We had the pleasure of hosting a fantastic group of students from the University of Richmond in Virginia, USA. With some of the clearest weather we’ve seen in months, the group experienced Te Waipounamu / South Island at its very best as they travelled through some of the most remarkable coastal and sub-alpine natural environments. […]
University of Richmond visit Te Tauihu Read More »
Traveling to Aotearoa New Zealand is more than simply arriving in a new country. It is an invitation to slow down, connect deeply with place, people, and culture, and to experience learning through challenge, adventure, and reflection. This twelve day ExpedNZ programme is designed to do exactly that, blending outdoor exploration with cultural immersion and personal development
Seattle’s Bush School Explore Te Tauihu Read More »
Our site is open, and programmes are running again. We will continue to keep you informed about any changes to our programmes. 13 May 2020 The team at Whenua Iti Outdoors are looking forward to welcoming students back to programmes as we head into Level 2. We have adapted many of our programmes to ensure
Keeping informed about Covid-19 Read More »
Kia Ora Whānau Joni Here. I’m back again with my yearly blog post! You may remember that I wrote a blog about ‘The things that I’ve learnt from students as an instructor’ where I reflected on the work of 2018. I wrote about how lucky I was to help facilitate growth in our amazing young
Top 5 Things I’ve Learnt From My Students (v.2) Read More »
I have been privileged enough over the last three years to have graduated from the Manaaki Tāpoi Level 2, Level 3, and Level 3 Extension programmes. The Mānaaki Tāpoi programme is a 4-week block course run by Whenua Iti Outdoors for senior kura tuarua students from Te Tai o Poutini and Te Tau Ihu o
My Manaaki Tāpoi Journey – A Student’s Voice Read More »
For many years Whenua Iti Outdoors has been held in high regard by the people who participate in our programmes or maybe their families and others in the community who for some reason come across our work. We have heard many tales of how “my son turned a corner doing a WIO programme” or “WIO
Measuring our Impact – what do we know? Read More »
If you come on a Whenua Iti Outdoors programmes you will find yourself facing all sorts of challenges and each person on the same programme faces a different set of challenges – some physical, some mental, some emotional – sometimes all 3! One of our tutors, Kathryn, has written a letter to everyone facing a
To the Scared Abseiler – a message from your tutor! Read More »
I’m sure you’ve all heard us wax lyrical about all the wonderful things the students have learned in their programmes – but what if you flick that round and look at that from a different perspective? Our super woman instructor, Joni Tomsett, shows us it’s not all one way traffic on the learning front! The
Who’s Learning from Who? An Instructor’s Perspective Read More »
Adventure Therapy has been on our minds a lot lately – we were privileged to host the Adventure Therapy Aotearoa Forum 2018 earlier in the year and we have just started the ground work for our own Adventure Therapy programme with staff visiting potential partners and participants. Georgia, a WIO tutor, recently visited the USA
Adventure Therapy – A Tutor’s View Read More »
Adventure Therapy is a relatively new field in New Zealand and one that is growing pretty quickly. So what does it do? Why is it getting so much attention? And how is Whenua Iti Outdoors involved? Adventure Therapy (AT) combines the outdoors (taiao), people (tangata), challenge (wero) and therapy (haumanu). It is an intensive, structured yet
Adventure Therapy – a beginners guide Read More »
WIO is constantly evolving and trying new things – sometimes we think up great ideas but most often those ideas come from our community (and we are so very grateful!!). In response to enquiries asking for a programme that would extend both the skills of participants and the time spent in the outdoors, we came
Adventure Skills Development Read More »
Here at WIO our highest priority is safety including programme planning, checking of equipment and possibly most importantly, having highly skilled staff. To work towards this we run training sessions that focus on different areas of the tutors’ skill set and this time it was bush and rescue skills. Here’s Joni Tomsett with a tutor’s
Walking the talk… Instructor Training Read More »
2016 kicked off with a group of senior students from Senior Seisen University, Osaka, Japan. They were with us for a week and enjoyed learning about our region and the natural beauty of the Abel Tasman National Park. The average age of the participants was 65, but our instructors were inspired by their enthusiasm and
Land of Clouds – Seisen University Japan Read More »
