In Week 2, the Year 13 Geography classes and the Year 13 Tourism class visited Rotorua for 2 days. The purpose of the trip was to enhance our learning about tourism development in Rotorua.

Students had a seminar presented by the Rotorua Museum on tourism development over time, followed by a trip to The Buried Village to see what remains of the first tourist village of Te Wairoa
that was buried by the eruption of Mt Tarawera.

Mini golf (surrounded by cute floppy-eared rabbits) and take-away pizza was the entertainment for the evening.

Day 2 was not the best weatherwise, but the rain added to the dramatic landscape of Rotorua and enhanced the geothermal steam. We began the day with a quick visit to Waiariki, the new 5 star
spa on Rotorua’s lakefront – if only we’d had the time and the budget to visit more than the entrance.

Our next stop was the Whakarewarewa geothermal area. We had some very knowledgeable and entertaining guides who gave a Māori perspective to tourism development in Rotorua. This was followed by a very moving cultural performance, surrounded by visitors to New Zealand, that made us feel very proud of our New Zealand culture.

The highlight of the trip (although it was hard to pick just one), was probably the gondola and luge at Skyline. Before the fun commenced, a Skyline employee spoke to us about the sustainable practices that Skyline have adopted to ensure they are providing a great experience whilst minimising their impact.

Overall this trip was definitely worth 5 stars on Tripadvisor. The students were amazing, and the staff (Ms Turanga, Mrs Stockhouse-White, and Miss Drown) went out of their way to make this a memorable experience. Thanks to Mr Bassett for organising it all.