Studying in New Zealand means that I’m in the opposite hemisphere, which means that seasons, and subsequently terms, are flipped. Therefore, doing a year abroad at Auckland has meant that I arrived in July to start the second semester of one year, stayed here over their four month summer holiday, and am getting ready to start the first semester of their new year at the end of February. I took the opportunity to travel during the summer holidays, first for three weeks around New Zealand’s South Island, followed by 5 weeks around Bali and Australia over Christmas and New Year.

New Zealand’s South Island is absolutely spectacular. It’s geography is so diverse (perfect for a geography student like me) and changes so dramatically within a small space that even three weeks wasn’t enough time to pack in everything that it has to offer. We managed to make it to some truly beautiful places though, and it was honestly one of the best trips of my life. From swimming with wild dolphins in Kaikoura, to a terrifying 109m high Canyon Swing in Queenstown, to a three day hike on the sparsely populated Stewart Island, I saw and experienced so many new and amazing things in New Zealand that I’d never be able to do anywhere else. All in all, pretty spectacular.

Here is a little photo documentation of my trip: