This post is highlighting one of our former Bumpers College student’s experiences from before the Covid-19 pandemic.
By Allison Morgan
As I chose to apply for the Human and Animal Interactions in New Zealand study abroad program, I knew it would be a great experience, but I never imagined it to impact me to the extent that it did. In a span of two weeks, I learned and experienced things I never thought I would in a lifetime. New Zealand truly took me out of my comfort zone. We traveled from the top of the North Island (Auckland) all the way to the bottom of the South Island (Dunedin) in just two short weeks.
The North Island mostly consisted of warm, sunny weather. We made stops in Hamilton, Rotorua, Taupo, and my personal favorite city of the North Island, Wellington. We were lucky enough to spend New Years Eve in Wellington. During our time in Wellington, we visited the museum of New Zealand, Te Papa. Te Papa consisted of many hands on exhibits explaining the culture and history of New Zealand. We were also able to visit the Wellington Zoo, which had an open exhibit to watch the vets perform check-ups and x-rays on all of the animals. This was particularly interesting to me being a pre-vet major. We also visited Zealandia, which is an ecosanctuary in New Zealand. There is a predator-proof fence surrounding 225 hectares of forrest, trying to preserve native wildlife that were previously absent from mainland New Zealand for the past 100 years. After our time in Wellington, we took a ferry to the South Island!
The South Island was more cold and cloudy than the north, but equally as beautiful. During our time in the South Island we visited Kaikoura, Christchurch, Mount Cook, Te Anau, and Dunedin. My personal favorite place from the South Island was Kaikoura. Kaikoura is a town on the coast of New Zealand, with lots of marine attractions. While in Kaikoura, I swam with New Zealand fur seals in their natural habitat off the coast. We were dressed in 10mm thick wet suits with snorkeling gear. We took a ten minute boat ride down the coast and swam with fur seals in the reef for over an hour. The fur seals were very curious and loved to swim right up to you and look you in the face. I also was able to go whale watching in Kaikoura. The coast off of Kaikoura is a perfect place for sperm whale to reside due to the canyon system in the bottom of the ocean. We took a 20 minute boat ride to the middle of the ocean, and we actually were able to catch two sperm whales at the surface of the ocean.
While in Dunedin, I was also able to complete an honors creative project doing an ethogram on New Zealand fur seals. An ethogram is a table I used to record the fur seals’ behavior over a span of twenty minutes. With this data, I was able to correlate certain behaviors with the presence of a certain gender, presence of seal pups, and location of the fur seals in regards to the rest of the colony.
This experience in New Zealand introduced me to the Maori culture, beautiful new environments, new wildlife, and trying new things! I would highly recommend this study abroad trip to any student of any major considering going. I considerably grew as a person and a student and I am forever thankful for the growth, knowledge, and experience New Zealand provided me with! This isn’t a goodbye New Zealand, but a see you later!
