Submitted by Heidi Knutsen on the 2019 winter session study abroad program in New Zealand sponsored by the Department of Computer and Information Sciences…
This week our classes started, and we began our ethical discussions and prepared our lessons for our upcoming workshops with students. In my ethics class, we each have one class where we (with a partner) lead the class and do our own research and facilitate the discussion. My partner and I were actually selected to go first, and things seemed to go really smoothly. At the end of the school week, we went to Willowbank which is a nature preserve. We got to see some of the animals they were rehabilitating, and we went on a tour of all the native New Zealand species. We got to see the only Kiwi we will probably see on the whole program—considering that they are nocturnal and endangered. After our tour, we learned about some Maori traditions and learned some of their dances and had a traditional meal which is cooked in a deep pit in the earth and tastes incredible.
We had the weekend free, and so most of the people on the program decided to rent cars and go to Mt. Cook, which is the highest point in New Zealand. The drive there was one of the most scenic drives I have ever been on and we took frequent stops. We had one full day at Mt. Cook and we went on several hikes, including a sunrise hike that ended at a glacier.
