My time in Rangiora – High School New Zealand

Kia Ora!! 🙂

This is Maori for „Hello“! It’s been six weeks now since I am here, in New Zealand. Unbelievable!! I feel like I’ve only stayed one week in this country – time passes soo quickly! That’s why I’d like to give you an update of my first month in Rangiora, the village I live in.

Right at the first week-end when I arrived at my hostfamily’s house I was able to get an insight into one typical Kiwi activity: having a BBQ with friends! Therefor we drove to a house in the neighbourhood where we were welcomed by a couple of adults and children by shaking hands or with a hug. Most of the family’s friends were real open-minded, asking me questions about my hometown, about my first impressions of New Zealand and so on. Because of their friendly attitude I immediately felt more comfortable. For the BBQ they had different kinds of meat – because I’m a vegetarian I had salad (which was very yummy), bread and some lollies like chips and nuts. The family whose house we were staying at has a pool in their garden. Their little children went swimming though it was 9pm!! 😀 Well, the water wasn’t that cold, so why not? It’s really enjoyable that the temperature in summer stays good until about half past 9 / 10 pm here – you are able to sit outside for hours and you still feel warm enough! Love it!

The next day my hostsister Karis took me to the beach with some of her friends. Karis is 16 years old and goes to the same school as me, she’s just one year above. We were sitting in a friends car and the girl who drove wasn’t older than 17 years! That made me wonder… till I was told that in New Zealand you can start driving lessons at the age of 16. Half a year later you can get a so-called ‚restricted licence‘ which means you are quasi allowed to drive alone, but only from 5am – 10pm. A ‚full licence‘ enables you to drive completely alone whenever you want to. Wow, that’s different to Germany! In my home country there’s no ‚restricted licence‘ – you’re only allowed to drive alone at the age of 18! And the other thing which was a bit hard for me to get used to was the fact that you’re driving on the other side of the road in New Zealand – on the left. It happened to me that I almost took a seat on the right side in front of the car. :b In addition to that most New Zealand cars aren’t able to drive faster than 160 km/h!! On the motorway I’ve never seen a traffic sign showing you’re allowed to drive more than 120 km/h. o: When I told my hostparents that in Germany the cars can sometimes drive up to 260 km/h and that there are motorways with 6 lanes where people drive 200km/h, they couldn’t believe it and where staring at me with big eyes! I really didn’t know that this is not the same in this country.

Anyway, sitting in the car then, window open, summer songs on, we were driving to Waikuku Beach which is just about 15 minutes away from our house. It’s beautiful!!

Later we moved on to Lake Pegasus. This lake is gorgeous! The landscape and some islands built up in the water make you feel like you’re on holiday:

At a store near the lake Karis‘ friend bought some tortilla chips and I was asking myself why the shop was open on a Sunday!! 😮 Another difference to Europe: All the supermarkets and other shops selling food or little souvenirs for the tourists are opened 7 days of the week! The big shopping malls in town are also opened every day – that’s why many Kiwis like to go shopping on Sundays. This is also because many people in New Zealand have to work 6 days a week. That must be hard. :/

The next Kiwi habit that was very different for me at the beginning was having dinner! Not as in Germany, the New Zealanders just eat a snack for lunch, e.g.toast with vegetables, some lolly or fruit. In the evening then they eat something warm – this is the biggest meal of the day. So for example they eat fish and chips, rice, meat or pasta, with a side dish like salad. What was also funny for me is the fact that they call out ‚Tea is ready!‘ instead of ‚Dinner is ready!‘. The first time my hostmum said that I was a bit confused because I only know the expression ‚tea time‘ from England and this means having a tea and maybe some biscuits in the afternoon. Funny experience! :b

In general I have the impression that there are some differences concerning food in New Zealand and Germany. Well, this was predictable – in every country there are some specialities you try for the first time. That’s actually pretty cool because you get the possibility to get to know food and drinks you’ve never heard of before! I’ll give you some examples (of course not every food also has its origin in New Zealand), kind of like:

The Best of: Food and Drinks in New Zealand

…I’ve discovered so far:

1) Toast with spaghetti and tomato sauce, added with herbs like basil and pepper & salt

2) Garlic bread

In pizzerias garlic bread is a very popular starter on the menu. It’s reaaaally yummie!

3) Pavlova

This is a typical Kiwi cake, you can eat it with berries on top, e.g. currants or raspberries –
has a sweet taste, but it’s very delicious!

4) Dry fruit

The enterprise ‚Annies‘ is famous all over the world for their dry fruit in plenty of variations!
I also saw some class mates taking fruit bars with them to school.

5) bowle of fruit (and crackers)

I love New Zealand fruit!! It tastes sooo fresh! The apples are missing on that picture – they taste very good, too.

The Best of: New Zealand Lolly‘ I’ve discovered so far:

1) Coooooookies!! Yummy 🙂

The ‚Cookie Time‘ biscuits are absolutely the best!
They’ve got them in plenty of different sorts.

2) Macarons

Well, as I told you, not each of those lollies comes from NZL (those are from France) –
so I was very surprised to find them here! They’re a kind of little sweet cake with a creamy filling,
existing in varied flavours (on the photo: raspberry).

3) ice creeeaaaaam!

In Rangiora, there’s a great ice cream shop selling one single bowle in that huge size. 😀
Flavours on the photo: – orange & chocolate – cookies & cream

Way of life

I’d now like to tell you something about the Kiwi way of life, about their houses, everyday life and stuff like that. (:

On my way from the airport in Christchurch to the village of Rangiora and when I arrived at my hostfamily’s house I felt like I’ve been carried back to my last summer vacation with my family in Spain right at the coast. This was because of the style the houses are all built in. They’ve got this coastal charme creating the thought in your mind that you’re close to the sea. That’s really beautiful! Most of the houses – I bet at least 90 % – have only got one floor, but a quite big surface (e.g. in comparison to Germany). Many houses are white and for example my hostfamily’s house is covered with wood on the outside and you can find many little details, such as shells or cute cups hanging from a little rope on the roof. I have the impression that New Zealanders attach great importance to their gardens: Mostly they’re really big and very very beautiful! You find a variety of flowers, fruit trees, palmet trees and it is usual to have a veggie garden – I like that. 😀 My hostmum for example, she has a veggie garden with a lot of space on a field for zucchini, cucumber, herbs as welll as a greenhouse for tomatoes. Even a friend of mine in my form class has already got her own veggie garden where she puts a lot of effort in to grow different vegetables. Think that’s pretty cool!

I like the Kiwi attitude – they seem quite relaxed, not as stressed as most of the Europeans, and friendly to everyone, even to strangers: When you’re on the road or doesn’t matter where – on the hills, at the coast – you can always just stop people and ask them if they could take a picture of you, explain you the way if you’re lost or anything!! And they’d never react in a angry or nerved way, they’re always kind to help you. Sometimes they’re very interested and ask you politely where you come from and why you’ve decided to stay in New Zealand. It’s always fun to have conversations with Kiwis, I can advise that to everyone – just speak! (; And the fact that they care so much about their gardens and plants make them even more sympathetic in my eyes!

Some Kiwis seem like loving the water so much that the ocean is not enough – they’ve got a pool at their house, too! (: That’s really enjoyable because as I told you, you can jump in there till it’s getting
dark and because of the long summer period in Down Under a pool is quite profitable and a lot of fun! Here’s a picture of the pool at the house of friends of my familie’s friends in Kaikoura:

Obviously this is not an example for an average NZL pool – this one has a very unique view! You can have a look at the mountains, the valley and the ocean while having a swim – amazing!

Some Kiwis prefer living on a farm. This is the case at some hostfamilies‘ places where international students of our group are staying. For example Sophia, my German friend, stays with a hostfamily who lives in North Loburn on a farm with a lot of sheep. Other Kiwis also have cattle or prefer having chicken or dogs.

Back to Rangiora

The village has approximately 12.000 habitants and is situated about 25 minutes away from Christchurch, the largest city in the South Island. The area in and around Christchurch, including Rangiora, suffered from the earthquakes in 2011-2012 and so they’re still in process of rebuilding the city centres. You are able to see some of the damage while walking through Rangiora’s streets – some buildings are partly destroyed and closed because they won’t be rebuilt something else will replace them in the next few years. However it isn’t that hard as you may imagine now: Please don’t create a picture in your head of a ruined city after a war!! 😀 At the moment Rangiora is a quite lovely village again with several supermarkets, bakeries, clothing and shoe shops, ice cafés, a post office, a public pool and parcs … :))

You may be interested in the events we had during the last 5 weeks. (:

For example there was Waitangi Day:
Every year on the 6th of February the so-called ‚New Zealand Day‘ is celebrated in order to think back to the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi (NZL) in 1840. You get a day off at school and you can go to festivals which are arranged all over the country.

My hostmum also took me to a little festival in Kaiapoi. It was on a big field – Kiwi families were sitting down on the grass having a picnic, chatting and there were some sale stalls where you could buy New Zealand jewellery, mostly in Maori style, clothes and food.

For example you could get ‚Hangi‘ – this is a traditional Maori food: They take vegetables – like potatoes – and meat, put those into baskets, dig a hole in the ground and heat stones in the hole with a large fire. On top of the hot stones they place the baskets and cover everything with earth for several hours. After that time they lift the Hangi up to surface – and there it is! My hostmum says it is very delicious (, I just didn’t try it because of the meat d:).

At the festival there was also live music and you could see people walking around in traditional British costumes which was funny to look at.

On the other hand there’s a special event which is celebrated more intensively over here than in my home country: Valentine’s Day!

In the afternoon on Valentine’s Day my hostfamily drove with me to one of the Malls in Christchurch! Yaaaay!! 😀 The mall is called ‚Northlands‘ and it’s huge! Sadly we didn’t have sooo much time because they had something else planned for the night, so we had a quick look into all the shops – it was much fun though! Shopping’s always great 🙂

Afterwards we went to a restaurant in Christchurch for dinner, its name was ‚Chilli Kiwi‘ which I liked much :b We had some Chinese food, fried noodles or rice, and enjoyed the evening together.

Outdoor Education

As an international student I’ve booked an ‚Outdoor Education‘ program before I came here. That means that I’ll participate in excursions all around the South Island every second week together with other international students from Rangiora High School! That’s actually pretty cool because you already know that you’ll definitely see something from New Zealand and you needn’t plan what to do every weekend. We’re a group of about 20 students at about my age coming from Italy, Japan, Korea, Norway and Germany.

Our first excursion we had all together was a sailing and kayaking trip at Pegasus Lake! First activity: Kayaking! Shoes out, lifejackets on and – let’s go!!

It was a quite sunny Friday, but unfortunately there was a lot of wind, so it wasn’t that warm. Especially not… when I fell into the water!! :b In fact, everything went real good at the beginning: We learned how to kayak alone forwards and backwards, we kayaked in pairs and stuff and Sophia, Lucia, Francesca and I even managed to swap kayaks while being in the water in the middle of the lake! That was fun (:

However we had a little stroke of bad luck then: We had this little challenge: We were separated into 2 groups of 10 members, but we only had 2 double kayaks (which means there usually fit 2 persons in 1 kayak) per group. The game’s aim was to get the whole team to the other side of the lake first. Well, you can probably guess what most people’s plan was to win the game: Getting 5 students into each kayak, so that we only need to cross the lake once. Damn it! I got onto our team’s kayak first, just in front of it and when the others got onto it behind me, the kayak was shaking so much that I fell into the lake with all my clothes on! :/ The water was actually quite warm, but when I got outside the wind was freaking cold. Finally I was happy sitting on the grass again and being covered with 2 blankets and lots of warm jackets. 😀

During sailing we fortunately stayed dry. 🙂 That was quite cool, too and at this time the weather had already become a bit better:

Hey! 😉

Here are some events and pics from Term 1! 🙂

As in England, pupils are wearing uniform to school. That’s mine:

I’ll tell you a bit about my school now, so that you can get an impression what it is like.

Rangiora High School

The school is a public one and situated in the village I’m living in. There are students from Year 9 to Year 13, you enter after primary school (Year 1-8) and stay at High School till the final year after which you can go to university. I’d like to tell you some facts I discovered about the New Zealand school system because in Germany – and I’m sure also in other countries – the school system is quite different. In my opinion it’s real interesting to exchange information about school and the everyday life with people from other countries. So I just keep asking the Kiwis about their subjects, recreation and so on. Nobody minds!

I was told that in New Zealand the children enter school very early: at the age of 4 years! That’s why most people in Year 11 are 15 years old, some of them are still 14 and will turn 15 in the next few weeks; very few pupils have already turned 16. In the whole country people have to go to school for 13 years – that’s a common rule. So you’ve finished when you’re about 18 years old.

At my school, as at many others over here, there’s a system I find reeeeeaaaally cool! It made me immediatly think of the Harry Potter movies!! 😀 – Rangiora High School is divided into 6 houses: Each house represents one celebraty, which means one person who has done something innovative, something really big in the past. When you enter high school in Year 9, you are told in which house you are on the basis of the subjects you’ve chosen. I am in house ‚Rutherford‘.

Each house has two leaders, called ‚dean‘ and ‚head‘ of the house. There are also Assemblies, for my house on Wednesday mornings, where the students belonging to the same house have to come together in order to listen to some general important information given by the leading teachers or by the principal. That’s for about 20 minutes before school starts.

On top of that each house has its own representative colour! For my house it’s blue. The other houses are Hillary (red), Sheppard (black & white), Lydiard (orange), Mansfield (yellow) and Ngata (green).

Well, I told you that the house you come in depends on the subjects you choose – that’s because everyone has different focuses, for example you prefer sciences more than language-based subjects. So here in New Zealand you can choose your subjects! That’s so cool! For me it was new because where I come from everyone has to take the same subjects and you end up with about 12 different ones… Anyway, here you only have 6 subjects at school. In my Year it’s compulsory to take English and maths, apart from that you can decide on your own which ones you’d like to take.

The subjects I chose are maths and English, French, PED (Physical Education, we’re doing athletics, netball, sessions in the gym, etc), Independent Learning (a study subject) and Drama. 🙂

One lesson is 60 minutes long, sometimes it’s a real pain to get from one course to the next one because the school campus is just sooo huge!! 😀 There’s even a road separating the two parts of the school. There’s a main part with the office, most of the school buildings, green areas to chill and the cafeteria. On the other side of the road there are the land based subjects like Animal Husbandry (the school has its own farm), the languages (French, Japanese), the Gym for PED and the big field. The big field is an area where people practice sports in PED, especially in Term 4 & 1 when it’s very warm outside; and you hang out there with your friends at lunch time. That’s one thing I really appreciate and that was new to me when I came here – the people really use the facilities to be outside and enjoy the good weather. As I know it from Germany: We spend like 99% of our breaks inside the buildings or in the cafeteria, but can’t be bothered going outside. Well, at Rangiora High it’s way nicer outside I have to admit, with all that grass and benches to sit on, the trees – at lunch time you could get the impression of being in a parc, not at school, that’s so cool!

It’s not just the opportunity to spend your breaks outside that I like about Rangiora High – the school’s campus in general is nice! It’s very big and there are lots of open areas with trees and benches.

This picture was taken near the language based rooms – with Julie, an international student from Norway, on her last day. She’s such a lovely girl!!

I had to get used to a lot of different things over here in comparison to Germany, such as the environment in and around school, the courses, etc. After a few days then I had handled to get into my new ‚daily routine‘. So I’d like to show you now:

A typical school day for me

7:15 wake up – awesome, 45 minutes later than in Germany!! However, doesn’t mean that I’m not tired in the mornings

7:20 – 7:45 get dressed, put make-up on, do my hair, etc.

7:45 – 8:05 breakfast & packing lunch – this was also new to me because at home we always pass a bakery before going to school or I eat something in the cafeteria, so I needn’t pack any lunch at home; in New Zealand every Kiwi student has his own lunch in a box with him, and for lunch they don’t eat a big warm meal (as I was used to it at home) – they just eat snacks at school, such as fruit, muesli bars, also chips and popcorn

8:05-8:30 finish packing bag, brushing teeth, get ready to go

8:30-8:35 walking to school – yeah, that’s right: school’s only about 5 minutes away from my hostfamily’s house, that’s sooo handy!!

8:40 school starts with ‚form time‘ – another new habit for me: ‚Form time‘ is a 20 minute period every morning (except for Thursdays and Assembly day) where you’re together with your ‚form class‘ and just sit down, chat and chill out till you have to go to your first subject. That’s pretty cool because you needn’t immediatly concentrate when you come to school! You’re put into a form class depending on your age – that means I’m in a Year 11 form class because I’ve just turned 16. Despite that I can go into higher level courses if I want to – for example in Drama I’m in Year 12 and in maths in Year 13. It’s just your form class you can’t choose, but that’spretty good actually because that enables you to be with people at your age who share the same interests. I found quite a few friends in my form class and I always spend the breaks with them. 🙂

9:00 start of Period 1

10:00 start of Period 2

11:00 – 11:25 ‚Morning Tea Break‘ / ‚Interval‘ – in that break between Period 2 and 3 you usually sit together with your friends, talk and have a little snack. In Term 1 when the weather is nice and sunny, you sit outside and you can enjoy the sun meanwhile.

11:25 start of Period 3

12:25 start of Period 4 – I’ll just pick that period to demonstrate to you how one period is like, kind of. You’re either in your classroom or in the library, if your teacher chooses to do some work on the computers.

13:25 – 14:20 Lunch Time – as I’ve already told you, you’re usually sitting outside, e.g. on the big field, and have your lunch with your mates. There is also a cafeteria, but it’s not an indoor one, just a little one where you can buy muffins and stuff. – If you want to, you can also join clubs at school, which can be held at lunch time or after school. For example I’ve done Dragon Boating on Wednesdays at lunch time. I’ll show you some of those pictures later, that was pretty cool!!

14:20 start of Period 5 – yeah, last period for the day!

15:20 school’s out! – every day school finishes at the same time, for everybody. That was also new for me because where I come from, everyone has his individual timetable, so school can be finishes at 1pm, but also at 4:15pm.

15:20 after school activities – they’re not compulsory, but as the school offers a huge range of sports and things to do, you should really not miss it out. They’re for Kiwi students as well as for us internationals. For example a German friend of mine is in the Rugby team at Rangiora High. You can also do netball, play an instrument, take part in the school’s drama performance, and there are many other options!

We also participated in a Dragon Boat competition and raced against other schools‘ teams. It took place at Pegasus Lake, where our team also usually practiced.

Other events that happened at my school so far:

The welcoming of the Year 9ers at the very beginning of the year with a Maori ceremony: At the first day of school the new students at Rangiora High were welcomed by the principal, other teachers and students at the big field. Beside speeches the Maori class had prepared a Haka (traditional Maori dance) performance which was pretty impressive!

Another day in the first week of the term, our school had ‚House Sports Day‘. Again you can compare that to Harry Potter: The 6 houses were challenging each other in different disciplines, such as tug of war, long jump, sprints, relay races, etc. The good thing was that no one considered those activities as too competitive – even the teachers said we should just give our best and when we just tried out each discipline, we got a ‚Great job!‘ or ‚Good girl / boy!‘.

However there was obviously a winner at the end. You were given points on each event, for example 1 point for each meter you reach in long jump. As a school in an environmental-friendly country, Rangiora High even gave a point to each person who picked up rubbish and threw it into the right bin – I found that very funny, and a good idea actually.

Another characteristic for the House Sports Day is that everyone dresses up in the representing colour of their house!! That was sooooo cool, people came up with the greatest ideas – as a banana, tiger, cookie selling girl, blueberry and many more!! Lots of people had also brought colours to get everybody painted.

However there was obviously a winner at the end. You were given points on each event, for example 1 point for each meter you reach in long jump. As a school in an environmental-friendly country, Rangiora High even gave a point to each person who picked up rubbish and threw it into the right bin – I found that very funny, and a good idea actually.

Another characteristic for the House Sports Day is that everyone dresses up in the representing colour of their house!! That was sooooo cool, people came up with the greatest ideas – as a banana, tiger, cookie selling girl, blueberry and many more!! Lots of people had also brought colours to get everybody paint.

In the end, you may have thought about Olympia because the 6 houses (like the different countries in Olympia) were walking in one big circle one after another, the people belonging to one house were together, dressed up in their representing colors:

Sometimes throughout the term the school also organizes fun runs, cupcake sales or fundraising for a good purpose.

At the end of Term 1 we had a ‚Mufti Day‘ – that means you needn’t wear your school uniform. Some people still wear their school dress or pants, but the majority wears casual clothes. For me it wasn’t unusual to see people dressed casually at school because in Germany we don’t wear uniforms, but when I asked my friends, most of them said it’s always a bit weird for them choosing what to wear before school in the morning and going to school not in uniform. If you go in Mufti to school on a normal day, teachers will take you to the student office and you’ll get a kind of ‚punishment‘, a detention or something, I’m not sure what exactly.

There are a few other rules at Rangiora to follow, unless you want to be send to the office – however the teachers don’t see that sooo strict. 😉 Normally, you mustn’t wear nail polish, you’re just allowed to wear a watch, but no other bracelets, and you mustn’t wear more than one pair of earrings. You also shouldn’t exaggerate with your make-up – but, as I told you, nobody’s too strict about that.

The internationals

There are quite a few internationals at Rangiora High School – about 30-40 at once. Most of us are staying for half a year, some only for 3 months and some for a year or even two.
Lots of international students come from Japan and from Germany. The others are from Italy, Korea, Mongolia, China and Norway.

The school tries to involve us as much as possible into the Kiwi school life. That’s why we’re wearing uniforms, too, choosing our subjects just as any other student here, and writing tests. Well, we’re ‚trying our best‘, but the results actually don’t have any impact on our school work back in our home country.

One day we had ‚International Lunch‘: All the international students should get into groups of their home country and prepare two typical dish of that country. There was for example the German group making brezles, meatballs and potato salad; the Asians were preparing rice balls and stir fried noodles with vegetables; and there was our group. Our group was the Italian-Russian one, but because there’s only one Italian girl at Rangiora High, Ines and I, two Germans, Julie from Norway and Ivan from Russia joined her. We ended up making pasta with two different sauces and Russian pancakes.

It was so much fun! Especially because so many of us had never prepared their meals before and sometimes everything seemed just impossible to manage. Despite that chaos it worked out pretty well in the end and it was entertaining for all of us.

The food we made was set up on tables in the school’s hall and Kiwi students could get it for a little payment. While they were eating they could watch performances of some international students, for example traditional singing and dancing.

Right now I can say that I’m feeling comfortable at Rangiora High School! The students as well as the teachers are real nice and open-minded towards every new student and you quickly make friends. I’m enjoying the ‚fun subjects‘ I don’t have in Germany, such as Drama – however 12 weeks of school in Term 1 were real long I have to admit!! So all good that there are Term holidays of 2 weeks.
See you soon!

Love from sunny New Zealand,
Yoko