Gore High School French teacher Chris Cheyne said the New Caledonia trip, held every two years, proved to be an incentive for the pupils to stick with French right through to the senior classes.
She said Gore High School was one of the few schools left in Southland that still offered French as an option through to year 13.
‘‘Personally, I think French is a fantastic language. I certainly prefer it over some of the other options available, such as German or Japanese.
‘‘French is actually spoken in 45 countries around the world, so students have a lot of potential to use it in later life.
‘‘It is also the second language of the Olympic Games and a number of other sports organisations.''
Mrs Cheyne said this was the third trip to New Caledonia she had participated in with the school and although there was a lot of hard work and organising to do with 16 pupils, it was always a lot of fun.
‘‘Each day I would set the kids little tasks to do, such as buying something in the local market and having to converse in French at all times.''
Sarah Dodds (17) said she did not have too many problems communicating with the locals in New Caledonia.
‘‘Their version of French and ours wasn't too different, although it was hard coming to terms with some of the colloquialisms.
‘‘The worst part was when we tried to talk to them in French, they would often answer back in English,'' Sarah said.
Danielle Smith (17) said the highlight of the trip for her was a visit to Amedee Island.
Amedee Island is a small island about 20km from Noumea, the capital city. Danielle said the weather was perfect the whole time they were in New Caledonia. ‘‘Amedee Island was awesome. We went out in a glassbottomed boat and were able to jump off it and go snorkelling.
‘‘I was just amazed by the varieties of tropical fish.''
She said there were so many activities to participate in.
‘‘They put on a Pacific dance for us and I had to get up and dance.
‘‘We did heaps - climbed 247 steps up the lighthouse, climbed a coconut tree, sunbathed and we learnt sarong tying,'' Danielle said.
Haylee Isaacs (16) said the host families who had the pupils to stay were ‘‘fantastic''.
‘‘We stayed in groups of two and my host family wouldn't let their kids speak to us in English, which was great for our experience.''
Haylee said the trip had convinced her she should continue her studies in French at tertiary level.
‘‘French is great. I would say to any younger pupils, definitely do it.
‘‘The reward can be the trip to New Caledonia in the senior year.''
Mrs Cheyne said the greatest joy for her was being able to watch the pupils' confidence grow over the duration of the trip.
‘‘I told them they needed to make every moment count of the trip, and generally they did,’’ Mrs Cheyne said.
