The team of eight OBHS boys, fourteen Cashmere High students and three teachers have returned 20 days after leaving for the trip to NASA’s Space Camp at Huntsville aka “Rocket City”.

After their advanced academy programme was finished, we journeyed to Florida. Simply put, this was a very special trip. One parent posted, “I can't believe the learning experiences and great times these kids have had. Life changing!!!” And perhaps Zade best summed up the boys’ views when posting, “Alas, we finally made it back to New Zealand. Not that any of us wanted to be back.”

The NASA experience was the real deal; we talked with astronauts, engineers and rocket scientists. The learning apparatus was incomparable, full-scale and realistic. And the multitude of hands-on tasks and missions back up the teaching of what it’s like to be in space, or to design the rockets, suits and other equipment needed for space travel. 

The time in Orlando was also both fun and educational, whether we were visiting Cape Canaveral, visiting a big US high school, attending Disneyworld or air-boating around alligator-infested black-water rivers.