Visiting students from warmer climes

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 1, Issue 9, 2 August 1983, Page 15

Visiting students from warmer climes

Ruapehu College has two visiting students during the second term — one from Tahiti and the other from Australia. They are Facon Moehau, 14, from Papeete and Warren Boadle, 17, from Yarram, South Gippsland in Victoria. f Facon, who speaks Inch and Tahitian, is here New Zealand for 6 weeks to study English and broaden her horizons as part of an arrangement between NZ secondary schools and the Tahitian education authorities.

During her stay in Ohakune she is being hosted by College principal Mike Warbrick and his wife Joanne. Warren is here in New Zealand for the whole of the middle term as a 1983 Rotary Exchange student. Warren's family, who have a dairy farm near Yarram, had hosted a local student — Ronald Frew from Ohakune — during the first term this year and now it ! was the turn of Ron and Peggy Frew, under the Rotary Exchange Scheme, j to host Warren during his

stay in New Zealand. Warren explained that Yarram, which is about 360krns east of Melbourne, is in some respects similar to Ohakune — it has a population of a little over 2000 and is situated in a rain-forest area with tall trees of mountain ash. Even the temperatures are similar . . . but only in winter when southerlies from Bass Straight prevail . . . Yarram is only a few kilometres from the

coast near Wilsons Promontory, the Australian continents' southernmost point. But the summer temperatures are a lot warmer averaging about 35°C and reaching a high of 43°C. At Yarram High School (student roll of 500) Warren plays 'Aussie Rules' football (V.F.L. or Victorian Football League rules to give it its proper title) in the winter and sails his 12'6" racing dinghy at nearby Port Albert during the summer months.