Carly Kubly, the Eagles Abroad marketing intern, writes:

Usually the first thing that comes to mind when you imagine a vineyard is row upon row of grapes. Having grown up in a farm town in Minnesota, I have seen my fair share of crops and so was not particularly thrilled to be taking a tour of a vineyard while in New Zealand. Little did I know I was about to fall in love with the winery.

Yealands Winery, although it obviously has many rows of grapes, also has a much more complex environment. The landscape at Yealands, located in Seddon, New Zealand, contains many different wetland areas, trees and flowers. Native birds and sheep also call the vineyard home. This biodiversity has set Yealands apart from other vineyards.

One of Yealands’ utmost priorities is sustainability, which is backed by the fact that their winery was the first in the world to be certified as carboNZeroCert™. It is their goal to become the most sustainable winery in the world, and they are well on their way, particularly having engineered the world’s first vine pruning burners as a major energy source. One of their more innovative tactics is to play classical music to the grapes. Yealands powers stereos with solar energy in order to help the grapes grow faster – certainly not something I would ever have thought of.

While I learned a lot about sustainability at Yealands, I also learned the importance of keeping an open mind when visiting a new place. For me an activity I was not as excited about ended up being one of the most interesting parts of my program. It is easy to make assumptions, but I challenge anyone studying abroad or even just visiting some place new to have an open mind – you never know what you will find!