Ryota Hyodo

Four years ago Ryota come to New Zealand to study English – and he’s been here ever since!

After ten months in the Auckland Institute of Studies (AIS) St Helens English Language Centre, he moved into the AIS Travel and Tourism Programme, graduating at the end of 2000 with a Diploma in Travel Studies.

His qualification landed him a job in New Zealand as a tour guide, for Japanese travel company, Southern Travelnet Ltd. Based in Queenstown for 18 months the easy-going 27-year-old saw a lot of the South Island. “I went to Milford Sounds quite a lot as a tour guide and sometimes we’d go to Mt Cook, Dunedin and Wanaka.” He even had time leftover to hit the South Island slopes on his snowboard.

However Ryota recently transferred to Auckland where he is working as a tour operator for the company. “When I started my travel course at AIS I really wanted to be a tour operator, so it’s great to finally be doing it. I love it.”

Ryota also loves Auckland. “I like the environment here. I live in a comfortable apartment that’s close to work. If I was living in Japan I couldn’t afford to live somewhere that was just a 30 minute walk from work.”

Ryota is currently applying for Permanent Residency (PR) here in New Zealand and he hopes to eventually work for a Kiwi company so he can practise his English.