sure enjoy. His host Dad was still @ work in the orchard and he has yet to meet with his sister & mama, but none the less he has an amazing whanau and has already connected well with Dad & the bro…lol. He arrived in Cillipotle (wrong spelling I think) near Neuquén some time at the end of last week and was greeted by his host father whose first question to Chance was do you play Rugby? He then took him to sign him up with their local under 19 rugby team Marabumba  lol….so the initial time already has been an awesome experience for Chance. Once he settles in I am sure he will miss us (maybe?) I know his brother & sister are so missing big brother, and it’s only been a week, I am too, but am so excited at the opportunities & life experiences Chance will have ahead of him. I briefly saw and meet one of the boys with Chance and the two other girls @ Auckland airport, this made it soooooo much easier to say goodbye, sending him off with other young &great NZ kids, or should I say adults.  I am sure the other parents were also thinking the same….So a big thank you to the whole Latitude team. I am truly grateful for the opportunity that we have been granted especially considering our very late application…lol….

As a mother I would just like to express my deepest thanks to all of you who organised and supported myself & Chance over these last few months. Especially in the last few weeks when Visas and apostilles were still in progress and time was ticking by, so Thanks to everyone for your constant support.

Please forward this to those who have also been a part of the organising team, including those in Argentina, unfortunately I don’t have their e-mails.

Once again, thank you one and all, I would have never been able to organise something this big on my own, with all your guys knowledge and networks it has made my sons goal and dream of travelling overseas come to fruition. Prior to this, Chance has been surrounded by amazing people in our community of “Gizzy” who have nurtured, growled, feed, clothed, supported, challenged, lead, let lead and allowed him to dream and grow into a wonderful young man.  So the production of great people from all around NZ usually involves a whole community, well that’s my experience. So to all of you out there who have now joined my little community of support, I am forever grateful.

Have a great day one and all….xxxx

With much love & gratitude

Alex AKA Chances Mama

Chance in La Boca, Buenos Aires

Hola todos!

It’s been one week and three days since I left wonderful New Zealand of Argentina….. and boy what a week and three days it has been. I currently sit at my host families computer having no idea where to start. I don’t want to bore anyone, so hopefully this wont be too long. I guess I should start with where it all started yes…..

I departed Wellington at 12.05pm last Tuesday. I left a very teary eyed mother and the rest of my family for this big adventure to Argentina. I took in the New Zealand country side one last time as I flew from Wellington to Auckland for my flight to Santiago. I don’t think it had hit me yet that in less than 17 hours I would be on a foreign continent 10000km from little Aotearoa. I arrived in Auckland and made my way to the international terminal to find the other three New Zealand gappers waiting patiently for me to check in. With my bags on the plane I made my way to the international departure gates whilst the others said goodbye to their families.

We had heard that we would be meeting the 12 Australian gappers in the Auckland terminal and sure enough there they were and upon meeting they immediately in sued the Kiwi bashing. Although they were all awesome people and I might even be travelling with them around South America after my 4 month placement finishes. We made our way to the departure gate and well….. departed New Zealand, bound for South America.

Having never really flown long distances before I was quite excited by the fact that I would have my own T.V with multiple movies and t.v shows. I thought the flight would be over in no time. How wrong I was. Two hours in…. dead bored and wanting just to get there. One thing that amazed me was the ability of the flight attendants to speak about 3 or 4 different languages to the passengers! I think there were Spanish, English, Portuguese and even Italian! The flight went slowly but I managed to make friends with a little Brazilian boy who was 8 years old called Juan Pablo. He was flying all by himself! We managed to find out that both of us were football fans so because of the language barrier all we did was say player names and then agree if they were good or not! That passed like 20 minutes…. Anyway we arrived in Santiago and had a 5 hour wait there. They anticipation only grew!

We boarded our flight to Buenos Aires! Only a two flight but the scenery was absolutely amazing! We were lucky we had a clear day so we were able to see the absolutely magnificent Andes ranges as we flew over. I spent a good hour of that flight with my mouth open in awe. We touched down in Buenos Aires and that was something else… 80 kilometres in diameter and over 10 million inhabitants. I just couldn’t get over it! After going in the wring customs line and having to go all the way back to the start of another line I finally made it “into” Buenos Aires.

We boarded a bus and drove more than 45 minutes to our Hostel in Palermo. People here drive like crazy by the way. No regard for the law. Upon arrival to the hostel we meet probably the most amazing woman I have ever met. Kika the Lattitude representative of Argentina. She had a dinner of Empanadas (a filling filled pastry) waiting for us and we all awkwardly ate and small talked with the 6 volunteers from England Wales and Canada. Having not slept for more than 24 hours most of us crashed straight after dinner.

We awoke to an absolute scorcher of a day with the temperature 25 degrees and rising rapidly! It was only 9 30 as well! We had been arranged a tour of Buenos Aires on bus but first we eat our first Argentinean lunch out at a cafe called Donca. Rhys (a fellow volunteer from Wales) and I both met the love of our lives at this restaurant. She shall be called Colombo because we never plucked up the courage to ask her name. She was a Columbian waitress at Donca. I think I’m going to go live in Columbia now……. Anyway we boarded the bus for our tour and our first stop was Ricoletta. Ricoletta is one of the biggest cemeteries in the world and all the graves are layered out like the streets of Buenos Aires. It is called `the second city’. It is a cemetery for the very wealthy with giant tombs encasing the coffins or ashes of the wealthiest families in Argentina.

Travelling to the south of the city we arrived at La Boca. Influenced by Italian immigrants all the houses and streets were painted with every colour imaginable. Home of the famous Boca Juniors who play at the La Bombonero (chocolate box) and the birth place of Tango. Whilst walking the streets I got asked twice “come have a drink with my sister, she is waiting in the basement” which I later found out was translated into “I am tricking you into buying a prostitute”. Good thing I said no…. Tango dancers lined the streets with little stores selling all sorts of trinkets and gifts. I regret not buying anything .

Later that evening we went out and had dinner at a night club called Kika (not the kika mentioned before). Yes you read it correctly; we had dinner at a night club. Trust me it was one of the weirdest experiences of my life. Eating a three course meal whilst dance music blared and lights flashed all around. We stayed out late and “discoed” but grew very tired as the morning came closer. We learnt that no one really comes out until 4 in the morning…. That when we left. Better get used to it I guess

The next day we took a boat trip from Tigre to the “Isla de Tigres” where we were treated to a traditional Argentinean barbecue (if it sounds like we are eating a lot you would be correct). We went out to dinner at Donco with, much to my delight, Columbo working again. We had what was called Milliones which is basically, a ginormous piece of crumbed beef. But boyyyyyyy is it tasty. This was accompanied with probably the largest baked potato I have seen, maybe ever known by man.

They next day was spent having free time and wandering the streets of Bs As. We spent about half an hour trying to order pizza at a pizzeria. But finally we managed. We ate probably the best Ice cream I have ever had too (sorry NZ). Unfortunately, whilst out and about one girl from the group did get her necklace mugged right off her neck. It was a pure gold necklace for “safe travels”. How ironic.

Later that night, another disaster hit. We were preparing to leave on a bus from Buenos Aires to Neuquén. But, typical Argentina, the bus union decided to strike. No buses were allowed to leave Bs As. Unbeknownst to us we set out for the bus station. The traffic was absolutely insane. We weren’t able to make it to the station so the taxi driver made us get out and take the subway. If outside was about 20 degrees, inside the subway felt like 50 degrees. It was disgusting. Carrying 20 kg’s of luggage (yes I know I took too much) up stairs and through countless people, I believe I lost about 5 kgs. Arriving at the station and finding that no buses were leaving we pitched our tent and waited. Kika was rushing around finding out every little bit of information possible and bringing us snacks and water. I began to think that nothing happened in Argentina without her approval first. God bless her. After 4 hours of waiting we finally found that buses began to move and soon enough our bus was called for us to board. Although I was sad to leave my new friends from all over the world. We will keep in touch though.

We boarded our bus to Neuquén to find probably the most amazing seats ever. Comfier than a plane, they almost reclined completely flat. You can be safe to assume that I slept for the majority of this bus ride.

After the 15 hour trip to Neuquén we exited the bus to find our host families waiting for us. A hug and a kiss from my host mother Andrea and I was on my way to my new home. I met my host sister Martina (who is 9) in a cafe where I was fed a massive sandwich filled with steak! Protein galore, I know.

We arrived at my new house to find a police van outside. Great I thought a rough neighbourhood. Lucky me. But this thought was soon extinguished, as we found that it was just a loose wire in the alarm system. I met my host father, Beto, who doesn’t speak a word of English, but he is still hilarious, although, I don’t know what he is saying half the time. I slept from 3 in the afternoon till 9 the following morning and was treated to Asado. A traditional Argentinean barbecue on Sundays. We then slept because it was too hot to do anything outside. I like this place. We then visited my host mothers brother. His daughter showed me their pets. They have fish……. two turtles……. and albino hedgehog and a snake which they didn’t know where it was! Because that didn’t make me nervous at all!

This week I have been just getting to know Neuquén and working my way round my places of work. I will be teaching for Multiliguas (a language institute) and at Confluencia (a local private high school). Having been to Confluencia, I was absolutely amazed at the level of English these 15 16 17 year old children can speak. They are borderline fluent. They have 6 hours of school a day and 3 hours of that day is completely dedicated and IN ENGLISH! They do 14 subjects and studying things like history and geography IN ENGLISH! It really is crazy.

To give you an idea Neuquén is a city about the size of Palmy North and with the population of Wellington. I walk to the city everyday for work and next week I will begin really working with a timetable. There is little crime (that I know of) and most people seem very nice. It’s mostly but it hardly ever rains even in winter so everything has to be irrigated manually. Also the footpath is absolutely destroyed so you need to look where you are going……. trust me I know! Otherwise you look like and absolutely fool tripping up in the middle of a busy street.

Sorry this went on for so long….. I can’t believe his is only my first week….. Feels like forever. Keep me updated with all the goss in Wellies and around the place. And I miss you all a ton. Come visit me please.

But for now Ciao Ciao (kiss on the check) <—– that’s just how it is here. Even if you don’t know the person.

xoxoxox

Sean/Juan.

Hi Lorna, Sharyn and the Lattitude Team

Just emailing to say thank you for all your help with organising everything for my gap year. I am loving it! The school I am working at is beautiful and the staff and students are very welcoming and supportive.

On my first day I was already involved in classes and fixtures, which helped me adjust quickly to my new surroundings. I have now had a chance to explore the town of Reading a bit more which is also amazing, especially the shopping!! There will be many things that will be hard to leave at the end of the year.

I have been involved in many school clubs and groups such as gym, dance, diving and have recently started a cheerleading squad at school, which has been very popular. I am currently helping out with the running of the upcoming Gym and Dance Show happening next week which will showcase the students abilities and choreography. I have also been involved in and  booked into a lot of school trips for the year, mixing between the junior and senior schools. One that I am especially looking forward to is a Watersports trip to the South of France at the beggining of the summer, which should be very exciting.

On the half-term holiday just been I was lucky enough to have my parents visit. We did a road trip of the UK in 5 days which was a bit of a mission but worth every minute. It really allowed me to see the country and experience the true elements of Britain, from pub lunches, old inns and castle ruins. It was also quite good for my parents as I feel that now they are a little more confident in my decision by seeing what I am doing, what the school is like and what my accomadation is like. I also am very appreciative for Skype, as I can easily keep in touch with not only my family, but my friends, which makes me feel a lot less home sick. I am looking forward to the rest of the year and the travelling that I have planned. Thank you again for all the Lattitude team has done. I would highly recommend this experience, I have already learnt so much.

Thanks

Marnie

My Gap Year experience in Canada so far has been awesome.

Before leaving New Zealand I was nervous for weeks, but as I arrived in Vancouver for orientation and met other volunteers I have been lucky enough to skip the homesickness. I have done things that have been out of my comfort zone and things that I never thought I would be able to do, for example, I was in Vancouver by myself and got lost and was unable to find my way back to the hostel but now I look back and laugh about it and it is a good feeling knowing that I had walked around Vancouver by myself and eventually found my way back.

My next obstacle was getting from one side of Canada to the other. I was nervous for the transfers and big airports I would have to go through, after I made it through the first flight and eventually to Halifax I was so happy that I had been through some of the biggest airports by myself and it was a good feeling of accomplishment.

Since being in Halifax I have enjoyed meeting new people and making friends with the locals as they are all so friendly and welcoming. I have been working at childcares and school programs which have been a good experience and good training being around children before camp starts in April. I enjoy being from another country as people are more amused by us and have an interest to talk to us and it is also  interesting listening and talking to locals.

I have also done a lot of things around Halifax for example been to Basketball and Ice hockey games which was a great experience as we do not have Ice Hockey in New Zealand. I have been ice skating which was a lot of fun and cool as it is outside with no rails to hold onto which was different and a bit nerve racking at first, and I have also been and looked around the city, and tried some of the local foods such as donairs and poutine.

My overall experience in Canada so far has been amazing an I am so happy that I chose to come overseas for a year I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else doing something else other than where I am and I look forward to the adventures ahead of me.

Lattitude just recieved an email from Jamie, our first NZder to go to an Indigenous school placement in Australia, exciting!

Hey everyone,

I hope all is well in New Zealand. Over here it has been absolutely pouring with rain for the last week. Its been raining so hard the roads flood and the other day part of the field turned into a river. I was out driving and got got caught in a downpour, it was intense.

Since Monday things have really changed because the students have arrived. Due to the bad weather flights from some of the remote communities have been cancelled, so only half of the indigenous students are here so far. I’ve started working at the school during the day in classes. Essentially my classes are either indigenous or non-indigenous. In the indigenous classes I have been assisting teachers help new kids settle in, helping with computer work and art. In my non-indigenous classes I have been helping with maths and careers. My time table is yet to change quite a bit. I think I’ll be picking up some music and sport classes too. I really hope I can get involved in the P.E department.

There is an organisation here at the school called CLONTARF who essentially organise football (Aussie rules) games to encourage the kids to enjoy and stay at school. Thursday after school we had a game, it was so much fun! It was my first game and its a really great sport. We’ll be having regular games and trainings on Tuesdays and Fridays. Since then I’ve played more football, soccer and basketball with the kids, it’s great fun and they are all very good at sport.

As the week has gone on I’ve started to get to know some of the kids, however they are very quiet at first!  I am working in the senior boys house in the evenings. I just hang out, occasionally helping with homework and supper.

On Saturday us gappies had the day off, so we drove out to the Adelade river to go on a crocadile tour. It was pretty cool, they got the crocodiles to jump out of the water for some meat. We saw quite a few animals that day like snakes, wallabies and kangaroos. We even nearly ran over some dingos on the way out to the river! In the evening I found a green tree frog out the front of my house. I picked him up, he was a pretty cool frog.

That evening we went out to a restaurant for dinner (gee I feel like I’ve been eating too well). I had curry, it was very good. I would also highly recommend the Australian wine “Yellow Tail”, it is very very good.

Cya

Jamie

Darwin Beach

Getting close to nature

Kormilda

Hello everyone,

It has now been more than three months since we arrived in New Zealand.

Time for a report!

We are five girls from Germany, all from different parts which not seldom causes little debates about words or even aroused the good old east-west comparison. As you see, we have heaps of fun together and it is really nice to have a girls’ night every day.

Our placement is a wonderful school laying in Manawatu, “the best of rural life” as a big advertisement for the little town it is in says.

The school is quite small with less than 300 students. So much the better for us, it’s a familiar atmosphere here and it seems doable to keep in mind all of the girls’ names.

We were welcomed very heartily and the helpfulness and kindness of the other staff members haven’t diminished since. You can really say that we are in good hands. Our scope of duties – the assistance of individual students, canter track supervision (the school has its own equestrian academy) or boarding duties – is very various which is good. Conclusion: We are really lucky with our placement.

Now, next catchword: New Zealand. Or perhaps the most beautiful end of the world.

We have now already had plenty of time to get to know (and love) the characteristics of the inhabitants of the “green island”. There is the traditional morning tea, the well-known “sweet (as)”, the notice that the Kiwis daub butter on everything – doesn’t matter if it’s sweet or salty, the easy-going attitude (very nice ), their biiiig love for Rugby (with which we were also infected due to RWC) and the pride for their country that we can really understand. For in New Zealand the whole spectrum of mother nature’s variety fits on about 270.000 km² -  whereas it needs a whole continent for that in some places.

Because we live in a very rural area our device for the weekend often is: Let’s do a trip! Probably we have already seen more now than gappies living in bigger towns.

After only three months we have already visited most of the North Island. Our faithful van “Sonny Dan Nonu” ( named after the perhaps greatest Rugby players of New Zealand  ) was always with us. Almost right at the beginning of the last term we went to beautiful Tongariro National Park to go skiing on Mount Ruapehu. It was also a good opportunity to meet some other volunteers. We went on to Taupo, where we could admire the wonderful mountain scenery behind the lake. New Plymouth, Hamilton, Raglan, the Waitomo Glowworm Caves…on the way there we also had a little adventure. Deadlocked in the middle of nowhere and it was getting darker and darker. But we found a lonely farm and we could once again meet the Kiwis’ helpfulness. The guy said he would “just go and grab something” – and came back with a tractor! All’s well that ends well. So we could drive on and didn’t have to spend the night with all the possums around us. Just the right pinch of adventure we decided!

In the last holidays we went on our first longer roadtrip and were joined by some other gappies. Two volunteers from England and one from Canada came along which finally forced us to talk in English all day long (fortunately – because this was in principle one of our purposes. But with five Germans…)

Our holiday destinations were Northland and Coromandel. So: 15 people, 5 cars and nearly 3000 km to drive.

Surfing in Raglan, Trounson Kauri Park, watching the sunset on giant sand dunes, a walk to Cape Reinga with a fantastic look-out, Ninety Mile Beach, every evening sitting together with a guitar, a harmonica and the blues, countless beaches, mudslinging, boiling cooling water, blue bays, Hot Water Beach, Cathedral Cove,…We really spent awesome holidays together. So it is as clear as mud that saying goodbye wasn’t easy. But: It was just the beginning of many other journeys like this one.

As you can gather from our report, we are enjoying our year in New Zealand to the full. Our time here is made unique by all the nice people and moments, great landscapes and the experience to once be on the other side at school.

At this point we would like to thank Lattitude very much for the great organization and their support

We hope that all the other gappies are having such a wonderful time as we have!

Best wishes,

Anna, Silja, Maria, Thea and Bente