Monday, September 18, 2017

Lindisfarne College Exchange 2017

First and foremost, we would like to give a big thank you to the Warner family, Mr. Gioia, and Mrs. Scholer, who gave us the opportunity to travel to New Zealand this past summer. After over 24 hours of travel time and time traveling 18 hours into the future, we arrived in Hawke’s Bay on the North Island.


The school life at Lindisfarne was similar to MBA in many aspects, and different in others. Unlike MBA, Lindisfarne had a block schedule and a different way of grading their “internals” (similar to our projects and tests). Also, there was a tightly-knit brotherhood similar to that of MBA, most likely due to the fact that around three quarters of the students are boarders, so most of the boys live together.





Within a few hours of arriving, we went to lunch and were able to experience a classic New Zealand drink, “L&P”. After taking a sip of what tasted like a carbonated lemonade, we both realized why it was so famous across the country (Ben actually ended up smuggling back two 2 liter bottles in his checked bag). After lunch, we were given a short tour of the surrounding area and drove up to Te Mata Park (pictured below on the right) and were given an impressive 360 degree view of the surrounding Napier area.

Several days a week, Ben worked hard playing on the school’s rugby team, and even got to play a match against Napier Boys, a local rival.


 


During our holiday break from school, we were able to visit three large cities on the North Island: Wellington, Rotorua, and Auckland. We were also able to visit a Marae, the sacred grounds of a Maori tribe; Mount Ruapehu, one of the major ski mountains on the island; and Lake Taupo, the largest lake in New Zealand, which is approximately the size of Singapore!




















Again, we want to say thank you to the Warner Family, Mr. Gioia, and Mrs. Scholer for giving us the opportunity to visit such an amazing place. The experiences, memories, and friendships will last a lifetime.






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