The Odyssey is a Senior School Humanities and Commerce Trip travelling during the April school holidays in Southern Europe from Constantinople to Pompeii following the footsteps of Greek gods, Gallipoli guns and gormless generals. Other areas of the curriculum, the Arts and Music, will also have an influence on the itinerary. Year 10 to Year 13 students will be travelling with teachers: Louise Mazengarb, Val O'Reilly, Chris Petersen and Nick Richardson.
Remembrance Service
While in Southern Europe, we plan to honour the members of our student and staff families who served in the world wars. We will be visiting Gallipoli and a number of other important sites in Europe where members of Kristin families will have served during WW1 and WW2.
We will be preparing a service which will include a remembrance of these men and women who served, fought and survived or died in action.
Wednesday 31 March
A group of excited students and staff departed Auckland International Airport on Wednesday afternoon. Two flights ahead of us: Auckland-Singapore and Singapore-Istanbul. We'll arrive in Turkey on 1 April in the morning. Passports - check, baggage weight restrictions - check, haggling skills for the shopkeepers in Turkey - might need some practice...
Thursday 1 April Have arrived in Turkey, we reached our destination of Istanbul at 7:40am (Turkey time) and got off the plane with happiness to touch earth again, and to have finally started our Odyssey. We will be staying at the Santa Sophia Hotel. More than 66 million people live in the Republic of Turkey. Unlike most of our families at home, we're not likely to see many Easter celebrations this weekend as 99% of the population is Muslim.
At 7.00pm we went out for dinner to a Turkish restaurant where we sat down on tiny chairs and the waiters put Turkish hats on our heads. The food was incredible, but spicy. Now we are all in our rooms, most are sleeping.
Friday 2 April The mosques and minarets and chanting calls to prayer in Istanbul remind us we're a long way from home. However, practical arrangements are all working admirably and we have established a great rapport with our tour guide who liaises with our hotel and local sight-seeing operators daily.
The 16th century Topkaki Palace is an insight to the opulence of the Ottoman Empire where emeralds, diamonds and rubies adorned everyday objects in the sultan's palace. We spent the morning viewing the opulent treasury, harem, courtyards, princes quarters and other sections, revelling in the magnificence and imperial grandeur and splendour of the Ottoman world. The 86 carat Kasikci diamond sparkled as just one of the sultan's baubles on display.
Saturday 3 April Today has been a highly significant day which we have spent on the Gallipoli peninsula. What a miracle for a crystal-clear day to dawn (we arrived here last night in driving rain) and we have spent the day in warm sunshine, viewing the landing sites, cemeteries, memorials and trenches of Gallipoli.
Our Remembrance Service was an especially poignant occasion for each of us and was held at one of the NZ cemeteries close to ANZAC Cove. The students participated with decorum and solemnity and it was an occasion each will treasure for the rest of their lives. What a privilege to be able to reflect on such a significant time in our nation's history and to physically remember and represent so many of the Kristin community. We felt a real sense of pride. We hope to be able to load a video of this service here when we get back.
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The significance of the area politically and economically was also visually reinforced with the vista of the two continents on each side.
Following the Service, we then toured the rest of Gallipoli. We were able to visit the Chunuk Bair Memorial and Lone Pine Memorial. We then made our way to a ferry which would take us over to the Asian side of Turkey into a town called Canakkale. Here we had lunch and we also saw the wooden horse used in the filming of the movie ‘Troy’. We then got back on the ferry and travelled back to our hotel in Gallipoli.
Sunday 4 April We have had a dream day of history with a visit to Troy and then to Asklepion, an ancient spa at Bergama where people would go to be cured by making offerings to the god Aesclepius. In groups, we also ventured into the local town to experience the Turkish cuisine, which all appreciated.
Monday 5 April
Today we roamed the ancient ruins of Pergamon and Luke sang our national anthem in the ampitheatre while we sat high above on slabs of stone and marble.
An unexpected treat today was a visit to a local Turkish rug and carpet-making co op where we saw the silk cocoons woven to thread and transformed into works of art. Let's just say the local economy had a boost today.
Tuesday 6 April The weather is very warm – springtime in Turkey. This morning was a step back in time to Ephesus, the last known location of the city where St Paul lived and preached for a time. In its heyday, Ephesus was a city of around 250 thousand people.
All around are reminders of the civilizations who lived here from six thousand years ago when the Hittites were known to be here, to the Greeks who built magnificent buildings and temples with elaborate friezes and marble columns, and the Romans who conquered and prospered.
We visited a Turkish leather factory also, where Allanah, Anthony, Greer and Mrs Peterson modelled the leather jackets.
Sadly, we are now leaving Turkey but very excited to be on a ferry to Chios where we will say "Kherete", "Hello" to Greece. Greece has a population of approximately 10.6 million, 98% practise the Greek Orthodox religion and the economy is supported by tourism, food and tobacco processing, textiles and mining. Tonight we stay at the four star Erythra Hotel in Karfas.
Wednesday 7 April Today we had our first free day where we all slept in until around 9:00am, enjoyed a continental breakfast, refused to pay 4 Euro per item of clothing to be washed, instead choosing to wash our clothes in our bath tubs. We then went off to shop and eat in the town. Tonight we will be catching an overnight ferry to Athens where a new adventure awaits us.
Thursday 8 April The ferry was packed with almost a thousand people so you can imagine how cramped it was. The cabins were around two meters wide with four people to a room, the beds were so tiny that you were unable to roll over, and the cabin had the usual musky boat smell. After the eight-hour cruise we reached our destination of Athens.
Tonight we stay at the Arion Hotel in Athens and today we visit the Acropolis Museum. The acropolis is the name for a high place or hill in a town, and in approximately 500BC, Pericles rebuilt the temples on the acropolis in Athens after the Persians burned them down during the Persian wars. The city is named after the goddess Athena and the Parthenon on the acropolis is a temple dedicated to her. Some of the group were a little disappointed at the sight as the ruin was under reconstruction which meant that it was surrounded with scaffolding. Today, thousands of visitors like us climb the marble steps every day to marvel at the clever engineering and architecture and to take in the panoramic view, just as people have been doing now for thousands of years.
We then had two hour rest and a night out in Athens. We went in groups around the shops for a couple of hours and then off to have our choice of dinner.
Friday 9 April Today we had a quick stop-over at the Corinth canal which is about 78 kilometres southwest of Athens. The canal links the Aegean to the Ionian Sea. The city is surrounded by the coastal townlets of Lechaio, Istmia, Kechries and the inland townlets of Examilia and the Delphi archaeological site. The impressive amphitheatre at Epidauros, where today, with near perfect acoustics, theatre and concerts are held without amplification in the same way plays such as 'Wasps' by Aristophanes would have been performed several thousand years ago.
Our Odyssey then took us further back in time to the Mycenaean Kingdom of Agamemnon and we wondered how these ancient people were able to place rocks and slabs of 10-20 tons (called Cyclopean stones) many metres high, with such precision.
Our Greek guide Nina gave us an unscheduled stop at a local place where we saw a demonstration of pottery-making from the high quality local clay. Here we bought some local souvenirs.
Saturday 10 April
Today we visited the Delphi archaeological site and museum. As a slight change to the itinerary we will not be visiting Larissa (our guide's recommendation).
We've fallen in love with Greek food. The evening dinner of traditional dishes at a local restaurant included tsatziki, hummus, Greek salads, moussaka and other unpronounceable delicacies. Just as well we're climbing hills and walking up steps every day!
Sunday 11 April Yesterday we travelled further North to Kalambaka and woke this morning to a fresh chill in the mountain air. This morning we had a most unique experience of visiting two of the six remaining working monasteries of the 23 built on the very top of rocky outcrops created some 60 million years ago by the movement of the earth and the slicing action of icy waters. Originally austere hermits lived in caves (11th and 12th century AD) which they would reach by ropes and ladders, isolating themselves from the world. In the 14th century AD Athanasious created a monastery on a high rock and named it Meteora, meaning 'suspended in the air'.
Today the two we visited are working monasteries, inhabited by Greek Orthodox nuns. The original method of access was by lowering a net and hauling the person or goods up manually but thankfully there are today bridges from roads and tourists flock to the area. It's a rock-climber's paradise.
Monday 12 April Last night we stayed in Veria, our last night in Greece before we travel further North again to Tirane in Albania today. The city of Veria has been populated since as early as 1000 BC. During the Roman Empire, Veria became a place of worship for the Romans. Witin the city there was a Jewish settlement where the Apostle Paul once preached.
Our adventure is all the more delightful and interesting because we don't have a guide on this leg and the driver speaks German and no Greek or English. It's a great chance for us to brush up on our communication skills - including sign language!
Tuesday 13 April We're waiting at the border of Albania and Montenegro for the return of our passports having had a stopover and tour of Albania's capital, Tirane. We had a change to our route yesterday with a drive through Macedonia, so we are clocking up the stamps in our passports!
Moving into Montenegro, the infrastructure has continued to deteriorate. We are now travelling, sharing a single lane, pot-holed road with the on-coming traffic. Luckily, their vehicles are scarce too.
Wednesday 14 April Continue to travel north today through Croatia. Our itinerary includes a city tour of Dubrovnik which is on the coast of Croatia, a prominent tourist destination and seaport. We then travel on to Sarajevo in Bosnia where we will stay tonight in the Astra Garni Hotel.
It was another long bus ride with the relief of food on the table when we arrived around 9.00pm.
Thursday 15 April Sarajevo. The students were looking forward to a few history lessons today. So imagine the excitement, especially among the historians, to stand on the very spot where on 28 June 1914, the Austrian heir to the throne, Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his pregnant wife Sophie, were assassinated by Serbian Black Hand member, Gavrilo Princip. Even more enthralling was the continued existence of the bakery adjacent to the assassination site where Princip had purchased his sandwich for lunch only moments before he fired the fatal shots. Needless to say, a purchase from the bakery and consumption on the spot was a mandatory photo opportunity.
Our morning continued with a most informative walking tour through the historic Ottoman and Austrian quarters of this ancient Bosnian capital. We were also provided with harrowing reminders of the personal tragedies suffered by the city's citizens during the Bosnian/Serb war of the the 1990s. Buildings scarred with bullet holes, 'blood roses' on the pavements commemorating those victims of grenades and shells. Poignantly our guide, Beriana, commented that to travel freely from country to country as we are able to, is a luxury young Bosnians can but dream of. They are unable to easily acquire visas to travel abroad and are currently awaiting EU membership which could facilitate economic growth and also liberalise border controls.
Now we move on to Zagreb where we'll spend the night.
Friday 16 April After a comfortable night's sleep at the Arcotel Allegra Hotel, today we have a city tour of Zagreb. Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia.
Later today we will travel to Rijeka and the seaside town of Opatija. It is a popular summer and winter resort, with average temperatures of 10°C in winter, and 25°C in summer. Opatija is surrounded by beautiful woods of bay laurel. The whole sea-coast to the north and south of Opatija is rocky and picturesque.
Saturday 17 April Our rest day in Opatija has charged our batteries and given us time to catch up on a few piles of laundry.
The weather has been sunny and warm and this pretty coastal town has charmed us with its reminders of Austro-Hungarian olde-worlde grandeur. The Emperor Franz Ferdinand is said to have used this place as a summer resort.
Although we did not transit through present day Serbia as originally thought, we have travelled through a significant number of countries in a short space of time so far: Turkey, Greece, Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and tomorrow, Slovenia.
We are getting closer to Venice which is a source of eager expectation and excitement for the whole group.
Sunday 18 April Today we visit the famous Lipizzaner Stud Farm and we're all a bit curious about what to expect. No doubt it will be another amazing addition to our Odyssey.
In 1580, Archduke Karl, son of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor, Ferdinand I, founded the Lipica Stud Farm to breed horses for the Spanish Riding School in Vienna and the Royal Court stables. A Lipizzaner horse is relatively small in stature with a long back, short thick neck and powerful build. They are born dark in colour, gradually becoming lighter as they mature, and finally adopting the pristine white coat that is its hallmark around the age of five or six. These distinctive physical traits are complemented by a beautiful sense of balance and rhythm, a lively, high stepping gait and an even temperament.
Today there are about 400 horses roaming the estate, divided between show, competition and riding horses. Training begins at four years old, and they are ready for performance at age seven.
This afternoon we travel to Trieste, a city and seaport in north eastern Italy on the border with Slovenia.
Monday 19 April After our first of two nights at the Delfino Hotel in Mestre, a town in Veneto, northern Italy, we have now reached Venice. Veneto is connected to Venice by a large rail and road bridge, called Ponte della Libertà (Freedom Bridge).
Venice has been described as one of Europe's most romantic cities. The city stretches across 117 small islands in the marshy Venetian Lagoon along the Adriatic Sea. The salt water lagoon stretches along the shoreline between the mouths of the Po (south) and the Piave (north) Rivers.
Throughout medieval times Venice's importance as a trading port was matched by that of its cathedral, St Mark's Basilica. This splendid building provided inspiration for many composers in the 16th and 17th centuries: its high-vaulted ceiling and many galleries were exploited for their acoustic properties.
The city state of Venice is renowned for trade and commerce. Its wealth and governance dominated the Mediterranean in medieval times.
Tuesday 20 April Ah Venezia. Gondolas and Gondoliers. Canals. Opera. St Marco. Murano. Venetian masks. A love affair with Venice.
Approximately 20 million tourists flood onto Venetian waterways each year. The cobbled streets and narrow alleyways are bursting with tiny shops luring every tourist to part with their Euros. Indeed the spirit of commercial prosperity remains alive and well in present day Venice.
Today we take a train to Florence for a walking tour.
Wednesday 21 April Another train journey today, to Rome, the capital of Italy and the last stop on our Odyssey. We stay in Rome for two nights at the Marsala Hotel. It is sad that our amazing trip is coming to an end but our spirits were lifted by the famous sights that we saw today.
Today, the Coliseum and Forum - significant monuments reminding us still, of the wealth and power of the Roman Empire. Then to the Vatican Museum; we saw gallery upon gallery of paintings and sculptures by Giotto, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and many other great masters. Yet these were just an entreé compared with the feast that awaited us in the Sistine Chapel, that is, Michelangelo's magnificent ceiling depicting the Creation. Later we visited St Peter's Basilica, Italy's biggest, richest and most spectacular church and seat of the Pope for the past 500 years. It was one of the most intensive days on tour, but we also had time to celebrate a birthday (Luke's) and to see Rome by night – visiting the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain.
Thursday 22 April Pompeii to Cassino.
Romans took control of Pompeii around 200 BC. On 24 August, 79 AD, the volcano Vesuvius erupted, burying Pompeii in ash and soot, killing 20 000 people, and preserving the city in its state from that fateful day. Pompeii is an excavation site and outdoor museum of the ancient Roman settlement. This site is considered to be one of the few sites where an ancient city has been preserved in detail - everything from jars and tables to paintings and people were frozen in time, yielding an unprecedented opportunity to see how the people lived two thousand years ago.
Our Sicilian guide Roberto has been guiding in various places since 1960 and had spent a year working on the ongoing excavations in Pompeii so he had comprehensive information to share with us. The bakery was a highlight with its oven exactly as we see the wood-fired pizza ovens today.
New Zealand troops were involved in four battles for Monte Cassino between January and May 1944. The two months fighting for this small Italian town were among the toughest the New Zealand division faced during the war.
We stopped at the beautiful English cemetery at Monte Cassino where we found a number of New Zealand soldiers' graves and then took a bus ride up a winding mountain road to the restored monastery on Monte Cassino. Now we return to Rome to pack our bags and with mixed emotions, enjoy our final dinner in Southern Europe.
Friday 23 April
Transfer to Rome Airport this morning at 8.30am. At this stage we are not aware of any flight delays from the recent eruption, as we are leaving from Rome and there seem to be no issues flying from here. We fly to Singapore on flight SQ365 at noon and we are due back in New Zealand tomorrow, Saturday, on flight SQ281 as per our itinerary.
Saturday 24 April
10.15pm and safely landed. Home sweet home. Our cabin cheered on touchdown.
Play the video below to see more images and experiences from the Odyssey trip.
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If you are unable to play the above video, even more images can be viewed by clicking on the picture below.
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The Odyssey is a Senior School Humanities and Commerce Trip travelling during the April school holidays in Southern Europe from Constantinople to Pompeii following the footsteps of Greek gods, Gallipoli guns and gormless generals. Other areas of the curriculum, the Arts and Music, will also have an influence on the itinerary. Year 10 to Year 13 students will be travelling with teachers: Louise Mazengarb, Val O'Reilly, Chris Petersen and Nick Richardson.
Have arrived in Turkey, we reached our destination of Istanbul at 7:40am (Turkey time) and got off the plane with happiness to touch earth again, and to have finally started our Odyssey. We will be staying at the Santa Sophia Hotel. More than 66 million people live in the Republic of Turkey. Unlike most of our families at home, we're not likely to see many Easter celebrations this weekend as 99% of the population is Muslim.
The mosques and minarets and chanting calls to prayer in Istanbul remind us we're a long way from home. However, practical arrangements are all working admirably and we have established a great rapport with our tour guide who liaises with our hotel and local sight-seeing operators daily.
Today has been a highly significant day which we have spent on the Gallipoli peninsula. What a miracle for a crystal-clear day to dawn (we arrived here last night in driving rain) and we have spent the day in warm sunshine, viewing the landing sites, cemeteries, memorials and trenches of Gallipoli. 
Following the Service, we then toured the rest of Gallipoli. We were able to visit the Chunuk Bair Memorial and Lone Pine Memorial. We then made our way to a ferry which would take us over to the Asian side of Turkey into a town called Canakkale. Here we had lunch and we also saw the wooden horse used in the filming of the movie ‘Troy’. We then got back on the ferry and travelled back to our hotel in Gallipoli.
We have had a dream day of history with a visit to Troy and then to Asklepion, an ancient spa at Bergama where people would go to be cured by making offerings to the god Aesclepius. In groups, we also ventured into the local town to experience the Turkish cuisine, which all appreciated.
The weather is very warm – springtime in Turkey. This morning was a step back in time to Ephesus, the last known location of the city where St Paul lived and preached for a time. In its heyday, Ephesus was a city of around 250 thousand people. 
We visited a Turkish leather factory also, where Allanah, Anthony, Greer and Mrs Peterson modelled the leather jackets.
Today we had our first free day where we all slept in until around 9:00am, enjoyed a continental breakfast, refused to pay 4 Euro per item of clothing to be washed, instead choosing to wash our clothes in our bath tubs. We then went off to shop and eat in the town. Tonight we will be catching an overnight ferry to Athens where a new adventure awaits us.
The ferry was packed with almost a thousand people so you can imagine how cramped it was. The cabins were around two meters wide with four people to a room, the beds were so tiny that you were unable to roll over, and the cabin had the usual musky boat smell. After the eight-hour cruise we reached our destination of Athens.
Today we had a quick stop-over at the Corinth canal which is about 78 kilometres southwest of Athens. The canal links the Aegean to the Ionian Sea. The city is surrounded by the coastal townlets of Lechaio, Istmia, Kechries and the inland townlets of Examilia and the Delphi archaeological site. The impressive amphitheatre at Epidauros, where today, with near perfect acoustics, theatre and concerts are held without amplification in the same way plays such as 'Wasps' by Aristophanes would have been performed several thousand years ago. 
Our Greek guide Nina gave us an unscheduled stop at a local place where we saw a demonstration of pottery-making from the high quality local clay. Here we bought some local souvenirs. 
Yesterday we travelled further North to Kalambaka and woke this morning to a fresh chill in the mountain air. This morning we had a most unique experience of visiting two of the six remaining working monasteries of the 23 built on the very top of rocky outcrops created some 60 million years ago by the movement of the earth and the slicing action of icy waters. Originally austere hermits lived in caves (11th and 12th century AD) which they would reach by ropes and ladders, isolating themselves from the world. In the 14th century AD Athanasious created a monastery on a high rock and named it Meteora, meaning 'suspended in the air'. 
Last night we stayed in Veria, our last night in Greece before we travel further North again to Tirane in Albania today. The city of Veria has been populated since as early as 1000 BC. During the Roman Empire, Veria became a place of worship for the Romans. Witin the city there was a Jewish settlement where the Apostle Paul once preached.
We're waiting at the border of Albania and Montenegro for the return of our passports having had a stopover and tour of Albania's capital, Tirane. We had a change to our route yesterday with a drive through Macedonia, so we are clocking up the stamps in our passports! 
Continue to travel north today through Croatia. Our itinerary includes a city tour of Dubrovnik which is on the coast of Croatia, a prominent tourist destination and seaport. We then travel on to Sarajevo in Bosnia where we will stay tonight in the Astra Garni Hotel.
Sarajevo. The students were looking forward to a few history lessons today. So imagine the excitement, especially among the historians, to stand on the very spot where on 28 June 1914, the Austrian heir to the throne, Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his pregnant wife Sophie, were assassinated by Serbian Black Hand member, Gavrilo Princip. Even more enthralling was the continued existence of the bakery adjacent to the assassination site where Princip had purchased his sandwich for lunch only moments before he fired the fatal shots. Needless to say, a purchase from the bakery and consumption on the spot was a mandatory photo opportunity.
Our morning continued with a most informative walking tour through the historic Ottoman and Austrian quarters of this ancient Bosnian capital. We were also provided with harrowing reminders of the personal tragedies suffered by the city's citizens during the Bosnian/Serb war of the the 1990s. Buildings scarred with bullet holes, 'blood roses' on the pavements commemorating those victims of grenades and shells. Poignantly our guide, Beriana, commented that to travel freely from country to country as we are able to, is a luxury young Bosnians can but dream of. They are unable to easily acquire visas to travel abroad and are currently awaiting EU membership which could facilitate economic growth and also liberalise border controls. 
After a comfortable night's sleep at the Arcotel Allegra Hotel, today we have a city tour of Zagreb. Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. 
Our rest day in Opatija has charged our batteries and given us time to catch up on a few piles of laundry.
Today we visit the famous Lipizzaner Stud Farm and we're all a bit curious about what to expect. No doubt it will be another amazing addition to our Odyssey.
After our first of two nights at the Delfino Hotel in Mestre, a town in Veneto, northern Italy, we have now reached Venice. Veneto is connected to Venice by a large rail and road bridge, called Ponte della Libertà (Freedom Bridge).
Throughout medieval times Venice's importance as a trading port was matched by that of its cathedral, St Mark's Basilica. This splendid building provided inspiration for many composers in the 16th and 17th centuries: its high-vaulted ceiling and many galleries were exploited for their acoustic properties.
Ah Venezia. Gondolas and Gondoliers. Canals. Opera. St Marco. Murano. Venetian masks. A love affair with Venice. 
Another train journey today, to Rome, the capital of Italy and the last stop on our Odyssey. We stay in Rome for two nights at the Marsala Hotel. It is sad that our amazing trip is coming to an end but our spirits were lifted by the famous sights that we saw today. 
Pompeii to Cassino. 
New Zealand troops were involved in four battles for Monte Cassino between January and May 1944. The two months fighting for this small Italian town were among the toughest the New Zealand division faced during the war.
