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, we got to interact with students directly, which was very intimidating at first, but I was glad that I got to meet these children. I worked with children as young as five to about 12. They all seemed to get more exposure to technology than I did when I was their age, but I don’t know how things have been changing in the States. We had some difficulties working with the Kiwi teachers, as they changed up their plans and expectations frequently and it was frustrating for both us and our professors. However, I do think that we helped the students do some amazing things.
At the end of the week, we had our longest free weekend and I had planned for this weekend before I even left home. We took a short flight to Auckland on the North Island and then spent the afternoon in the city before driving down to Waitomo. We rolled up pretty late to the hostel which was pretty nice. We had one full day in Waitomo, which we started by visiting two different caves. In the firs,t we go to see glow worms and ride a boat through the darkness that was only illuminated by the worms. The second cave had a much longer tour and we got to experience a walk in cave darkness where you had to hold onto the shoulders of the person in front of you for guidance. After the caves, we drove a bit and found a short trail to a giant waterfall, where we climbed rocks to get as close as we possibly could. Just standing next the waterfall caused us to be soaked. We had a lot of fun jumping from rock to rock across the river that was formed by the falls. After our climbing adventures, we found a black sand beach and watched the sun start to set there. The entire day was just full of activities and beautiful landscapes and sites that none of us had seen before.
