Samantha Beck/ Winonan

Several Winona State University students spent winter break in New Zealand and Australia on the Pacific Challenge travel study opportunity.

Senior Trisha Palmieri and junior Katelyn Jindra and other students started their Pacific Challenge on December 15.  They flew to the capital city of New Zealand, Wellington, and stayed there for a few days while recovering from jetlag and meeting for their photography class.

The photography class was mandatory for everyone on the trip, and it proved useful. Students captured amazing landscape scenes in creative ways thanks to the photography class.

The students traveled from city to city throughout New Zealand.  The group went camping in one forest by the sea where they enjoyed a three-hour hike to Cleopatra Falls.

“Cleopatra Falls had a natural body slide, and I went down it,” Palmieri said, “but I didn’t go skydiving like some of us did.”

Christmas Eve was spent swimming with wild dolphins in the bay of Kaikoura in New Zealand.

“Swimming with the dolphins was my favorite part of the trip,” Palmieri said. “You got to experience the dolphins in their natural habitat, and there were baby dolphins there too. The dolphins would make eye contact with you and play.”

On Christmas Day the students Skyped their families and watched seals play on the shore by their hotel.

“It was different not being with family on Christmas, but it was definitely worth it,” Palmieri said.

For New Year’s Eve, the students went on a bar crawl and watched fireworks over Queenstown Bay. The group went whitewater rafting on New Year’s Day.

“Whitewater rafting was my favorite time,” Jindra said. “The views were breathtaking, and it was fun working together as a group. We got really close.”

The group of students learned about the Maori culture of New Zealand through presentations and singing from the natives.

After finishing their tour in New Zealand, the students flew to Sydney, Australia. They went on a Harley Davidson tour which included sitting on a bike behind retired men while they lectured the students about various histories and landforms.

“It was a little strange because you didn’t know the guy riding in front of you, but it was fun,” Palmieri said.

There was a free day in Sydney and many students visited the Opera House and some decorated their bodies with tattoos.  The next day the group was back on the road, camping, until they came to Byron Bay.

In Byron Bay, the students could either scuba dive or snorkel.

“The water was really choppy, and one group couldn’t even go because the water was too dirty,” Palmieri said.

After that, the students learned to surf before getting on a plane the next day to return to the U.S. on Jan. 9.

“I would recommend this to anyone,” Jindra said.  A trip like this one would be worth missing Christmas it seems.