The annual Year 13 Geography and Tourism trip to Queenstown took place at the start of Term 3.

The Year 13 group along with Mr Sherborne and Mrs Geddes travelled up to the Lakes District for two days of action and learning. The first activity on Day One was the zipline and bungy at A.J Hackett Kawerau bridge. Students enjoyed the adrenaline rush to start the trip. Sam, Holly, Tessa, Niketa and Mereana were brave enough to throw themselves off a perfectly good bridge and completed their first ever bungy! While eleven others did the zipline. The seminar was interesting and many of the students identified with A.J Hackett’s motto ‘Live more, fear less’.

From there it was off to the Arrowtown Museum where the students had a talk based on tourism development changes in the Lakes District over the last 100 years. Following this, it was off into Queenstown for the Fear Factory and dinner. The students were nervous about the Fear Factory and based on the decibel level of the screams, their fears were warranted. The first day was topped off with a Kmart trip, which resulted in shelves being stripped clean by the students. By the time the students were dragged out, Kmart shareholders were happy.

Day Two started off with the Skyline Gondola and Luge. The students enjoyed racing down the Luge and appreciated the amazing view from the top of the Gondola. This year was slightly different in that the Year 13’s also conducted research for an internal assessment. We interviewed tourists, locals and businesses about the impacts of the current street upgrades in central Queenstown which many locals have called ‘Cone-town’. We found out some interesting results and are currently working on this assessment in class.

All in all the students had many new experiences and heard from industry leaders who proudly talked about resilience in the face of Covid and future career pathways in the Tourism industry. The student’s behaviour was fantastic and they were great ambassadors for Queen’s High School.