Harvey Scholar Travels - Claire in New Zealand

I lived in New Zealand from February to June of 2018 and learned and grew more than I ever would have thought possible in those four months. I had heard that studying abroad could be a life-changing experience, but I was a bit sceptical. I had come to Mines knowing no one, and found and built a community where I felt at home. How hard could it be to do the same thing abroad?

As it turns out, driving twelve hours from St. Louis to Golden and flying eighteen hours across the Pacific Ocean are about as different as two experiences can be. The isolation from all the worlds and people I loved hit like ice water. Another factor was that the University of Otago, where I was studying, has no engineering program, so most of the other American international students were from East Coast liberal arts schools. The culture shock was intense.

Tunnel Beach, on the outskirts of Dunedin, the town where I lived

Slowly, I built new friendships and began to explore the beautiful place I would call home for the semester. I took classes Tuesday through Thursday, and used the weekends to travel extensively throughout New Zealand.

Kayaking in Doubtful Sound

I backpacked on Stewart Island, taking a ferry ride across rough seas to get there and spotting wild kiwis in the light of an early morning. I rappelled down a 330-foot cliff in the Southern Alps, and lead climbed for the first time. I kayaked on Doubtful Sound in Fiordland, cradled between shear peaks rising thousands of feet straight out of the ocean, and watched geysers steam with primordial heat on the North Island. I went scuba diving over mid-semester break in Niue, a remote Pacific Island only accessible by flights out of New Zealand. After classes ended, I hopped a cheap flight across the Tasman Sea and explored Melbourne and Sydney for two weeks. These experiences expanded my outlook on the world and what I want from my future.

Tidal pools in Niue

Along with the experiences, the people who I met and travelled with also had an enormous impact on me. I learned just how important it is to have a support system, because relying on people from home didn’t always work with a 19-hour time difference. I became friends with international students from all over the world – Japan, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Germany. Experiencing Kiwi culture from their perspectives as well as my own really broadened the scope of the semester.

Final dinner with friends

Studying abroad was the best experience of my life so far, but it was also the most challenging. I pushed past my own limits of comfort and emerged stronger and more confident than before. I wouldn’t trade the experience for the world, and am profoundly indebted to the Harveys and the Harvey Scholars Program for making it all possible.