Lindisfarne College - Nepal Tour

Lindisfarne College - Nepal Tour Lindisfarne College school trip with up to date information of our journey.

07/05/2025

Trip summary: in reflection ...

This is the final post for the 2025 Nepal trip, the “summary post" I'm calling it, rather than just summarising each day of the trip into one big paragraph I've decided to go around and ask everyone what their highlight of the trip was and make a collective summary of all the highlights.

The standout highlight amongst everyone was reaching the peak of our trek at 5000m! This was a monumental moment for everyone. After trekking up and down through the mountains for 6-7 long, hard, mentally and physically painful days, we had finally reached our destination of 5000m whilst walking along a ridge with an amazing close up view of the breathtaking mountain, Ama Dablam. When we had reached our goal high fives and hugs were shared amongst everyone, pictures were taken and the Lindisfarne college flag was flying high in the air, along with our spirits. We then began our descent to conclude our mission.

Other highlights from the boys was experiencing the local culture and everyday way of life for the local people of Nepal. It was a real culture shock for pretty much all of us seeing this completely different way of life, people washing their clothes in the streets, always trying to sell or hustle you some item of clothing or a tiny game of chess as you wonder pass and just the many different ways things are done compared to how we do them at home here in New Zealand.

This trip was more than just an “experience” or a “Holiday” it was also a service trip, and the boys loved this part of it, helping the locals out by simply giving them a quick hand with something as we walked past and having our bags loaded with gifts like items of clothing and toys, passing those on to the locals who were always so grateful for anything we did or gifted. All the boys also had been given a yellow bag at the start of the trip to collect rubbish in, this quickly in Lindisfarne fashion became very competitive amongst some of the boys for who could collect the most rubbish in one day.

These were the main highlights from everyone, but here are so random ones from a couple boys:

Playing cards with everyone and playing so many different card games.

Waking up every morning with a cup of tea and “washy washy” a bowl of warm water to wash ourselves with.

When we finally reached back to Kathmandu going out for dinner and eating a massive
½ pound burger.

All the funny and stupid things that happened throughout the trip.

Everyone buying Kukri knives.

A big group of us bought some amazing hand painted paintings.

Thank you everyone for following along our journey of the 2025 Nepal it has been a pleasure to share our journey with you.

Ruben Stanford

24/04/2025

4:40am Just left Taupō heading for HB. Not much traffic but some heavy fog expected.

24/04/2025

12:53am We are just leaving Auckland.

23/04/2025

Day 16

The 23 of April was the first of the two days spent to get home. We started the day by packing and checking our luggage before breakfast. For breakfast there was noodles, French toast, and scrambled eggs as well as some other foods that I can’t remember. Before we left Bikesh, the leader of our guides, gave each one of us a scarf that was supposed to prevent us from getting harmed and to give us good luck on our flights back. I was sad to say goodbye. All went to plan until the flight got delayed and we missed the next one, which leave us with now stuck in Malaysia for the night. But on the bright side we will be staying in a 5 star hotel.

Nelson Taylor

23/04/2025

We are in Kuala Lumpur for a night, due to a delayed departure from Kathmandu earlier today. All students should have contacted home already to advise this. We will confirm the flight times tomorrow but will be returning to Napier on Friday April 25, with a late arrival into Auckland Thursday April 24 on MH133.

23/04/2025

Day 15 # 2

Today started with a great sleep in our luxurious hotel bed and hot shower, that we had been looking forward to since we first left the hotel 12 days ago. We had breakfast at 8 and then went back up to the hotel room to get ready for the day as we were going on a tour of Kathmandu. The first place our tour guide took us was the Hindu Temple where the body of the dead are washed in the holy river, which happens to be very polluted from rubbish and ashes. They are then cremated which can take up to 7 hours before the ritual is finished. Most of the boys thought that this was very different compared to the way we do that’s back home. The next place we visited was the buddhist temple and while we were there we got to see some of the traditional Buddhist paintings being created in a painting school. While we were standing around, Bikash (our head Sherpa guide) told some of the boys about the creation of the Buddhist temple. He said one of theories about how the temple was created was that a lady asked the ruler of Kathmandu Valley if she could have some land as she was very poor. She also requested that she could have all of the land which could be covered with just one yak skin. Not thinking too much, the ruler allowed this to happen. The lady was a lot smarter than she looked so she turned the yak skin into little strands, allowing her to receive more land from the ruler. Because she did this she was able to receive enough land to build the biggest Buddhist temple in the world. I was also informed that Kathmandu had a big earthquake in 2015 that severely damaged the temple. This forced the buddhist people of Kathmandu to have to rebuild the temple, restoring it to its exact form before the earthquake. Once we had all walk ed around the temple we rushed back on the bus to go back to k-too where we would have lunch. After lunch some of the boys went back to the hotel to get some rest and others stayed out in the main streets of Kathmandu to shop around for items to bring home. This was the highlight of my day. Once I had spent all my money for the day we walked around to find a place to have dinner and at dinner we witnessed a Nepali band playing a song for us which was great music for the instruments that they were playing. Once dinner was over we wandered back to the hotel and started to pack our bags for the flights home.

Thomas Griffiths

Day 15Today we had our first taste of a proper sleep in, waking up at 7:30 being greeted by an amazing buffet for breakf...
23/04/2025

Day 15

Today we had our first taste of a proper sleep in, waking up at 7:30 being greeted by an amazing buffet for breakfast at 8. At 9 we said a solemn farewell to our friend and guide Pratab, we then left at 9 on a tour led by the wonderful Anaisa, our tour guide just for the day. She taught all of us a lot about the two main religions in Nepal, Hinduism and Buddhism, and I’m sure that we all learnt something. On our tour we visited Pashupatinath, a prominent Hindu temple situated on the Holy Bagmati river. Afterwards we drove to the nearby Buddhist “Buddha Stupa” which is the one of the largest Stupa in the world. While there we were shown the full process of how thangka, a form of buddhist religious art, is created, we then went to another room full of healing/singing bowls and some of our boys managed to try the healing properties of the bowls. After this insightful adventure we travelled back to K-too for another amazing lunch there, afterwards we were let loose into the streets of Tamil to spend the remainder of our dwindling rupees. At 6:25 we all gathered back at K-too to walk to Kathmandu Grill for our dinner of Vegetable soup and grilled chicken. The staff at Kathmandu Grill then serenaded us as we received dessert. At 8:30 we eagerly headed back to Hotel Tibet for our last night in Nepal.

Ari Milne

A very different view first thing this morning, back in Kathmandu. No washy washy or hot tea - the luxury of a shower in...
22/04/2025

A very different view first thing this morning, back in Kathmandu. No washy washy or hot tea - the luxury of a shower instead

Day 14Many boys suffered a broken sleep last night, punctuated by illness and the sounds of stray dogs and a local const...
21/04/2025

Day 14

Many boys suffered a broken sleep last night, punctuated by illness and the sounds of stray dogs and a local construction site. We dragged ourselves out of bed at 4:30 this morning, so that we could catch our flights from Lukla back to Ramechapp. We devoured toast and cornflakes for breakfast at the lodge and then marched our way down to Lukla Airport. On the way we encountered some of our porters and guides dressed in the Lindisfarne apparel we donated to them, allowing us an opportunity for one last goodbye.

It was a perfect, clear morning when we took off at 6:30, affording us views of the surrounding mountains and towns out of the plane window. Despite a few bumps, the plane landed smoothly and we all piled into the buses for the bus trip back to Kathmandu.

Fortunately, the highway which was closed on our way to Ramechapp was back open for today’s trip, reducing the bus ride to just 8 hours. The first few hours were spent bouncing along an unsealed road beside a dusty riverbed. Halfway through the bus ride we stopped at a cafe, where most of the boys stocked up on Coca-Cola, which was sold in glass bottles with curly straws. We reached sealed road a couple of hours from Kathmandu, and from here the trip went much more quickly due to a greater variety of sights to absorb and a smoother road.

We were all relieved to arrive back at our hotel in Kathmandu, where we had access a hot shower, wifi and clean sheets for the first time in weeks. We walked to a restaurant in Tamil called “K-Too!” for a late lunch, where most of the boys ordered steak burgers. The restaurant was run by a famous chef, who had cooked for British royal family members and a range of celebrities. After lunch, we headed to the knockoff “Google Money Exchange” and went shopping in the bustling streets of Tamil.

We all regrouped at the hotel, before walking to a restaurant called “Cafe De Thukche”. There we ate chicken dhal, a local Nepali dish, alongside an assortment of drinks.

After dinner, we eagerly headed off to make the most of our clean sheets in preparation for a long day of exploring Kathmandu.

Noah Hemmingsen

Day 13Today was another amazing day, starting our walk a little earlier today at 7.45am. Tired legs and longing thoughts...
20/04/2025

Day 13

Today was another amazing day, starting our walk a little earlier today at 7.45am. Tired legs and longing thoughts of home made the already long day take even longer. 4.30 hours of walking felt like a lot more, with chocolate bars and Pringles fuelling us and keeping us going. The usual sights of donkey, jhopkya, and porters and sherpa carrying massive loads, were not given a lot of attention anymore. The arrival in Lukla brought massive relief from everybody, as well as the lunch consisting of pizza, chicken, vegetable and noodles. We then collected all of our gear and clothes for the porters, guides and kitchen staff, and gave them a massive thank you for making our lives so much easier. We performed the college haka and presented each of them with a pile of clothes to take back to their villages. We then had a couple hours wandering the streets of Lukla buying presents for family and friends at home as well as ourselves. Some of us enjoyed great meals of steak and burgers. Then we had another amazing dinner and got ourselves ready for bed after another successful and action packed day, ready for our 4.30am wakeup call tomorrow.
Jacob Holder

Day 13 wake up - beautiful weather (again) for our last day of hiking.
20/04/2025

Day 13 wake up - beautiful weather (again) for our last day of hiking.

On day 12 of the Nepal trip our time up in the mountains is quickly coming to an end. Today we woke up back at our norma...
19/04/2025

On day 12 of the Nepal trip our time up in the mountains is quickly coming to an end. Today we woke up back at our normal time of 6:30am before having breakfast at Tashi friendship lodge where we had spent the night in Phortse. Our breakfast consisted of the usual porridge and a happy surprise of French toast. We were lucky today to have amazing weather despite the previous belief that the day would be rainy the night before. Today was a long day of walking as we trekked for about 20km from Phortse all the way back to Monjo officially exiting Sagamartha national park. At the start of our walk we were fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of beautifully colored pheasants and saw some more musk deer before continuing uphill to Khumjung for lunch where we had previously stayed on day 7. After a lunch of pasta and salami we continued onward to Namche Bazaar where we had half an hour to support the local economy with the boys spending a large amount on art from various stores before a long downhill back to Monjo where the boys enthusiastically greeted thoose who we passed with not so enthusiastic responses. Once again we were faced with helping some of our group overcome their fear of bridges. At our camp in Monjo we had delicious buffalo curry and were surprised with a cake to celebrate our journey coming to an end. Now ending up our night, we go to sleep ready for our final day of walking back to Lukla before making our way back to Kathmandu.

Finn McTaggart

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