Joy as Tokyo teen heralds return of international students to Northland

Seventeen-year-old Yuki Hirayama from Japan, centre, is the first international high school student to return to Northland after Covid border closures. Photo / Peter de Graaf

A 17-year-old from Japan is the first international high school student to return to Northland after more than two years of border closures due to Covid.

Yuki Hirayama was welcomed by her classmates, host family and Springbank School staff when she landed at Bay of Islands Airport on June 12.

Yuki was supposed to start at the private Kerikeri school as a Year 10 student in March 2020 — just as the pandemic hit.

Instead, for the past two years and three months, she has been taking part in lessons at Springbank from her home in Tokyo.

That meant getting up at 4am, Tokyo time, so she could join Zoom classes starting at 8.35am in Kerikeri.

Yuki said she had her plane ticket and visa when the borders closed two weeks before she was first due to fly out of Japan.

In the early stages of the pandemic, everyone was learning online so it made sense for her to join the lessons from Tokyo.

As lockdowns eased and other students returned to school, Yuki continued to follow classes online.

Yuki Hirayama arrives at Bay of Islands Airport two years and three months later than planned thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic. Photo / supplied

Her family wanted her as integrated as possible into school life and the English language, so they didn't consider sending her back to school in Tokyo while they waited for borders to reopen.

"But I didn't expect it would take two years," Yuki said.

"I had to wake up at 4am because of the time difference ... There were some hard times but overall it was a really good opportunity for me, and finally I can come here."

"The class and teachers and friends are all that I imagined. Warm people, a warm environment."

Yuki said she wanted to study overseas after seeing how much her older sister had enjoyed going to school in Canada.

After growing up in a megacity like Tokyo she was also keen to be closer to nature.
While many New Zealanders love Japanese food, Yuki said she was enjoying Kiwi kai — especially lamb, cheese and milk.

Last year she studied maths, geography and ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages).

Despite the extra challenges of language, early starts and learning by Zoom, Yuki topped her Year 11 class in IGCSE mathematics. She also placed third in geography.

IGCSE stands for Cambridge University's International General Certificate of Secondary Education.

Seventeen-year-old Yuki Hirayama, from Tokyo, with schoolmate Lucy Spicer, 15, is finally able to attend classes in person at Springbank School after more than two years of border closures. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Principal Mike Warren said he was "super-proud" of Yuki for working independently for so long and still achieving excellent grades.

"Her maths result was close to 100 per cent. It's insane," he said.

"The fact that she had to get up so early shows great resilience and I'm impressed by how quickly she has settled in. It's like she's been here forever."

Warren said having international students broadened their classmates' perspectives.

It also helped the school — the more students they had, the more that could be provided to everybody — while homestay families benefited from the cultural experience and extra income.

Schoolmates, staff and host family members were waiting to welcome Yuki Hirayama when she landed at Bay of Islands Airport in Kerikeri on Sunday. Photo / supplied

Jill Grimshaw, Springbank's international student director, said Yuki was the first international secondary school student to return to Northland.

"We're all so excited that the borders are finally opening," she said.

In total, 30 overseas secondary school students were heading to Northland as part of the Government's Cohort 4 Border Class exception, though most weren't expected until late July in time for term 3.

Twenty international nursing students had arrived at NorthTec a week earlier.

Jo Lees, of Study Northland, said pre-Covid about 800 international students attended NorthTec while about 150 international high school students were in Northland at any one time.

They studied at Whangārei Girls' High, Whangārei Boys' High, Kerikeri High, Springbank School, Huanui College, Excellere College, Tauraroa Area School, Whangārei Primary and Pompallier College.

High school students were predominantly from Germany, Japan and South America. NorthTec students were mainly from China.

In 2015/16 international students' combined direct and indirect value to the Northland economy was estimated at $10.1m.