RANZSE
Rotary Australia New Zealand Student Exchange.

Rotary gave me the best eye opening experience in life to travel as a young teenager.

Living in Australia for over 3 months of my life was one of the best things that could have happened to me.

Rotary has given me the best tastes of the world in 3 short months.

What Is RANZE: it is an age group from 13.5 to 16, you apply from anywhere from December to the end the June then you go through interviews. These are home interviews Where You have 2 or 3 Rotarians come you at your house and ask you how you are and what school you go to and your dreams in life and hobbies etc.

After that, there is a Rotary meeting they are honestly amazing people to learn from and to give a speech too.

How it all works: you get matched up with a teenager who has the same hobbies and interest and who might have the same personality as you.

The Rotary team will do the best they can to find a twin from Australia and then, In December you will find out who your twin is and where you are going, who your host family will be, some people get a one way like me. What is a one way: so a one-way exchange is maybe when the numbers were odd or when they couldn’t match you with someone close enough to your personality. But it’s amazing anyway you will have the best experience in life.

In April the exchange all starts the Aussies might fly to NZ or the Kiwi’s might fly to Aussie so what happens when you have a twin exchange? When I did my exchange the Aussies arrived in NZ in April within the first 2 weeks you go to a district camp and get to know everybody on the RANZE exchange.

You do heaps of cool stuff over the three months and then you have an amazing 3 months you go to rotary meetings once a week you go to school, you make amazing friends, memories, and history.

In the last week you go on a safari which is the opposite country’s camp you have one in each country and go somewhere amazing around Assize and then you do amazing things like jet boating, fly treetop adventures, walking across the blue mountain ranges, Bondi beach, institute of sport, opera house, paddy’s market, Sydney wildlife world, Chinese garden of friendship, bungee jumping and white water rafting.

My personal experience: I lived in the Adelaide hills in a town called Strathalbyn I had an amazing host family I love them to bits they took me hiking and camping through the Flinders ranges. They changed me from farm girl to a girl to one who loves shopping now.

I went to EFS Eastern Fleurieu school I made amazing friends that are so close to me and I miss them dearly.

All around it was an amazing experience you would hate to miss out on.

I would love to go back and do it again.

Zara Smith