Stay in New Zealand

Marion Aebi Posted: 24 June 2014, 12:38 PM   Hi there! My name is Marion Aebi and I am a member of the Swiss national orienteering squad. I am a friend of Matt Odgen (I even know Jula McMillan and Kate Morrison), who has advised me to make a contribution in this forum as this would help me with what I am trying to achieve. I am planning to come to New Zealand for about two months in winter 2014/15 (probably end of December till end of February) and mainly train and have a good time getting to know orienteers from the other side of this world. However, on the other hand this trip partly is something compulsory for me. I am a student of English language and literatures at the University of Bern and it is part of the requirements that students do some sort of “practicle module”, which means going to an English-speaking country and actively use the language. The idea is for students to either study at a University, to go to some language school in the place chosen or to work. As far as I have heard, New Zealand is an amazing country with lots to discover and people have told me that there are some very nice places for orienteering, too. Matt thought if I wanted to do as much orienteering as possible, probably Auckland would be the best place for me to go. I was also told there was an orienteering club in Auckland. This is why I am now trying to firstly find a place to stay in Auckland and secondly (ideally) to find some kind of work I could do during my stay. I would be especially interested in doing something that has to do with orienteering, like organizing trainings for the local club or the like. However, I could even imagine doing something completely different if I got some other offer. I just have to be able to prove to the study counsellor back in Switzerland that I am actually doing something where I use the language on a daily basis, in order that she accepts it. I would probably not need to have a “real working contract”. So, I would be really happy to hear anything from anyone who has read this! Maybe you know somebody who might know somebody who thinks he/she knows somebody who might probably me able to help me..? In that case, please let me know! Greetings from Switzerland Marion   Marion Aebi Posted: 25 June 2014, 12:34 AM   Oh, maybe it would not have been the most stupid thing on earth to add my e-mail, so people could actually contact me in case they wanted to.. It's: gugileinchen_93@hotmail.com   MikeB Posted: 25 June 2014, 4:54 AM   Marion I have contacted you by email as well. We have plenty of spare room here so feel free to use our home as a base for as long as you wish. You would be made most welcome and there plenty of great training opportunities close by in Woodhill Forest too. We are about 30 mins from there and there would no shortage of good young orienteers happy to train with you. Mike Beveridge