Jason Wagner

One year in the country of my dreams – New Zealand!

By Jason Wagner (Germany), 2012

Since I was a little child it was always a dream for me to go to New Zealand.

From the beginning of the time I informed myself about Oceania and especially New Zealand and after a lot of research, I declared Christchurch as my favourite city. It is close to the sea and to the mountains of the Southern Alps.

It didn’t take me long to decide that Papanui High School would be the perfect school to stay at.

Of course I was excited when I got to ChCh, but because of all the dozens of books I read about NZ, it didn’t take me long to get into the lifestyle of the Kiwis. Nevertheless the awesome team of the Papanui International Office and my lovely host family helped me a lot, whenever there was any kind of problem.

I wanted to see as much as possible of the beautiful landscapes of New Zealand and the interesting cities like Wellington, Auckland, Rotorua, Queenstown and Dunedin. So I travelled a lot, have participated in trips on the North- and South Island and visited friends in different parts of the country. Furthermore I went with an organisation to Sydney in Australia and Rarotonga, an island of the Cooks in the heart of the South Pacific.

I really enjoyed the subjects that I chose. I didn’t know subjects like Catering, Outdoor Education or iCreate from Germany, but the new experience was great fun!

Sure it’s an indescribable shame what happened to the city because of all the terrible earthquakes, but I used the chance to help the people of a country that I love. My respect to the Student Volunteer Army!

When somebody back in Germany asked me how I see my future, then I just tell them: Living in New Zealand! :)