Submitted by Heidi Knutsen on the 2019 winter session study abroad program in New Zealand sponsored by the Department of Computer and Information Sciences…
At the beginning of the week, I had a calmer day after a weekend of travelling. We went to Sumner Beach and spent the afternoon in the sun. Most of the beaches in New Zealand are windier than the East Coast and the sand is finer, so it sticks to your skin. Otherwise, it was lovely to be in the warmth and take time to breath. We did get just a bit of sunburn, but it is so easy to burn here, even if you reapply sunscreen.
We soon hit the road again as our entire group got on a bus to go to Nelson. Nelson is a large town for New Zealand, but much smaller than Christchurch, on the northern coast of the South Island. We stayed in apartments close to the center where we were hosting a workshop and hack-a-thon based around Unity and video game design. This workshop was one of the biggest we had planned for the whole program, but it was organized mostly by the educational video game class. On the second day, I taught the class about story boarding, but otherwise, I worked mostly behind the scenes. The children I interacted with were older than the ones in previous workshops, and they were very smart and dedicated to finishing their projects. We learned later that the children around Nelson don’t have as much access to educational opportunities or technology as children in cities like Christchurch and Auckland. We got to explore a beach in Nelson and check out local art galleries and restaurants. The last full day in Nelson we went ocean kayaking! I had been kayaking before when I was a bit younger, but on slightly calmer waters. It was a really fun day and we got to talk to some of the locals that were leading the kayaking group.
