Junior high school students from Sakai city in Japan visited Wairarapa this week to taste the rural life and test their love of adventure.
Simon Pleasants, Wellington Nakano Education Society board member, said students from a half dozen schools were staying in the region as part of a fortnight visit from their homes in the Osaka prefecture that had been run annually for the past two decades.
The students spend their first week in the country polishing their spoken English in the classroom before travelling to Wairarapa "to get up close and personal with rural New Zealand", Mr Pleasants said.
"Some of them have never even stood in a field let alone seen a cow, and we bring them over here during the second week of their visit and blow their minds."
He said the students were aged from 13 to 15 and the visits were spurred by the sister city relationship between the cities of Sakai and Wellington. Sakai City Council representative Tatsuhiro Oku accompanied the group and yesterday took his turn on the rock climbing wall at Equippers' Church in Masterton. The Wairarapa Outdoor Activities group led the students on the adventure activities, which on Monday had included tree-climbing to a height of about eight metres, Mr Pleasants said.
