Year 13 Rotorua Tourism Field Trip
On Sunday 18 June, Year 13 Geographers headed to Rotorua for 2 nights to investigate the sustainability of tourism in this region. On our arrival, we headed straight to the Agrodome and hopped onto a farm tour. This gave our students a chance to feed some sheep and to get that all important alpaca selfie. Once this was completed, we headed inside to learn more about sheep shearing, working dogs and some students even earned a Certificate of Udderance for their attempts at milking cows and feeding baby lambs. That night, we headed to the Redwoods to experience the lights and scale of the Redwoods tree walk at night.
Monday started with students gathering some first hand evidence of the impacts that Covid-19 had on the tourism industry before getting a very informative lecture from the education team at Rotorua Museum. This provided our Year 13 Geographers with a history of tourism in this area and also gave them some insight into some initiatives that have been put in place to try to sustain tourism long term. In the afternoon, it was time for some adventure tourism with a trip up Mt Ngongotaha via the gondola and some fierce competition as they raced back down in their luges. In the evening, students were immersed in the culture of the local Te Arawa tribe with a trip to Mitai where they enjoyed a hangi, a cultural performance and also sighted some glow worms.
On our final day, students had a chance to relax and wind down as they bathed in the geothermal waters of the Polynesian Pools. One of the main attractions that international tourists visit Rotorua. Overall, this was a fantastic final Geography trip for our Year 13s. We hope they enjoyed their time away as much as the teachers did!
