Study Abroad at AUT University in New Zealand

Last weekend I did one of the Great Walks out near the eastern coast around Lake Waikaremoana. On the way to the walk, there is a long gravel road that takes about an hour and a half long to drive down before you reach the backpackers accommodation at the foot of the trail. Halfway driving down this road, we heard a loud pop! And discovered the front left wheel of our car had hit a rock and we had a flat tire. After tirelessly trying to get the tire off, we were advised by a car passing by that the wheel was stuck on and that we needed roadside assistance. We graciously took a ride back with this man to the closest place we had service (an hour back the way we had come) and called roadside assistance who came to pick us up from Rotorua (another hour back) and drove us carefully back up the mountain to help fix our wheel and put on the spare. We ended up getting back to the vehicle at 10:30 pm and to our accommodation at 1:00am. We were supposed to arrive at 7:00pm. So much for a relaxing evening and early bedtime before starting the longest hike I have ever been on (46km total)! Not the best way to start our walk, but definitely worth all of the trouble! To top it off the roadside assistance guy told us that there would have been no possible way for us to have gotten the wheel off ourselves as two of the bolts of the rental car were broken to begin with.

I'm so glad I chose to study abroad here in wonderful New Zealand! I never thought I would call another country for my second home, but both New Zealand and AUT have definitely become a home to me, and I'm so thankful for that.
I'm gonna miss the great study facilities, the amazing teachers, living with awesome people, traveling around, having crazy spontaneous nights out and all of the social events!

5 friends and I decided to go to South Island for spring break. While there, we did a lot of amazing things, but something that really stuck with me was the Edoras hike at Mount Sunday. For those of you who don't know, Edoras is Rohan from Lord of the Rings. As a huge Lord of the Rings fan, I was so excited to do this hike. Because of unforeseen circumstances, we had to hike and extra hour to even get to the base of the hill. But once we reached the top it was so worth it. We were almost 360° surrounded by mountains, with a view so stunning that my mouth dropped open in wonder. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. As we were hiking the extra hour back to our camper van the sun set and an amazing amount of stars appeared in the sky. You could even see the Milky Way. It was extradordinary.

Well, talking about Wellesly Student Apartments is rather difficult. On the on hand you pay a hell lot of money for an old, dirty place with tiny room with old and broker furniture. On the other hand it is one of the best parts you will ever live at. All your friends only 2 minutes away, it is really awesome. If the would invest some money to make the place nicer, ans stopp treating everyone like 10-year olds it could be heaven on earth.

During my time here at AUT I've met countless people from all over the world. The student apartments were the perfect scene to allow these meetings to happen and promote a great community. I can't count the amount of great times I've had with the students I've met in this building and the fun nights we've shared out in Auckland. One of the greatest experiences I've had was on a Thursday night. Friends from the building gathered together, they were from everywhere around Europe, North America, there were even Kiwis! We pitched in for ingredients for a pulled pork dinner, we cooked it in the common kitchen in WSA and enjoyed a movie afterward. It wasn't a wild night or anything. Just bunch of friends hanging out and enjoying each other's company. This is one of the most memorable nights I have here in WSA because of its simplicity. No one was looking to go somewhere else or check out another apartment, everyone was happy where they were.

While Auckland is great location for school, it lacks the culture and beauty of the rest of the country. I would encourage everyone to get outside the city as often as possible, even close places like Waiheke and Mission Bay have a completely different feel than Auckland. Make sure to encourage students to have out-of-city excursions as often as possible, and help plan/offer suggestions when possible because the best parts of NZ are often hard to get to/unknown to non-locals.

When I first came to AUT my first impression was that the expectations of the papers are very high and I really had a very busy time in the first weeks but than I got to know the system better and I noticed non of the lecturers is so strict as I first thought and also due to the many assignments it's more quantity than quality. This might be the most challenging part to pretend to know what I am writing about, but thanks this was a lecture for life.

Everything I did in New Zealand was wonderful! From the weekly lamb kebabs (the best I've every eaten) to all the adventure sports this adrenaline junkie could handle, every experience made my trip worthwhile. However a huge factor of that was the people I met, from the other international student to the Maori people. We all came together and became a Whanau, or family, so these were the people there with me eating the kebabs and learning about culture.
The TEAN advisors and program was a huge reason of why my time was so fun. Kenneth, Sam, and Rachel, the advisors, were always available and made sure I was comfortable. There were many times when they would pop in and check up with me, just to talk and see how I was doing. And they organized many fun trips and events. We had surfing lessons, which I've never done- odd considering I've lived in Southern California my whole life. But they also took us to a Blues game (rugby), and I had a great time despite not really understanding the game well.