Welcome to windy Wellington

Kelly Teo

When I stepped out of the plane at Wellington airport in February 1973, I was greeted by a cold wind, my first taste of Windy Wellington. Inside the airport terminal, I was greeted by Susan, the overseas student coordinator. She made me feel most welcome on my first day there.

Over the course of the next 4 years at Victoria University, I remember with great fondness and nostalgia the fellow Kiwi students that I travelled with to Mt Ruapehu for our ski trip in after a 3-month training course at the Uni Gym. I will never forget Alan and Bob, our Gym instructors, Alice, Brian and everyone who helped me when I fractured my left ankle on the last day.

Looking at the harbour from the library

Karamjit Singh (Gurusham)

I really have very good memories of New Zealand, such a beautiful country. I still tell friends "if one really want to see heaven on earth, visit New Zealand". Wellington is such a beautiful city. Like taking the cable car from Lambton Quay to Weir House where I stayed in my first year. Second year, I went flatting. I used to rent a flat on The Terrace opposite Stuart Williamson house, which was a student hostel. My girlfriend was from Cambridge in the Waikato, and she was doing a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Psychology. The University of Waikato did not exist at that time.

Watching the harbour while studying at the library, what a sight. I have very fond memories of my first summertime job working as a steward on the ferries from Wellington to Picton. The pay was really good. You worked for one week and got paid for two weeks.

Artificial ski slope in the gym

Virginia Earle

A quirky memory is the artificial ski slope in the gym. It wasn’t very long and had a surface like giant toothbrush bristles (early 1970s).

Inspirational lecturers inspired a lifelong love of learning

Marion Myers

1977…a young mum (baby in the VUW creche), left school at 13, nervously made my way to an Education 101 lecture. Lucky enough to have Jack Shallcrass as a lecturer. No notes, no PowerPoint…just an inspirational, compassionate and knowledgeable man talking about a subject he was passionate about. He opened my mind and inspired a lifelong love of learning. Similar experience the year before learning Hebrew at night classes with Lloyd Geering. So lucky!

Not always paying attention in class

Alice Deacon

• Students throwing paper darts at lecturers during classes and talking.
• Reading newspapers while lecturer teaching classes; booing the lecturers.
• Being penalised for not speaking up at tutorials or keeping quiet.
• The understanding and knowledge of different cultures and races and language and schooling systems by staff and New Zealanders in general.

Three women in the whole lecture theatre

Edmund MacKay

There were very few women studying for a BCom in 1960s. I remember studying in the brand new Easterfield big lecture room. The three women in the class sat in the front row surrounded by our male friends.

After bringing up a family I went back to Vic and when studying for the new BCA degree (which I finished in 1980) over a quarter of the class were female. Big change!

No women’s toilets in Hunter building

Janet Eriksen

Did you know that in 1972 there was no female toilets in the Hunter building? When I queried it, I was told that there were so few female students when the Hunter building was built that it wasn’t considered necessary!

What being at university is all about

Mark Chapple

I remember dancing out of an English Shakespearean lecture given by Professor McKenzie in 1979. I thought: ‘This intellectual stimulation is what being at university is all about.’ I’ve never forgotten that upwelling joy. Back then about 3 percent of the population ended up at university, now it’s more than 33 percent.