Homes needed for international students

KIWI WAY: Pia Arpa (left) and Ricky Paal are enjoying their time at the South Wairarapa school, finding life busy but also relaxed.

Kuranui College is reaching out to South Wairarapa people to help find homes for a trio of international students amid a mounting wave of visitors from overseas, says spokeswoman Catherine Rossiter-Stead.

She said during the past few years, the Greytown collegehad hosted students from Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Slovakia, Iceland, Canada and Japan, and demand was increasing each year.

Consequently, there was a shortage of places for those students to stay and the college was looking for more families who were willing to host international students in their homes.

Three new international visitors will be welcomed to the school over coming months and an appeal has been made to the Wairarapa community to help out with accommodation for the visiting students.

Principal Geoff Shepherd said: "Wairarapa is a very attractive place for students who are seeking a school that can offer an outdoor lifestyle. Our region has a diverse landscape from the coastline to the Tararua ranges.

"Coupled with our proximity to the capital, Wellington, it's the perfect place to be based to get an all-round Kiwi experience."

International students Ricky Paal and Pia Arpa agree, but also put the Kuranui teachers at the forefront of their decision to study at the college.

"The teachers are very different to my teachers back home, they're more relaxed and more like friends. It's so much better," Year 12 student Ricky said.

"I live in Munster in Germany, which is a city about the size of Wellington. Kuranui is in Greytown, which is a little village, so it's so different.

"There are not too many international students here, so you really do become part of the school and I have made lots of Kiwi friends."

Pia, a Year 12 student from the Carinthie region of southern Austria, said: "The teachers are nice and you're not just learning the theory, but you're putting things into practice."

Both students have already had the opportunity to experience the outdoors in what they feel has been an active first term.

"This term was very busy. We had athletics day and swimming sports, visited a sheep farm for a day and we've been abseiling," Ricky said.

"We also visited Rotorua and done the Tongariro Crossing. It was so much fun. It was like a little adventure.

"Pia and I have also taken up hockey and I've taken up dancing."

Kuranui College welcomed international students from all over the world and usually had a roll of up to 15 at any one time, Mrs Rossiter-Stead said.

The school was planning to raise that number to 25 over the next two years.

-Families interested in hosting students may email the Kuranui College international dean, Debbie Fryer at fryerd@kuranui-college.school.nz