Cliff Jumping in Aoteara

Polina Kozinsky

Biology major
Chung Ang University, South Korea

My name is Polina Kozinskiy. I am currently studying at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand, majoring in Business Administration with a concentration in Management. My most memorable event from my semester overseas so far was a weekend trip to Coromandel. The University has a club called the Study Abroad Network that organizes trips and events for their international students, and the Coromandel trip was the last one for the semester. The weekend consisted of long drives, staying at cute hostels and holiday parks, some beaches, a couple wrong turns and an improvised hike. We even played some mini golf. The highlight of the trip though was definitely the Glass-Bottom Boat Tour.

The weather was lousy, but the views were gorgeous. Our tour guide was a marine biologist that worked frequently in Hawaii so we hit it off pretty well. When I mentioned south point, he said that there were a few jumping spots along the tour and offered to let me try them out. Boy, was I stoked! I was the only one jumping at the first stop because the water was freezing. When we got to Cathedral Cove, the boys jumped out and swam to the beach too because they didn’t want me making them look bad. A few kids from the other boat joined us and we walked through the cave and swam back to the boats. The last jump was on a little island with a blowhole. Everyone was cold and no one else wanted to get wet again so I was the only jumper, again. It was a little scarier since I had to jump past branches sticking out on the way down, but I wasn’t about to chicken out with everyone watching. So I jumped, everyone got a cool boomerang, and we went back to town for some fish and chips before the long drive home. All in all, it was heaps of fun. 10/10 would do it again.