Senior Social Sciences students have just returned from their trip to Europe.

16/09/2023 - 30/09/2023 

Wow! What a journey! An incredible 14 days with 19 students and two staff. Our travels may have been full of sickness and heat but nonetheless we made the most of it! 

In Italy we learnt to navigate the metro in the humid heat. Our days were always packed with us generally going straight from our adventuring to dinner! Often we would stop for a ‘pay by the weight’ pizza and a gelato (perfect combo). Our accommodation was a cute wee hotel, Hotel Milo who had a Nonna who didn’t speak a word of English but was always going out of her way to help us. Here we ate way too many chocolate and custard filled croissants for breakfast and struggled up the many flights of stairs to our rooms. 

Greece was a big change in scenery from how humid and dense Rome was. The bus tour through Greece meant days were a bit more low-key and we were lucky to have the lovely Korina as our Bus Tour Director. Everywhere we went there were sooo many cats and we changed hotels almost EVERYDAY! Plenty of cheap eats and the ‘all you can eat’ lunch spot in Olympia gets a special shout out for being top notch. 

Travelling has given a lot of us insight of things we take for granted; single unit housing, fresh air, clean streets, free water. It has made us realise some of these privileges that we have in Aotearoa. 

A big shoutout to Mr Dann and Ms Coulbeck taking us through Rome and Greece, keeping us safe and organised. These two have opened our eyes to future opportunities, both in travelling and in careers. We owe them heaps for making this trip so enjoyable and memorable! 

Will definitely miss the daily gelato, the famous ‘James Blogs’ and popping up a moa but ultimately we’ve bonded so much as a group and made memories that will last!

Livvy Halaifonua

We will look to plan another similar trip in 2025 for current Y10 and Y11 students who will be in Social Sciences in Y12 and Y13 in 2025.