The Year 13 Geography class spent Term One studying how glaciation has shaped the Wakatipu Basin, as well as how the process of tourism development has occurred in Queenstown.

The class travelled to Queenstown through Southland, Garston and Kingston observing the glacial features left behind between 80 and 18,000 years ago. Roche moutonnee, arêtes, truncated spurs and moraine became common language throughout the fieldtrip.

Tied into the cultural process of tourism development the class also completed research while away, deciding to investigate what type of tourist is found in different places around the Wakatipu region. The students surveyed over 500 tourists in face-to-face interviews, which was a very challenging task!

To gain further background on how tourism has developed in Queenstown, the class visited the Queenstown Lakes District Museum in Arrowtown. Here they received an excellent lecture on the history of tourism in Queenstown from pre-1900 through to today.

The students will use the knowledge and information gained on this fieldtrip to assist with two external standards, and they have comprehensively analysed their surveys to address their research aim.

The Year 13 class were an engaged and enthusiastic group of students who were a pleasure to take away.