Our international students experienced the sights, smells and adrenalin-pumping activities of Rotorua last month. Director of International Students Leanne Dragovich and several ākonga shared their thoughts on the trip.
By Mrs Dragovich
The Term 3 trip was a great way to catch up and welcome our two new students, Minori Kanazawa (Year 12) and Onyu Kim (Year 9), to the group. We started at Motion Entertainment where the wonderful staff had organised a group of activities for us. First up was mini golf. Some of us found it really easy and completed the course in no time, others found trick shots were more interesting than winning!
Then we moved on to the VR side of things. Some students chose to use the VR headsets to play in groups, others chose to do the dark ride. After a bit of time on the arcades, it was time to get outside and enjoy some sunshine. Off to the lakefront for lunch and a look around the newly refurbished area. As it turns out, it doesn’t matter how old you get, a big swing and a flying fox never disappoint!
Some reflections from our students:
Yu Kogi (Year 12)
We went to Motion Entertainment in Rotorua by bus. It was my first international trip for me at Aquinas College.
We played mini golf, shooting games and arcade games there. I really enjoyed playing arcade games. I mainly played the crane game where you could win sweets. I was planning to play that game just once and play another game, but I got hooked and ended up doing it three or four times. However, I could get over 30 sweets so I was quite happy with that.
After we played at Motion Entertainment, we went to the park by the lake and had a picnic. It was such a nice time because it was beautiful weather. The sky was blue and not cold, and there was a nice comfortable wind. We were expecting rain, so we were very lucky.
I would like to say thank you to all of the staff who organised this trip. There were more than 20 students of different ages. It must have been hard to organise. I appreciate that. It was a very fun trip.
Rio Shimizu (Year 12)
We went to Motion Entertainment in Rotorua by bus. We went to Motion in Rotorua by bus. At Motion, there are a lot of activities. We played mini golf, a shooting game called XD Dark Ride, and went into the Timezone Arcade.
My favourite part of the day was the XD Dark Ride. Before I played it, some friends were screaming a lot while playing it, so I felt scared for this game. But after I sat down, I really enjoyed it with my friends. The seat was moving and the sound was quite loud. I also enjoyed these tricks.
At Timezone Arcade, there was a crane game, which is made in Japan. I used to play this machine in Japan, so I could get many candies. I had a great time there.
Yubin Kim (Year 9)
We went to a place called Motion Entertainment on August 26 for our international trip. We took a bus for about an hour to get there. There were so many things to play, but we went to mini golf, VR, and Time Zone.
First, we played mini golf. It was really hard. After we finished all the mini golf courses we went to do VR which was really thrilling. After, we went to Timezone. We got a Timezone card from our teacher with $20 on it and as soon as we got it, we went to play basketball. Timezone was more fun than I thought it would be. We got points and exchanged them for candy jelly and I ate a lot of them!
Then we took a bus for about 10 minutes to go to a beautiful lake with a playground for lunch. The playground was very big and it was a lot of fun. After having so much fun, it was time to go back to school. When we got back, it was raining and we had about 30 minutes left until it was time to go home. I read a little bit in the library, then I took the bus home.
