Study Tour


Last summer, nine students and Miss Kwan went to Auckland Avondale College in New Zealand. It was a fruitful and very enjoyable trip. The study tour consisted of three main parts. We completed a 30-hour English course, went sightseeing and joined the 'Buddy Programme'. The college decided the course work for us according to our English abilities. It was great fun that Rae, our English teacher, always played English games with us. We learned a lot of new words, especially those related to New Zealand. We also performed a mini drama using the traditional stories of Maori, the native people of New Zealand. There are many good places to visit in Auckland. These included the Auckland Museum, where we watched a Maori Concert; the Maritime Museum, where we went sailing and had the chance to steer the yacht; Kelly Tarlton's and Mission Bay, where we saw animals living in the sea and also saw Pohutukawa, the special Christmas tree of New Zealand! We also went to Auckland Zoo where we saw the bird representing New Zealand – Kiwi! They ran very fast and we could only see them when it was dark. We also travelled out of Auckland and headed south to Rotorua where most of us went horse riding for the first time. It was a cloudy and windy day but we were all excited about going for a walk with our horses and watching a sheep show! What's more, we would have never thought that in Rotorua we could see what we had read in Geography books! There were mud pools and water coming out suddenly like a fountain (geysers) because the lava underneath kept on heating the surface of land. Although the smell of sulphur was not good, we enjoyed the valuable and lively Geography lesson there! Integrating with the "Kiwi" at school, we followed them to have different lessons in the Buddy Program. As well as being a bird "Kiwi" also refers to the local people in New Zealand and each of us was taken care of by a "Kiwi" as our buddy. The learning and teaching style there was completely different to that in Hong Kong. The class size was around 12-20 and the students were very active in responding to their teachers. It was fabulous that we could get into our buddies' classrooms to experience how other students obtain knowledge at school. Last but not least, we must thank our host families for taking care of us for the 17 days we stayed in Auckland. We were like their daughters and we experienced a different kind of family life. We learned how to take care of ourselves like helping to do the laundry, making our own breakfast and lunch and washing the dishes. We cooked some Chinese dishes for our host families and they all liked them! The host parents were very caring in that they always talked with us and it lessened our feeling of homesick. Our English speaking and listening skills have also been improved a lot because the only language we could use to communicate was English. The teaching staff, the host families and the students in Auckland were all very kind and friendly. We couldn't help crying when we had to leave for Hong Kong. New Zealand, I'll be back!

Last summer, nine students and Miss Kwan went to Auckland Avondale College in New Zealand. It was a fruitful and very enjoyable trip.

The study tour consisted of three main parts. We completed a 30-hour English course, went sightseeing and joined the 'Buddy Programme'. The college decided the course work for us according to our English abilities. It was great fun that Rae, our English teacher, always played English games with us. We learned a lot of new words, especially those related to New Zealand. We also performed a mini drama using the traditional stories of Maori, the native people of New Zealand.

There are many good places to visit in Auckland. These included the Auckland Museum, where we watched a Maori Concert; the Maritime Museum, where we went sailing and had the chance to steer the yacht; Kelly Tarlton's and Mission Bay, where we saw animals living in the sea and also saw Pohutukawa, the special Christmas tree of New Zealand! We also went to Auckland Zoo where we saw the bird representing New Zealand – Kiwi! They ran very fast and we could only see them when it was dark.

We also travelled out of Auckland and headed south to Rotorua where most of us went horse riding for the first time. It was a cloudy and windy day but we were all excited about going for a walk with our horses and watching a sheep show! What's more, we would have never thought that in Rotorua we could see what we had read in Geography books! There were mud pools and water coming out suddenly like a fountain (geysers) because the lava underneath kept on heating the surface of land. Although the smell of sulphur was not good, we enjoyed the valuable and lively Geography lesson there!

Integrating with the "Kiwi" at school, we followed them to have different lessons in the Buddy Program. As well as being a bird "Kiwi" also refers to the local people in New Zealand and each of us was taken care of by a "Kiwi" as our buddy. The learning and teaching style there was completely different to that in Hong Kong. The class size was around 12-20 and the students were very active in responding to their teachers. It was fabulous that we could get into our buddies' classrooms to experience how other students obtain knowledge at school.

Last but not least, we must thank our host families for taking care of us for the 17 days we stayed in Auckland. We were like their daughters and we experienced a different kind of family life. We learned how to take care of ourselves like helping to do the laundry, making our own breakfast and lunch and washing the dishes. We cooked some Chinese dishes for our host families and they all liked them! The host parents were very caring in that they always talked with us and it lessened our feeling of homesick. Our English speaking and listening skills have also been improved a lot because the only language we could use to communicate was English.

The teaching staff, the host families and the students in Auckland were all very kind and friendly. We couldn't help crying when we had to leave for Hong Kong. New Zealand, I'll be back!