Hey guys,

my name is Milena and I’m 16 years old. I spent the last six months in the small town of Waihi beach in New Zealand.

My host family was just amazing. They were so nice and I quickly became a part of the family! They took me to lots of different places. My host mum showed me all the towns near Waihi beach, like Tauranga, Rotorua (a wonderful town, but it smells so bad there), Coromandel, Whaketane and the places where she was born and grew up. With my host dad I also had a lot of fun. He taught me how to surf and we did a lot of tramps together.

The school was a big part of my new life in New Zealand. I was amazed that I had such a huge choice of subjects. I chose maths (it was pretty easy, actually), ESOL (English for international students), catering (we cooked a lot of yummy stuff there), tourism, agriculture (we learnt how to drive a tractor and the quad bike and went to a kiwi pack house) and outdoor education, which was my favourite subject. In outdoor education I learnt how to survive in the bush and how to read the weather map. And, of course, we did a lot of trips. We went kayaking on the Whanganui River for one week, a pretty wet and dirty but amazing experience. We also did a lot of tramps, like the Tongariro crossing (one of the most famous tramps in New Zealand). Furthermore I did a lot of trips with the other international students. We went skydiving, black water rafting and visited Hobbiton, the small village from the movie ‘Lord of the Rings’.

In the Easter holidays I had the opportunity to go to the South Island. The landscape was sooo amazing and beautiful. I did a lot of things I never could do in Germany: bungee jumping, canyon swinging, white water rafting and swimming with dolphins, which was definitely the best thing I did on the South Island.  

All in all I had a pretty amazing time in Waihi beach and I’d recommend everyone to go to New Zealand and have a wonderful time there. It’s not always easy, but you learn so much about yourself.

Last but not least I’d like to thank you everyone who helped me to get my dreams to reality:

My organisation Ayusa: thanks for organizing my journey and that you’ve always answered my questions. I’d like to thank my host family for taking me and having such a nice time together. I’ll come back one day!

And of course my parents and family for supporting me and letting me go to experience the most wonderful country on earth!