Program Reviews

The ISA staff were always there to answer any questions we might have, and the program provided us with fun trips and experiences that richened my study abroad time in New Zealand. I've met so many great friends throughout my time here and have travelled to some of the most beautiful places I have ever been. I am extremely appreciative of getting this opportunity and the times I've had while abroad will be ones I will not soon forget.

Studying abroad in New Zealand was the best experience of my life. I love my hometown but I loved Wellington more; the city is the perfect size - super easy to walk - with the ocean and the mountains all right there. I could go to the beach in the morning and hiking in Zealandia in the afternoon. Wellington has awesome nightlife on Cuba Street and Courtney Place (easily accessible on foot from university housing) and I never once had to pay a cover charge. Cute cafes and delicious sushi, ramen, and dumpling restaurants abound.

I built a wonderful community of friends from around the world. The girls I did most of my traveling with were from Spain, Sweden, and Portugal. It was easy and relatively cheap to rent a car, though gas is expensive. We have great experience with hostels; almost all of them were very clean and well kept. During Easter break, we road tripped around the North Island and stopped in Rotorua, Matamata, Raglan, Bay of Islands, Auckland, and the Coromandel Peninsula to visit Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove. My favorite by far was Raglan -- the beaches were just stunning. I would highly recommend spending two or three days there if you have the time. Two weeks later during the mid-trimester break, we took a flight to Queenstown and road tripped around the South Island for ten days. I think I almost liked Queenstown better than Wellington. It was autumn by this time and all the trees were bright, bright yellow, the mountains were snow-capped, and there were so many bars, restaurants and cafes it was hard to decide which ones to go into. From Queenstown we went to Milford Sound, Wanaka, Mount Cook, Franz Josef, and then up the West Coast to Able Tasman National Park and Nelson.

From Wellington, my roommate and I took the ferry to Picton for the weekend to hike part of the Queen Charlotte Track. On the boat ride to the trail head, a whole school of dolphins swarmed the boat, nearly close enough to touch. Another weekend, I rented a car with a group of other international students for the day and we drove to the Pinnacles and Cape Palliser, which I would highly recommend. The cape was beautiful; it felt like seeing the ocean for the first time.

The one thing I was not able to do was hike the Tongariro Crossing; if you're an avid hiker, I would highly recommend making sure you make the time to do that hike.

New Zealand is a beautiful country, but the people I met, not the trips I took made this semester truly the best of my life. And while it pains me to leave my friends, our community, our routine, and the little life we've built, I can look forward to visiting them in Europe next summer after we graduate. This semester has sown the seeds of future travel and adventures with people I love. I would chose Victoria University for my semester abroad a hundred times again.

I really enjoyed this experience over-all. I felt like I grew a lot as a person and learned a lot about myself. I was able to travel throughout New Zealand which really made this experience worth it. I highly recommend anyone visiting NZ to visit the South Island, it was the most beautiful place I've ever seen! Wellington was a really fun city to live in. It's unique and quirky, I really enjoyed the live music scene in Wellington and it was a nice relief when school became stressful. I love that I can walk anywhere in Wellington, but the rainy weather definitely starts to wear on you if you aren't used to it.

The VUW campus was beautiful and had a great atmosphere and learning environment. The international office was very friendly and very helpful. This was the best experience of my life so far and I had so much fun and met a lot of new people. Some tips would be to be very money-wise from the beginning instead if blowing it all right away. Also remember that you’re here to have fun so don’t be glued to the library to get all your schoolwork done.

Victoria University of Wellington has a beautiful campus with many fun events going on all the time. I absolutely loved the campus and the great atmosphere. The testing and marking style was very different for me and took a few months to get used to, the classes still had a lot of work and revising to do. Some useful tips would be to keep up on all lectures and course information, it;s very easy to fall behind/miss important dates. Also be money-wise from the beginning, I spent way too much my first two months here. This was the most amazing and fun experience of my life, it made me want to travel more and to work internationally. I am so happy I chose to come to Wellington and to study at VUW, you definitely can't go wrong if you choose to come here.

You thought you know what a real storm is like? You haven´t lived in Wellington! :D But it´s not only a feature of the weather, also the city itself has a always a fresh breeze of life blowing through it, with a festival happening nearly every weekend and a bar and restaurant scene which is just insanely huge.
Being a student at Victoria is just an amazing experience, with heaps of friendly staff always ready to support you and absolutely interesting courses and offers to get involved in student clubs and participation within the uni. However you need to be aware that workload during the trimesters is fairly higher than in European universities and you need to submit nearly every week an assignment, so be prepared to organize yourself enough that you can enjoy the beautiful scenery around here nevertheless.
During the International Orientation week you will have the occasion to get to know many international students and the team of the International Office will help you with getting settled at the uni. This is pretty well organized and you´ll get a lot of free stuff, so don´t miss out any of the events as New Zealand is expensive enough! :D
At first the Kiwi accent will be a little bit weird as the pronounciation for a non-native speaker has some very funny alterations, but you will get used to it the more you get into interaction with New Zealanders and in the end I´ve just adapted some of the phrases and unique uses of words into my own English.
So as an overall rating: be confident, be brave, be open-minded and just come to New Zealand and study at Vic! I just loved it ;)

During my Study Abroad experience, I found that i was able to open up as a person and act as I truly wanted and I was very accepted. I have made great friends, friends who I will have forever and everyone is so supportive. Throughout my time here I have realized that traveling isn't about how many places you go or the pictures you take but rather who you get to experience these adventures with. My house has been more than supportive and it is always nice to come home to a nice and cozy home with great roommates. I am beyond grateful for my semester abroad and I would love nothing more than to see everyone else have the same experiences I have had.

I loved the experience of living and studying in Wellington. I lived in a Uni Hall house and I thought the atmosphere and accommodation really made my exchange experience unique and memorable. Wellington is a great place to live and explore and the proximity of the flat to campus and the city was really convenient. The support from the Uni and from Vic International was helpful in the beginning, but I found it really easy to adjust and soon did not really need their help.

My experience abroad in New Zealand was one of the most amazing experiences I have had thus far in my life. The opportunity to study in a different country than your own gives you the chance to broaden your world view not just in your education, but also your own life perspective. Victoria University of Wellington allowed me to travel through an amazingly, beautiful country and meet people from all over the world, while continuing my studies all at the same time! It is truly a once in a life time experience.

I must say one of the biggest contributor to my outstanding experience in Wellington, NZ must be because of my amazing flat mates. The accommodations here are all right, but you know, it's nothing more than you would expect from a student living. But my two flat mates (both international) have made every moment inside and outside of that flat x100 times better than I would imagine it being otherwise. This is one of the resons I love travelling so much, you truly get to meet so many cool people and you learn so much just by being around people from other countries and cultures. Of course there are times where you will meet some less cool people, but that's part of the experience as well so don't be afraid of that, because in another situation you're gonna score hard.

I have met some wonderful local kiwis as well, they are always super friendly and I've learned some funny slang from hanging out with those guys. I truly recommend anyone to find both local and international students to hang out with during an exchange, it's easy being an international student to only hang out with other internationals but getting to know the locals really adds some extra value to the experience.

I would also recommend anyone going here to travel travel travel as much as you can!! This country has soooo much to offer and is really easy traveling around. You can afford focusing a little less on the study's this semester, that's totally ok!

If I had to sum up this semester in one word I would just go with breathtaking. Partly because the nature is just so stunningly beautiful it literally takes your breath away but also because it's been such an intense semester in many ways and walking up and down the hills in this city everyday will surely have you out of breath... but it's just totally worth it!