University students Emily Bell-Hoerth and Elliot Kramer expected the sweeping landscapes of the Lord of the Rings when they came to New Zealand. What they found was a lot more complex and less definitive.
The two are among 16 students from a Quaker university in Indiana.
They have been largely based in Wanganui since early January for their Earlham College New Zealand semester programme, and they leave today.
It's an environmental programme that Elliot knew was sure to be "an intellectual challenge and pleasure".
They have spent seven weeks with Wanganui homestay families and done internships with groups. Emily has been helping BA Productions sole director Ashley Patea teach Maori language in schools and Elliot has been helping Graham Pearson look after the Castlecliff dunes.
They have been on the Whanganui River in canoes and walked the multi-day Waikaremoana, Hump Ridge and Queen Charlotte tracks. They have done field trips and talked to people, written a group blog and kept natural history journals and their own diaries.
Emily comes from a small fishing and farming town in rural Maine, and found Wanganui similar. Elliot was born and raised in New York City, and used to a cosmopolitan, urban lifestyle.
Several aspects of New Zealand have surprised and impressed. Maybe it's the particular people they have come across, but they think New Zealanders have a culture of activism.
"People here have a voice for their opinions and values, and for the most part seem very heard," Emily said.
Elliot said that might be because New Zealand is a small island nation "where people are just forced to get along with each other".
Politics was not as polarised as in the US. "It's interesting to see how people can agree or disagree with things but still work together constructively."
Being here when same sex marriage was legalised was particularly interesting, given what has happened in their own country.
"Things like that might come up, but they get shut down quickly."
They quickly realised that New Zealand, like any other settled country, was not "100 per cent pure" as its tourist slogan says. But they were impressed with people's efforts to keep it clean and green.
"I believe that New Zealand is more progressive than many other nations in trying to preserve its habitat - but it's also more urgent than lots of other places," Emily said.
The group had a crash course in New Zealand's bicultural relations, with the trip down the Whanganui and input from David James, Jillian Wychel and Nigel Brooke.
Emily will not forget the ferocious faces of 12-year-old boys of mixed races doing the haka together.
"To see young children and teachers so eager to learn about Maori culture and te reo has been really inspiring," she said.
"Seeing how people interact, it's generally positive compared to some aspects of the US."