Lindisfarne College Exchange 2019

Lindisfarne College

June 14 - July 14, 2019

Alston Aron & Brennan Roach

 To start, we would like to thank the Warner family, Dr. Gioia, and Ms. Scholer for providing this opportunity to us. Without your generosity, this life-changing experience would never have been possible. While on this journey, we made lifelong friendships and experienced an entirely new culture  all because of the opportunity MBA and the community provided us.

Alston (left) and Brennan (right) 

 School:  

                  Upon our arrival in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, we reunited with our host families (the Devane's and the O'Sullivan's) and immediately set out to tour the small towns of Napier, Havelock North, and Hastings. Some observations of these towns included almost all one story buildings as well as plenty of vineyards and farmland. In comparison to a city like Nashville, these three towns were much smaller and more rural.

                  On the way to school each morning we passed orchards and vineyards as Hawkes Bay is the fruit bowl of New Zealand. The school day is similar to MBA's in the time spent at school and in individual classes. For the first few days we followed our hosts and took their classes to meet the teachers and familiarize ourselves with the school. The rector invited us in to talk and was incredibly welcoming. We decided our new classes which included typical courses like physics and math, but also chose different classes like media studies and digital technology.

Athletics:

                   We had the choice to play field hockey, rugby, soccer, and basketball. Alston chose to participate on the basketball team, while Brennan decided to play rugby. As a part of the basketball team, Alston played in three games on their "A" team, and met plenty of great guys. Kiwis take their rugby very very seriously and Brennan was excited to try the favorite national sport. The teams play on Saturdays and practice twice a week. "The coaches made sure I was ready to play and I had a ton of fun in the games." The game was rough but very fun and I am glad I got to experience the sport first hand.

                                                        Brennan after his rugby match.

Travel: 
            We attended school for the first three weeks of the exchange. The final week of our journey was the "holidays", in which we traveled across the North Island of the country. Memorable places included the Sky Tower in Auckland and Te Mata Peak in Hastings. Luckily for us, our host families were very generous in that they wanted to show us all of their favorite sights across the North Island. 

Alston at Te Mata Peak in Hastings, New Zealand. This picture was taken during the 2nd week of the exchange.

                                                     

                                                        

The Sky Tower in Auckland

While in Taupō, Alston went fishing on the lake with his host family. As a group, we caught four rainbow trout, which ended up being our dinner that night. 

Sheep atop Te Mata Peak in Hastings, New Zealand

Brennan and his host Luke in the red blazers