Greetings from Oamaru, New Zealand!

After a bittersweet farewell to Australia, our home for the past few weeks, the group has packed up and moved on to our next destination: the picturesque countryside of Oamaru, New Zealand. As we write this, our students are settling in with their new homestay families across the pasturelands of rural New Zealand. As many of you may well know, our Putney student travelers have been matched with local 'Kiwi' farming families for the next four days to give students insight into the culture of an agricultural community in New Zealand. According to the expressed wishes of our students, we have worked to ensure the most comfortable home-away-from-home experience by giving those students who desired independence the ability to live by themselves while pairing others with their peers.

To briefly catch you all up on our travels since our last update, we spent five days sailing through the beautiful Whitsunday Islands before flying on to cosmopolitan Sydney for the four days. . . The sailing trip was absolutely incredible: the weather was perfect, the crew was amazing, and the group really came together to make the very most of this unique and inspiring opportunity. We left port from Airlie Beach aboard the retired racing Maxi yacht, the Condor, and set course for Hook Island for an afternoon of pristine reef snorkeling and sailing instruction. After the students received their thorough briefing and instruction, the captain and crew coordinated a team sailing effort to involve all our students in the hoisting and trimming of the sails for a 'fat' sail around the island to Nara Inlet for the night.

We awoke bright and early the next morning and set sail for Whitehaven Beach, widely considered one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. We spent the night anchored in the protected harbor of South Whitehaven. The next morning, we woke up to a family of Humpback whales breaching just off shore. It is currently the migration season for these impressive mammalian sea creatures, and we were lucky enough to see several more breachings and tail-waves throughout the trip-- one whale even spouting as close as 50 yards off starboard!

We sailed on to another of the Whitsunday's more treasured sights, a beautiful tidal sandbar surrounded by vibrant coral. After stretching our legs with walks exploring this unique treasure cove, we got back on the boat and sailed on to our mooring for the night. A brilliant full moon and the iconic Southern Cross constellation provided an amazing backdrop for our delicious steak farewell dinner. The next morning we set sail for Hamilton Island where students showered up, bought a few souvenirs and boarded the flight to Sydney.

We spent the next four days in Sydney exploring the wide variety of cultural and educational activities and events that this bustling cosmopolitan center has to offer. To orient the students to the city, we took an introduction to Sydney walking tour that took us to the city's most iconic destinations including Darling Harbour, Chinatown, the Royal Botanical Gardens, the Harbour Bridge, and the famous Sydney Opera House.

The crowd favorite was the world-renowned Sydney Aquarium where students saw the duck-billed platypus, dugongs, sharks and crocodiles as well as just about every animal from the cast and crew of Finding Nemo. In the afternoons, students explored the city in small groups before convening as a group to eat meals, share stories, and plan coming adventures. At night, Merrill and I organized group events including a comedy show and a theatre show at Starcity!

We will keep you posted on the happenings of our next few days in Oamaru and will do our best to check in during the skiing portion of the trip.

Best!
Tom & Merrill