TEAN: Study Abroad in Palmerston North, New Zealand

While I enjoyed all of the traveling, friends, and cultural experiences, I also really enjoyed my coursework. I took classes that count toward my major (equine studies), and I loved how research driven every assignment was. TEAN was a huge help in matching me to a university where I could take the classes I need, and I loved them. Of course, I also loved the hiking and the surfing!
We spent a few weekends in town with our local friends, but we spent most traveling for hikes, surfing, or to see other cities/towns. Experiencing so much nature, all so much better preserved, further reinforced my love for the great outdoors.
Both the classes and the traveling have changed me in a way that stuck: I'm now pursuing graduate school to contribute to the research I loved learning, and I'm committing to more camping, hiking, and surfing outings back at home.

TEAN (The Education Abroad Network) is a great program to use when traveling abroad to New Zealand! They made everything so easy and I have so many life long friends from the program! The friendships you make are due to the amazing activities the program provides for you throughout orientation.

TEAN's New Zealand program was fun and well-organized. It provided an extensive pre-semester orientation program, allowing for immersion in the culture and meeting other students studying there. It allowed me to make friends that I have kept even since coming home, and to adjust to be abroad.

During the course of the semester, TEAN offered support and activities that were both fun and helpful. I enjoyed activites offered, such as meet-ups and going to see an Alll Blacks rugby game. The staff were all friendly and knowledgeable.

Wellington is a vibrant and exciting city to live in. There are many museums and things to do, as well as fun night life. Massey University had a great international students program that offered activities and support throughout the semester. I felt very welcome in all of my classroom and university environments. Wellington was a good central location from which to travel to other parts of the country, as flights to the south island and buses to other parts of the north island were cheap and readily available.

Choosing to study abroad was one of the best decisions of my life. For as long as I can remember, I've always wanted to live and travel to New Zealand. Thanks to TEAN I was able to fulfill my dream.

My study abroad experience would not have been the same without TEAN! They have provided me with one of the best experiences of my life. The programs orientations are amazing. One of the best parts about going abroad with TEAN to New Zealand is an included pre-semester trip to Fiji. After Fiji, TEAN has an in-country orientation in Auckland where they provide cultural and adventure activities to start the semester off with a bang! TEAN also offers mid-semester trips during holiday breaks which is extremely nice. I went on a 9-Day South Island Adventure with TEAN for my Spring Break and on the trip I met other TEAN students that were studying in Australia. The only thing I had in common with some of them was that TEAN brought us together and it was due to that binding fact that we became so close and still to this day (months later) we still communicate.
The TEAN staff is also extremely friendly and one of the best aspects about the program is that they are very person; they know who you are before you even meet them.

Palmerston North is a great place to study. It is a rural area; but there is so much to do around the area. There are a ton of hiking trails around the area, Wellington is only a 2 hour bus ride away, and Tongariro National Park is only bus ride to the north a bit.
Generally I'd hang around Palmerston North during the week days, taking advantage of the activities offered at Massey and within the town. Then during the weekend (after I made sure all my work was done during the week) I'd take off to Wellington (the capital city of New Zealand), which was a great point to meet other people from TEAN and go on trips to either the South Island, or somewhere on the North Island.
Another nice thing about TEAN is that they have in-country staff that always send out monthly updates telling us about different activities occurring throughout New Zealand, and they would plan some sort of activity two, or three times a semester. It was a great way to meet up and see how everyone was doing.

Overall, my experience in New Zealand was incredible and one of the best experiences of my life; however, it would not have been the same had it not been for TEAN.

Studying abroad was one of the best decisions I have ever made. And studying abroad with TEAN made it even better. I made some amazing new friends and of course I had many amazing experiences. Living overseas really increases one's awareness of other cultures, more than simply reading about it.

Education Abroad hosts an amazing orientation program before the semester begins, allowing all the students to get to know one another, in addition to getting to know the country in a safe and enjoyable way. The staff there stayed in contact with us throughout the semester, hosting cultural tours in our various host cities as well as an end of semester dinner to check in with us before we departed for home. The TEAN staff is extremely friendly and genuinely interested in getting to know every student. They want to make sure that everyone enjoys their time abroad.

While at Palmy I lived in the on campus hostels and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The hostels there are pretty similar to dorms here except that the rooms are single rooms with a large common room. I loved this setup because it really allowed people to get to know one another. I knew everyone in the building, that was upwards of 50 people! Here I don't even know my own neighbors. Massey also has flats available to the students, each flat with 5-6 individual rooms sharing a common living room, kitchen, and bathroom. I enjoyed all of the housing sites that I visited while there.

I enjoyed the food at Massey as well. The setup of the dining hall was a little unsatisfactory, making it difficult to actually get the food in a timely fashion, but the food quality was certainly better than any dining hall food I've had in this country.

The really great thing about Palmerston North is it's proximity to a lot of surrounding locations. It only takes 45 minutes to get to the beach, two hours to reach Wellington, the capital city, and a 10 minute free bus ride from campus to town. There are a lot of cultural, educational, and just plain fun experiences to be had so close to campus.

Overall I loved my experience in New Zealand and Palmerston North and I would do almost anything to go back. The Education Abroad Network was just the icing on top of the cake for a semester abroad in New Zealand.

Massey University in Wellington is known as the creative campus. This small campus has funky architecture with a museum building and old war memorial on the campus. There is a café on campus for either a quick snack or if you want a meal. The surrounding area is safe with lots of fun things to do. Most everything in Wellington is within walking distance of campus.

The Massey University housing was great for international students. It provided everything for the kitchen (including silverware, plates, cups etc.), common area and bedroom furniture. Therefore all I had to buy was bedding. This is nice because then you don’t have to but stuff to just have it be left behind in five months. It is by no means the fanciest apartments you will find, but it is a great college apartment. The locations are close to campus, surrounds you with other university students and the nightlife is within walking distance.

TEAN provided me with heaps of opportunities to take part in throughout the semester, starting with a pre-semester trip to the Fiji Islands. TEAN goes above and beyond to give their participants the best study abroad experience. From the programs that I had friends go through, TEAN is the best bang for your buck. There a lot of programs that cost a considerable amount more and don’t get perks.

All in all, Wellington is a fabulous town with a lot of character. I would highly recommend this capital city to anyone going to New Zealand. Not only is the city easy to get around with oodles of things to do, it is a great city to travel from. Its beautiful harbor has boats going to and from the south island everyday and it’s easy to get on the roads to go north to explore the north island as well.

TEAN was such a great experience! They always had activities planned so that we got the best of our time in New Zealand. TEAN's orientation and excursion in Fiji was so great, we got to do a lot of activities I would never have thought of on my own. An example would be canyoning, which I was SO SO bad at, but I still had so much fun and was grateful for the opportunity. I also had an internship abroad, which TEAN helped me to secure. It made sure that my experience was not only enjoyable, but also educational. Most importantly of all, the people I met through TEAN made my entire studying abroad experience worthwhile. I miss them all so much and they made it a semester I will never forget!