2008
Tentative Trip Details
March 21
- April 13, 2008
Tour of
New Zealand, with possible visits to Fiji & part
of Australia.
March 21: Depart from USA
March 22: En route from US to New Zealand (cross dateline
and lose a day)
March 23: Arrive in Auckland (B, D)
Arrive early morning
Auckland museum
Free time for shopping
March 24: Auckland to Rotorua (B, D)
Agrodome sheep show
Mitai hangi and cultural show
March 25: Rotorua to Christchurch (B, D)
March 26: Christchurch (B, D)
Botanic Gardens and Canterbury Museum
March 27: Christchurch to Aoraki/Mt Cook (B, L)
Optional walk to Kea Point
March 28: Aoraki/Mt Cook to Dunedin (B, D)
Tour of Cadbury chocolate factory
March 29: Dunedin and Otago Peninsula (B, D)
Daytrip to Taeroa Heads, tour of albatross colony and
yellow-eyed penguins
March 30: Dunedin to Te Anau (B, D)
March 31: Daytrip to Milford Sound (B, L)
Boat cruise on Milford
April 1: Te Anau to Queenstown (B, D)
Free afternoon for shopping etc
Dinner at Gondola restaurant
April 2: Queenstown to Fox Glacier (B, D)
Fork farm visit
April 3: Fox to Hokitika (B, D)
Optional helicopter ride or walk to/on glacier
Visit glow worm caves
Stop at dairy farm
April 4: Hokitika to Christchurch (B)
Tranzalpine train trip
April 5: Christchurch to Kaikoura (L)
Stop at Pegasus Bay vineyard for winery tour and lunch
April 6: Kaikoura (B, D)
Whale watch
April 7: Kaikoura to Christchurch (B, D)
Stopping en route at Hanmer Springs for thermal pools
(optional)
April 8: Christchurch (D)
Free day for shopping etc
April 9: Christchurch to Nadi, Fiji (D)
April 10: Nadi to Mamanucas (B, L, D)
April 11: Mamanucas (B, L, D)
April 12: Mamanucas (B, L, D)
April 13: Mamanucas to Nadi and fly to USA (B)
Registration
The maximum number of people that can go on the trip
is 37 and they will be taken on a FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE
BASIS.
If you are interested, please contact the Office of Alumni
& Parent Relations at 616-395-7250 or alumni@hope.edu.
Please include contact information so we can send you
a questionnaire to help fine-tune the itinerary. More
information on the tour, including final price and itinerary
will be made available in the future to those that inquire.
news from
Hope College Article
October 2007 NfHC; Alumni Tour of New Zealand
Picturesque New Zealand will be featured during the latest
educational tour available to members of the extended Hope
family.
The trip will offer a mix of culture, history, wildlife
and sights, and will run from March 21 through April 13.
The leader will be Dr. Harvey Blankespoor of the Hope biology
faculty, who has also guided alumni tours to East Africa
and the Galapagos Islands and has been taking students abroad
on Hope May Terms for decades.
Dr. Blankespoor has organized the trip in response to
popular demand, encouraged by participants in the trips
he led previously.
“Many times I’ve had people tell me, ‘We’ve
always wanted to go to New Zealand. We just didn’t
know how to set it up,’” he said. “People
have been asking me for the past three years to put them
on the list if I ever organized a trip there.”
Highlights of the trip will include whale watching and
observing albatross and penguin colonies; a boat cruise
and a transalpine train trip; visits to glow worm caves,
a botanical garden and a dairy farm; and a tour of a winery
and a Cadbury chocolate factory. The trip will also emphasize
encounters with New Zealanders themselves, including especially
the indigenous Maori people.
The experience is also emphasizing flexibility—in
fact, it’s being built in. The schedule, for example,
will include opportunities for tour participants to engage
in additional activities such as a helicopter ride or a
walk on a glacier. In addition, Dr. Blankespoor is surveying
those who indicate that they’re interested in attending
to learn what they’d most like to do in addition,
and will be refining the itinerary as trends emerge. For
example, optional trips to Fiji and Australia may be added
if there’s sufficient interest.
Dr. Blankespoor scouted the locations himself this past
March, during a family vacation trip with his wife Marlene
and his brother and sister-in-law. He is making the arrangements
with an additional Hope connection: his local contact who
is helping make the arrangements is an Oberlin graduate
who had conducted summer research in Costa Rica with Hope
biologists Dr. Greg Murray and Kathy Winnett-Murray through
one of the college’s NSF-REU grants about 10 years
ago.
Dr. Blankespoor has been deliberate in keeping the cost
as low as possible, in the range of about $5,000 per participant.
He describes the housing as on the “upper end”
but not extravagant. The group will travel together by bus,
limiting the tour to about 37 participants. While many meals
will be provided, participants will generally be on their
own for at least one meal a day. Some of the lunches may
be picnic-type fare on the road, to provide more flexibility
for reaching destinations and to help keep costs lower at
the same time.
As he has led student and alumni trips through the years,
Dr. Blankespoor has found that the feeling of family and
camaraderie that forms has been as important a highlight
for participants as the destinations themselves, and he
hopes that those who sign on this time will enjoy the same
spirit of adventure and fellowship. “Part of the trip
is experiencing New Zealand, but an important part of it
is having the opportunity to enjoy spending time with the
other members of the group—people that you want to
be with,” he said.
Because enrollment is limited to 37, those who are interested
in participating are encouraged to contact the Office of
Alumni and Parent Relations as soon as possible for additional
information. The office can be visited online at www.hope.edu/alumni,
e-mailed at alumni@hope.edu or called at (616) 395-7250
during weekday business hours. Initial deposits will be
due by the end of 2007, and final deposits by mid February.
Dr. Blankespoor joined the Hope faculty in 1976. Acclaimed
as a teacher, he received the Hope Outstanding Professor
Educator (H.O.P.E.) Award from the graduating class in 1980,
was named the national 1991 Professor of the Year by The
Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE)
and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Although he retired in the spring of 2002 as the Frederich
Garrett and Helen Floor Dekker Professor of Biology, he
has continued to teach at Hope part-time.
Tour
History
Hope College began hosting international educational tours
for Hope alumni, parents, and friends in 1992 with a trip
to Europe with Hope professor Sander DeHaan. The tour continued
to grow in popularity over the years, and has traveled to
destinations such as Sicily, the Galapagos, Dubrovnik and
Africa. The tour typically takes place in the summer and
lasts for 10-14 days.
