Local students undertake trip of a lifetime

Thirteen Motueka High School students and teacher Naomi Uren have been uncovering Cambodia’s rich and complex history on a trip of a lifetime with World Challenge.

World Challenge travels to more than 40 destinations with over 8,000 students every year and when they approached

Motueka High School with a presentation at the school’s assembly in August 2018, interest was piqued among the group of 13.

Signing up by September, the requirement of a staff representative saw Naomi “hesitantly” investigate the requirements before jumping onboard. The group then commenced fundraising initiatives, most of which saw them work after school and holiday jobs to save the necessary funds to undertake the trip.

With their first stop of the trip Phnom Penh on December 4, the students, who are largely in control of the entire 3 week journey, saw them as a team agree on expedition ground rules, change money, confirm any necessary bookings and buy supplies.

Since then they’ve taken part in an interactive critical thinking workshop that enables students to start evaluating how they can be responsible travellers, visit the ‘Killing

Fields’ of the 1975-79 horror, perused night markets, marvelled at temples, hand-fed monkeys, enjoyed a boat river cruise and travelled in tuktuks.

Further adventures were lined up for the students including a few days volunteering with the Elephant Valley Project, the original and self- proclaimed elephant ‘retirement home’.

An experience student Zoe Harrison was predicting to be a highlight. Fellow student Elliott Frampton, who worked more than 80 hour weeks to fund his trip, says he was looking forward to the entire experience.

“The whole experience will be an eye- opener to what other type of countries have to offer in terms of culture and lifestyle compared to here,” says Elliott. Due back on Christmas Eve, the students are undoubtedly devouring history that cannot be taught in the classroom and immersing themselves in the culture.

A car receives a helping hand after ending up in the drink at Tapu Bay during lunchtime on Friday. It is believed the car had driven onto the sand during low tide before obviously being caught out.

A Cessna 185 comes to rest upside down at Motueka’s Aerodrome on Friday, 13 December after a sketchy landing. The Australian registered plane had two occupants on board who escaped shaken but unharmed.

Super-sized sand toys were in action at Kaiteriteri Beach on Friday, 6 December when the annual sand grooming took place to move the sand and create a nice smooth beach for summer.

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