In March this year Year 11 Geography classes travelled south to learn some new geography skills, explore the town and gather data on the tourism patterns in Queenstown. The data collected was used for the students' first Geography internal assessment of the year.

On a cold Wednesday morning it was time for the four classes to hop onto the busses and set off on the adventure down to Queenstown. Our journey was extended by and hour and a half because of a crash which gave us more time to learn about the geographical land features surrounding us during the journey like Hydro dams around Twizel, and the wineries in Gibbston. 

After our long bus ride we dropped off our belongings at camp and headed down to the beach where we created beach art based on the BIGs (key geographical terms/concepts) . There were many wonderful creations made by different groups such as the relief slopes, past and present Queenstown and small scale Hydro dams and Gibbston valley. Then the race was on to see who was brave enough to get in ice cold Lake Wakatipu first!

Thursday was the busiest and most exciting day! The students set out to do various activities around the town. The students were split into two groups; one group set off to have a fascinating talk at Destination Queenstown and the other group set off to complete an amazing race challenge, finding things all over Queenstown with bonus points for finding geocaches. Then the groups switched over and had a turn at the other activity. Afterwards we had a lunch break in the centre of town, which gave the students a chance to visit the Remarkable sweet shop and Cookie Time shop! 

In the afternoon all the students headed up to the gondola to draw sketches of the amazing view and enjoy two luge rides racing against our friends and teachers in the icy fresh air of Queenstown. During the day students were surveying three tourists each, eventually everyone got the data needed for our internal. Once everyone was back at camp we enjoyed some free time and a yummy dinner. Afterwards we had an hour of study and a sleepless night which meant there was not much talking on the trip back home.

Finally it was Friday, the last day of the field trip. Everyone ate breakfast then packed up their bags and cleaned their rooms ready to jump on the bus to begin the long journey home. On the way home we stopped at the AJ Hackett bungy center to explore the amazing building and watch some very brave people jump 43m ! The rest of the ride home was filled with heaps of snoring, road trip bingo and the films Despicable Me and Grease. We stopped for a nice lunch in Twizel then quickly hopped back on the bus and arrived back at school late afternoon. Overall, everyone had a blast learning about and exploring Queenstown. Many new memories were made and it was a great experience for everyone.

Brieanna Cox and Bronte Phillips