Five students from the year 11 German class have been fortunate to be in a German exchange program. Five students from Bavaria, Germany, have been staying with them for the past seven weeks to immerse themselves in the language and culture of Aotearoa.

A week after the German exchange partners arrived, 7 students from the year 11 German class went with the five exchange partners to an inter-school German camp. When we asked the exchange partners what they thought of the camp, one of them replied, “The German camp was really fun and we met lots of new people and learned a lot. It was really good to improve the bond with our exchange partners” – Hannah, Molly Bisley’s exchange partner 

In the first week of the Easter holidays, three of the German exchange partners and their host families went on the Greenstone Caples tramp. On their second day to the second hut, they got rained out due to heavy rain.  When we asked the exchange partners how they found the tramp, one of them replied, “The first and last day was amazing, but the second day the weather was miserable.” 

Over the rest of the holidays, all of the host families took their German guests and traveled to different parts of NZ to show them what Aotearoa is like outside of Dunedin and the Otago region. 

We asked what the German exchange partners thought about New Zealanders and they replied with:

“They’re very chill.” Vroni, Luka Templeton’s exchange partner. 

“They don’t care about clothes, they just wear sweatpants and WHY DO THEY WEAR SHORTS IN THE COLD???” – Sophie, Felipe’s exchange partner. 

The host families really enjoyed having the German exchange partners here and the New Zealand students can’t wait to go to Germany in December this year!