The team from Caldwell and Highsted spent two weeks building a house to provide teachers a place to live so they would be able to teach in the region.
Caldwell and Highsted director Taylor Clark said the trip had definitely been a culture shock for some of the builders, many of whom had not travelled outside New Zealand before.
"It was a massive shock for them," he said.
The builders travelled to Kapuna Hospital, a remote rural hospital situated on the Wame River in Papua New Guinea’s Gulf Province.
The area has a school — the Kapuna Life School — but it was having a hard time attracting teaching staff to the area due to a lack of accommodation.
Mr Clark and his team stuck their hands up to volunteer two weeks to build the house.
"It was pretty challenging ... we probably didn’t smash it out as quick as we thought we could."
The builders fundraised to buy new tools to take with them — to use, and then to leave behind for the community.
They raised about $10,000 to buy the tools and cover essential logistics, transport and materials.
Getting to the building site involved first taking a series of flights to get to Port Moresby, about eight hours driving and another six hours by boat.
"All the timber was bent, it had been bush milled and varied in thickness and size, and it was soaking wet ... it was real hard to work with."
Building in Papua New Guinea was very different from building in Dunedin, but they made it work, he said.
"The codes are different, the materials are different and the heat ... it was crazy hot."
They started work every day about 6.30am and would end about 6pm.
After that, they would join the locals in activities such as playing a game of rugby or sharing meals.
"We loved it, and the community loved having us out there," Mr Taylor said.
