Colorado Student

I absolutely loved my time at Lincoln. I lived in Farm Road Flats, which was absolutely the best way to go. There was a great community there and you meet a a lot of other international students. The campus was always busy with activity which was fun. Mrs O's was the perfect spot to go in between classes. You can walk everywhere on campus, and walk into town to the grocery store. I took only three classes so that I could spend more time exploring New Zealand. I really enjoyed my courses, though. I took my first Environmental Economics course here which actually led me to change my major to environmental econ. I didn't have a lot of classes during the day, and without a car it is kind of difficult to use your free days during the week after class. That is why it was nice living in Farm Road so you could still spend freetime with people, or find something else going on at campus.

There are buses that run into Christchurch which is nice on weekends. It is a bit harder to fit a trip into the city during the week if you have classes, especially with public transit. My friends and I ended up buying a used car together. (Tip: pay the extra $5 for roadside assistance if you're buying an old, used car...) There were about 5 to 6 cars between the group of us at the Farm Road Flats, enough that we could fit a lot of people in the cars to go on camping trips on the weekends. In the first few weeks where I didn't have a car, it was easy enough to hitch rides with people to go on trips on the weekends. I also took the bus in to the city a few times and it was super easy to navigate. I spent a lot of days at Sumner Beach and some days in the city, too. My best weekends were on the various camping trips we did across the island. There are so many options for things to do, whether you want to stay local or go for a bit of a drive. There are multiple local wineries super close by, which are fun to tour!

The people in New Zealand are so nice. On each trip we went on, we would ask locals where we could get a good meat pie. They always had a nice little place to suggest! The scenery is beautiful and it is super easy to find places to camp.

I highly reccomend swimming with the Hector's dolphins in Akaroa Harbor. One of the coolest experiences.