The Year 13 Geographers had a great practical experience during Week 8 of Term 3 with their annual field trip to Queenstown

It was a busy 3 days for all concerned. Day 1 saw an enjoyable minivan ride down to Queenstown, where we got to see a picture perfect Central Otago on route, especially the horizontal snow falling as we drove through Lindis Pass – great driving Mr Skinner and Mr Thurston. Once settled into our amazing accommodation (what a view), we hosted Nicole Fairweather from Ironman Inc. the group in charge of the Queenstown International Marathon. Nicole spoke to us as the Event Manager - reason we drove all this way!

After our Sunday evening of work(!) we all ventured into the CBD for our orientation. Some hightailed it to the world famous Fergburger, where Caleb Taplin hoovered his first burger of the tour ( he got through 5 from Sunday to Tuesday)!

The next day saw an early start, arriving at the Queenstown Resort College at 8.00am. Alana Standish, the Resource Consents Manager/Senior Planner at Queenstown Lakes District Council took us through the planning and decision making process for the Queenstown International Marathon. This was actually way more interesting than it sounds. We then, literally, made ourselves at home in the boardroom of this private college, quickly working on the assessment so that we could make the most of skiing and boarding at The Remarkables Ski Resort.

During the trip up the mountain it started with snow – heavily, so the trip up was ‘interesting’ with Mr Thurston showing his mountain driving experience. Once safely on the skifield we started with a quick lesson and then they unleashed us on the mountain. Jono Findlay doing his best ‘manu on the skifield’ to take out the magic carpet tunnel – even the instructors couldn’t help but be amused.

Later that night we were required to write up our findings. 99% of us worked really hard to get this finished before the due ‘time’ of 11.00pm.

The final day saw us board the TSS Earnslaw and steam toward Walter Peak High Country Station. As a bunch of townies we all really enjoyed the sheep shearing, ‘all you can eat’ morning tea and the farm tour. Here we really experienced true Tourism in action, and saw why this sort of tourism is developing so quickly.

Once back from the ‘high country’, we went up the Skyline Gondola and had a few luge rides down the hill. This was another cool experience as we got to race Mr Thurston. It must have been his practice on the skifield access road the day before, because he wipped the floor with us – too good Mr Thurston. As the hill was covered in snow we also got to throw a lot, and I mean A LOT of snowballs. Even random tourists joined in and the highlight was Lester Delizo trying to take out Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Ken Maumalo with a barrage of snowballs – strangely enough, he couldn’t get close but they loved it.

The story normally stops there. Unfortunately for half the group Mr Thurstons  minivan broke down. It was a real chapter of errors. Firstly he missed the turnoff to Cromwell and started driving to the West Coast, so Mr Skinner and his half (and all their gear) did not drive by and help. So the boys ended up having to stay an extra night in Cromwell – trying to get the most of tourism in this region.

On the whole, it was a great trip with a mixture of classroom learning and hands on activities with a 3 credit internal covered and lots of specific information on Queenstown for our 4 credit NZQA external exam.