Two former teachers from Blenheim will be returning to their profession in an unconventional classroom – the Australian Outback.
Former Marlborough Girls' College teacher Kathryn Nicholls and her husband Wayne, who taught at Marlborough Boys' College, will spend the next couple of months teaching children who live on a cattle station about 300 kilometres south of Darwin, in the Northern Territory.
The couple are volunteering through Australian organisation Volunteers for Isolated Students' Education, which helps teach students in rural Australia.
They leave on Monday and will return to Blenheim in September.
The couple know little about the family they will be living with, except that there are four children aged between nine and 17 who help run a large cattle station called Ebenezer Waters.
"They have a music room and the mother wants assemblies on Fridays, but with four kids I don't know how you can do that," Mrs Nicholls joked.
She had looked up the property on Google maps, but could not see any buildings. "We zoomed in and zoomed in, but we couldn't see anything. It must be a big property."
They will live with the family for free in exchange for teaching the children, who study by correspondence. The children will continue to work with their parents on the station while they study.
This is not the first time teaching has taken the couple outside the country. Both spent a year on a teacher exchange in the Northern Territory in 2000 and also taught at the Marlborough Boys' College international school in China for three years.
"We were looking for another adventure and this is it," Mrs Nicholls said.
The volunteer organisation pays for teaching resources and getting the couple to their destination once they are in Australia.
Mr Nicholls said they would have weekends free to explore, but hoped they could get involved in working on the station. "We're hoping to become part of the family very quickly," he said.
He did not know if it was common for New Zealand teachers to volunteer for the organisation, but said the only problem they had applying was finding someone to look after their dog, Jack.
A friend had agreed to live in their house and care for Jack while they were away, he said.
- The Marlborough Express
SIMON WONG
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