Introduction

This report is about my experiences in New Zealand, where I’ve been doing an internship for 6,5 months and after that a travel of one month through the Southern Island. My name is Coco and I am 20 years old. I just started a new study called “Regional Development and Innovation” in Wageningen. By the time I was in New Zealand I was studying tourism (travels) at Cingel College in Breda. When I went abroad for my final internship I was in my fourth year and almost had my degree, except for the internship part.

This was a short introduction. In the rest of this report I’ll try to give you a brief impression of New Zealand and my internship and travels. I hope you will enjoy reading it!

Internship

When I was searching for a final internship I immediately knew I wanted to go abroad and that it had to be an English speaking country. I really wanted to improve my English. London! is what first popped up in my mind and I couldn’t let go of that thought. I kept searching and sending out CV’s to different companies in London, mostly hotels. It took a long time since nobody replied on short terms and even on long terms, it was hard to get through and my time was running out. Finally I gave up on London and started opening my mind for other countries. After all it has been the best thing ever, because it brought me to New Zealand and then FirstLightTravel!

I can’t stress enough how happy I am and I know I’m privileged to have been there. It has been such an amazing experience. Not only to work in a great team as FLT but the whole being in New Zealand. During my travels and trips I met loads of great people from all over the world. I have to say, Kiwi’s are one of the most generous and kindest people I know.

It hasn’t always been easy. Of course I was always trying my hardest to do everything the right way and sometimes you get a little afraid of doing things wrong, still not wanting to bother someone of the team every time you get to a problem. Yet I’ve learned from that and got some more self-confidence. The language barrier hasn’t been a problem because Brent, Nigel (the two directors) and the rest of the team were always very patient and understanding. After six months being around people whose mother tongue is English, I can tell my main goal has been reached. I improved my English to a higher and more advanced level.

It has been almost six months now since my first day at First Light Travel (FLT). I remember it clearly as I introduced myself to my new boss Brent Narbey and my other intern colleague Lauriane Courtot, I was so nervous... Nigel was out for a few days, I would meet him the next week. In the first couple of days I had to soak up loads of information, about Enigma (the reservation system), Outlook, and most important of all: what does FLT exactly and about the way they work.

FLT is a tour operator that organizes trips in New Zealand for travellers coming mostly from the USA and Europe. After I got familiar with the functioning of such a structure, I worked with full pleasure within the team as a researcher and updater of the system for First Light Travel.

Thanks to Brent and Nigel who took me as an intern who didn’t know anything about their systems and also thanks to the rest of the team who let me go with this great work experience in which I learned so much for the rest of my life.

New Zealand

New Zealand lies in the south-west of the Pacific Ocean, nearly 2,000 kms. from Australia, to the east, and 19017 kms. from Paris, France. New Zealand is over 1.600 kilometres long, and its widest part is 450 kilometres. The total land area is around 270 550 square kilometres, with approximately 10,000 kilometres of coastline.

The capital city is Wellington, near the southern tip of the North Island. Auckland is the largest city with a population having just reached one million. Over 200,000 inhabitants of Auckland are from the Pacific islands, which makes Auckland the largest Polynesian city in the world. The total population of New Zealand is 3.9 million, and is predicted to reach 4.6 million within the next 44 years. Māori make up about 15% of the population, and are the indigenous people of New Zealand. Most Māori live in the North Island areas of Northland, Auckland city, the Bay of Plenty and the Waikato.

New Zealand is an island nation. The three main islands which make up New Zealand are the North Island, the South Island, and Stewart Island. New Zealand is part of the largely submerged continent of Zealandia, which stretches from the north of New Caledonia to the south of New Zealand's subantartic islands. Actually 93% of Zealandia is underwater!

Approximately 23% of the country is forested, as compared with 80% originally. Therefore most of the remaining forested areas are protected.

During my free time in New Zealand

Since the office of FLT is situated in Auckland City, I had an apartment not far from there. I have been living for 6,5 months in a room of 8 m². This was only my bedroom, though. I shared the apartment with another girl. We both had our own bedroom, but shared a kitchen and a shower. Although it wasn’t the most luxurious apartment I still had a great time there. In this apartment lots of students live, so there is always something to do. There’s a bar underneath the building where we often came together to have a chat and a good drink. The city centre is not that big, so I always went by foot to the office and to go shopping or going out same thing. Public transport is good and very cheap so that is another option. Because the centre is quite small and a lot of people from the regions outside work in Auckland city, there is a lot of traffic. Which is a problem for the environment and the people living within the centre. It is noticeable the air isn’t as fresh as from outside the centre, which sometimes bothered me. Overall I loved living in Auckland for that time but after what I’ve seen during my travels, I knew why people from outside of Auckland always said they would never be able to live in a city like that!

Coming closer to the end of my internship I started preparing my “BIG adventure”. Because I worked at a travel agency I learned a lot about New Zealand and all the good spots to go. I went on my own as a backpacker, which was a great experience. I have met so many friends, with some of them I am still in contact. I started in Queenstown: this is a touristic city in the South Island. From there I worked my way up to Picton, there I took the ferry to Wellington and finally I had to take the Overlander (train) back to Auckland. Unfortunately after my great trip it was time to go home, back to Holland. I can tell hours and hours about it and show the most beautiful pictures about my travels and still that would be just the tiniest impression you would get. I would say, just go there and see for yourself!