Study Abroad at the University of Auckland, NZ

My second semester here at the UoA comes to an end soon. I had an amazing time here and am happy that I chose this university. Many other international students visit the UoA, which adds a good vibe. They offer a wide range of courses, and as an international student, I could enrol in all courses I wanted to take. The big majority of my lecturers were actually standing wholeheartedly behind what they were teaching and were, therefore, inspiring personalities. The personal interaction between all of the staff and the students is exceptional, from emails, over chats (Piazza) and open office hours. The uni has a smoothly running, well thought through online administration system. They even offer lecture recordings for most of the courses. There are always some buildings under construction, but the outcome is stunning, like for example the new science building. The uni provides plenty of work-, and computer-spaces in a relaxed atmosphere. In addition to that, there are many clubs to fill your free time and to meet heaps of other students, as well as professional Uni Health Services and a friendly International Office Team.

We travelled down to Taupo, to do half of the crossing in the midsemesterbreak. Had been able to borrow crampons and ice axes from the tramping club, so nice. The hike was awesome, even though it was very windy and we couldn't see that much. The first part of the hike was quite easy, before we entered the devils staircase! Then up to the mooncrater and finally, snow! After we drove back to Taupu and relaxed in a natural hot stream, perfect way to end a perfect day!

My exchange semester at the University of Auckland has been fun! It's very much a "big city" university, and quite different from my home university, but it has its charms. It is super easy to get to different parts of New Zealand, and I've done quite a bit of travelling! Also, my roommates have been fantastic, and made my time here even better. I have had the opportunity to live with both locals, and other exchange students, which has really broadened my horizons (and been a good way to ask 'stupid questions' about how things work here)!

Overall, I've enjoyed my experience in Auckland. The ease of schedule and long midterm break has allowed me to travel to Australia and around the North and South Island. My most important criteria for having a fun and successful time abroad was being able to experience the culture and beautiful nature around New Zealand and I have been able to do that so far. The professors and instructors are all personable and fantastic teachers. I was pleasantly surprised to be content with every one of my professors as that has rarely happened in all my years of schooling.

I also met a mobster on Ponsonby road and now I get into some bars without waiting in line or showing my passport to the bouncer, which is nice.

Overall, everything at the University is going very well. Classes are classes, and the workload is to be expected. The worst parts of this experience so far have been the housing, and also the required New Zealand course we had to take as part of our program at the beginning of the semester. The course took up so much time, it made the adjustment to life here much harder than it needed to be. In addition, I had 3 University classes on top of that, whereas most of my peers had only 2, so it was alot worse for me. In terms of housing, the Quadrant is a nightmare. The space is way too small and is not suited for living in or doing any school work.

It was a rainy weekend in July when eight of us study abroad students hopped in our hired cars, full of excitement for the day ahead. We were headed for the world-famous glow worm caves in Waitomo, a destination spontaneously selected the night before! The drive took a few hours so we turned up the music and admired the passing scenery; made even more beautiful by the appearance of rainbows. It was a drizzly day by the time we reached Waitomo so we wandered around the gift shop and café before heading to the headquarters of Waitomo Adventures.

We had booked to do an activity called ‘TumuTumu Toobing’ which, as the title suggests, involved exploring the caves with a rubber tube; walking, crawling and floating along the underground river. Unfortunately, or fortunately as it turned out, when we signed in at Waitomo Adventures we were informed that due to the amount of rainfall, the caves for that particular activity were flooded and thus there was to be no ‘TumuTumu Toobing’ for anyone. A few minutes of panic and disappointment ensued when we wondered if we had driven all this way for nothing. Luckily this was not the case and we discovered that the lovely people at Waitomo Adventures were upgrading us, at no extra cost, to another activity in ‘Haggas Honking Holes’. My heart sank when were told that ‘this is not a trip for the faint-hearted’, gone were my dreams of gently floating along a river under the twinkling lights of the glow worms above. Nevertheless, I put my fears aside as we filled out medical forms and waivers and headed by minibus to the cave site. There we suited up, laughing at each other’s struggle to pull on the damp wetsuits, oversized gumboots and ever-so attractive helmets. We were led to an area just above the caves where we spent around 20 minutes learning the techniques of abseiling. It was clear that even though three instructors were coming into the caves with us, we were going to have a lot of independence when it came to abseiling and climbing 80metres underground.

Finally, it was time to head into the caves which required us to first fling ourselves into a dark hole attached to a single rope, a clue of what was to come! What followed was three hours of crazy adventure. We abseiled down gushing waterfalls (an experience the team likened to being ‘flushed down the loo on a rope’), scaled ancient rock formations, crawled through tight spaces and sang silly songs to keep morale up and stop our shivering. One of the main highlights for me was seeing the glow worms, like twinkling blue stars, across the walls and ceilings of the caves. We learnt that the worms are actually maggots and that their bioluminescence or ‘glow’ is used to attract their prey. I thought that the light they created in an otherwise pitch-black environment was beautiful. By the time we crawled out of the cave we were all exhausted. The adventure had been exhilarating, terrifying and a lot of fun and I would recommend it to anyone. It was a great way to bond with people I’d only just met and we left Waitomo tired, happy and thankful for the memories we’d made that day.

The professors @ the UoA are really amazing and it is easy to get in contact with them. If you are a postgraduate however, you should consider that you will have a quite large amount of assignments that are due throughout all the semester. This means that you will see the pictures of the other international students from all around the country while you are sitting in the library, writing on some essay. Having said that, it is actually quite interesting working on those assignments since you can normally pic the topic yourself. Accommodation by the University is quite expensive, but therefore you are in the heart of the city and your room advisers organise social events where you can meet new people and engage in more or less interesting activities.
There are plenty of student clubs you can join to meet like minded people and almost every other day one of those clubs sells cheap food on campus, so you don't even have to cook.

To whom it may conern:
In general studying at UoA is very easy going compared to the work load I am used form my home university. Hence I had much free time to focus on the important things of a semester abroad, namely mingling with lots of different people, traveling in this magnificent country and having fun in general. Especially, the clubs at the university are good places for doing all the stuff I mentioned previously.