Steps Tour of New Zealand
On Thursday 18th September 2003, 18 students, 2 teachers and 16 family members headed off to Auckland for an 11day dance festival. This album is a collection our favorite photos.
NOTE: Click on a photo to view the full sized version
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
On Thursday 18th September 2003, 18 students, 2 teachers and 16 family members headed off to Auckland for an 11day dance festival. On the second day, the students performed their modern expressive dance against some amazing and some very traditional New Zealand groups. After a very nervous wait the girls performed beautifully and won the section. All nerves seemed to disappear after the results. Jazz was next, and the girls love of dance really shone through and received “commended” which was equivalent to 6th place out of 22 competitors. What an exciting first night. Later on in the festival, the girls performed their tap troupe and were very excited after receiving a 3rd place!!! A few of the students also performed their solo's at the eisteddfod and had outstanding results. It was great to see such a different style of dance to us. The New Zealand tap style differs quite a lot from our style and we all found it very interesting and fun to watch!
During our time in Auckland we also went up the Skytower (New Zealands equivalent to our Sydney tower only theirs is taller!!), visited Kelly Tarletons Underwater and Antarctic World, a big favourite for all those people who loved penguins. Some of us got our thrill therapy by going on the reverse sling shot bungy in Auckland. 200km/hr in 3 seconds with 5 g force!! What a thrill! We were also fortunate enough to see the Sydney Dance Company perform whilst we were in Auckland. We also went on two very long day trips to the Bay of Islands, Waitomo Caves to see the Glow Worms and to Rotorua to see the Thermal Mud pools and Sulfur Geysers.
After spending 11 lovely days in Auckland, a group of 30 continued to the South island for a 7 day coach tour. The Tour started in Christchurch and we went immediately to International Antarctic Centre, where most of us braved a very chilly —25C Antarctic storm!
The next morning at 6:20am, we were all woken up by an earthquake! 4.9 on the rictar scale. We then headed down to Queenstown, where many of the group saw snow for the very first time. In Queenstown, we all immensely enjoyed our 4wd Lord Of The Rings Safari, the shotover jet boats & a beautiful dinner at the Skyline restaurant in Queenstown. After the jet boats, we headed out to the original bungy jump, where 4 of us thrill seekers JUMPED. The 4 of us including Miss Annette, lept from a bridge towards the water. WHAT AN ADRENALIN RUSH! After two days in Queenstown we headed to Miford Sound, and experienced the most amazing natural beauty New Zealand had to offer, glaciers, mountains, rivers, and waterfalls.
The next day, we headed to Dunedin, and most of the group had fun climbing the steepest street in the world (which was a little harder to climb, especially in 4 degree temperatures). We also visited the very popular and mouth watering Cadbury Factory. You would think we had never seen chocolate before! At the end of the factory tour, we all loaded up with chocolates and were ready to come home. We arrived home on Sunday 5th October.
Thank you to everyone who helped fundraise for this amazing tour.
