The Master’s programme in Bioentrepreneurship year 2012-2014 offered students the opportunity to do exchange studies in Auckland, New Zealand. I took this chance as pioneer without any hesitation. I have always been interested in exchange studies and seen it as a great occasion to broaden the horizons. This exchange program is a partnership between the Master’s program in Bioentrepreneurship of Karolinska Institutet and the Master of BioScience Enterprise of the University of Auckland. If I am not mistaken, this partnership started for just a couple of years ago. The Master of BioScience Enterprise has sent over two litters of totally four students to Stockholm, and we were the first two students from the Master’s program in Bioentrepreneurship nominated to this exchange program. Unfortunately, the other student decided to stay in Europe in the last minute because of personal reasons. Being the only student was barely a motive to stop me from living my dream. In the role of the very first representative from Karolinska in Auckland, I brought with me a heavy sense of ‘responsibility'.  My act, behavior and impression over there would affect the future of the coming students I thought. I also remember the frustration of being pioneer and having no one to consult, thereby I will try to write this report as thorough as possible and if you have further questions I will be happy to answer them by email.

The information about this exchange opportunity was accessible for everyone - just remember that the application process at Karolinska Institutet, as usual, takes place about a year before. The application to the University of Auckland does not follow the normal application process which is available online on the university's homepage. I strongly recommend you to follow the instructions from the responsible persons. 

There are a number of things to think of prior the trip, which I will list below and hope that they will help you somewhat.

There should not be a problem for you to get to the city from the Auckland Airport. There are a number of transport services to choose between – taxi, shuttle and airbus. Taxi is expensive. Shuttle costs around 39nzd and drives you all the way to your address no matter where in Auckland. Airbus is my number one preference. It takes you from the Auckland Airport to the city center for only 16nzd. The airbus station is only ten minutes away by foot if you live at the same the student accommodation as I did – Unilodge.  Once landed, I also bought a New Zealand simcard at the airport and top up with money for phone calls and 3G. The telephone operator I chose was 2Degrees. I did not have a good experience with 2Degrees and would recommend you to use Vodafone instead.   

The check-in to Unilodge for me went smoothly. Once moved into my appartment I quickly realized that I have to do a big shopping. There is a supermarket (Countdown) on Quay Street, about 5 minutes by foot from Unilodge, but the price there is high (still will be your main place for grocery shopping). However, I decided to do my first shopping at PaknSave, which is a low price supermarket comparable to the Swedish Willys. These stores are normally located far from the city center. The closest one is at Sylvia Park which is about 20 minutes away with the train. The train station – Britomart, can be found at the end of Queen Street (also close to the airbus station). You need an AT-hop card to travel with public transportation in Auckland and can buy it at the ticket center or the ticket vending machines. You can pay with cash on buses, but AT-Hop gives you 10% cheaper. Trip planner is available on https://at.govt.nz/bus-train-ferry/, which is also available as a mobile app.

You should also get a university id-card from a building called Clock Tower located somewhere in university area.  This card allows you to borrow books from the library, to use as gym card or as deposition when borrow the vacuum cleaner etc. Also try to remember to get a certificate from the reception at Unilodge that proves that you are resident there. This certificate will help you to activate your gym card, and also give you free admission to the World War Museum.  

I never joined the introduction activities at the University, but I am sure that the university did organise some for the new students. On the other hand I participated in the welcome activities provided by Unilodge. It called O’Week, which was a great opportunity to make friends.

The flight to New Zealand was expensive. In addition, you also need a travel insurance and plenty pocket money (not compulsory though). My advice is that you start saving money NOW. There will be so much stuff that you will like to do when you are there, for example glow worm cave rafting, skydiving, Hobition etc. You should expect the general price level in New Zealand as high as in Sweden. The public transportation is horribly expensive, and is not convenient at all. A monthly pass might cost up to 200nzd. If your company is located outside the city I strongly encourage you to find someone to do the carpooling with. First to save money, and second to save time. Furthermore, you could do your shopping in the low cost stores such as PaknSave (comparable to the Swedish Willys) and The Ware House (comparable to the Swedish ÖoB at lower Queens Street) to reduce the living costs.  There is also an Asian supermarket close to Unilodge Beach Road that has lower price on fruits and vegetables. Eating out in Auckland is cheaper than in Stockholm. A dinner could cost between 10-12nzd for a big portion at a foodcourt, or 15-20nzd at a restaurant. Night out does not require entrance fee and drinks are as cheap as half of the price as in Stockholm.

The accommodation in Auckland is generally very expensive. I had the option to choose between a Deluxe Studio (with kitchenette) for 299nzd a week or a Standard Studio (without kitchenette) for 288nzd a week. I chose the Deluxe Studio, but to be honest it was not big different between the two choices as I often used to cook in the common kitchen anyway just to meet people. Of course you can try to find a place by your own for cheaper price. Personally I recommend you to go for the university housing, because the non-university housing is:

• not always cheaper, the general price is 200nzd a week
• not always located in the city center

...and if you will find something is also the question. 

As mentioned earlier, I stayed at Unilodge and in the following I will share a bit of my experience from there. To begin with, Unilodge is one of many student accommodations in Auckland and consisting of two buildings (one on Anzac Avenue and the other one on Beach Road). It is greatly located around 5 minutes to the university campus and 10 minutes to the main streets in the city center. You will find everything you need at Unilodge – a common kitchen, laundry room, cinema, lounge, swimming pool etc. Your room is fully furnished with most of the things you need for your stay – pillow, blanket, bed sheets, table, chairs, tv, pan, pot, plates, forks, knifes etc. It costs 3nzd per machine to do the laundry and you can exchange coins at the reception. I truly hope that you will not forget your keys in the room when go out sometime because you will have to pay 20nzd for someone to come and lock up the door for you. The service is 20/7 though. If you do not pay this fee Unilodge may inactivate your key. Furthermore, the membership at the gym – Recreation Centre, is given to you for 70nzd. The Recreation Center offers many group trainings if you do not wish to use the machines.

Note that Unilodge only offers a fixed contract between 18^th February to 11^thJuly. You will have to pay for this period no matter if you stay there the whole period or shorter. Additional charges will apply if you want to move in earlier or stay longer.

More information about the university housing can be found at: http://www.accommodation.auckland.ac.nz/en.html

I did my master thesis in collaboration with the New Zealand based pharmaceutical company – Douglas Pharmaceuticals Ltd. More information about my master thesis will be detailed in section Courses. I spent majority of the time at the company, and was only at the univeristy to have meetings with my academic supervisor or to study myself at the university library. An academic supervisor was provided to me by the University of Auckland. Meetings were scheduled once a week, and the role of the supervisor was to guide me through the academic writing process. I also had an industrial supervisor at the company, who helped me with the questions concerning my work at the company. He was also the director for the New Product Development department.  

Douglas Pharmaceutical Ltd has the profile focuses on generic pharmaceuticals. The company has around 470 employees, and a number of facilities in New Zealand and Fiji. The facilities in New Zealand are located in Henderson, West Auckland, and consisting of head quarter, development and manufacturing. I was New Product Development intern. My department has over 50 employees and works specifically with maintaining and enriching the company’s pipeline. The office was often lively because of the landscapte office style. I was assigned my own desk and was invited to all company activities such as monthly meetings, trainings, Friday drinks etc. 

Douglas Pharmaceutical Ltd is a multinational company. The employees are from all over the world. Perhaps of this reason, the employees are excellent in collaborating and working in an interdisciplinary manner. Compare to a Swedish company, the organizational structure of Douglas Pharmaceuticals Ltd is not as flat, but neither to be called hierarchy. The colleagues are very respectful to each other. I missed out the opportunity to interact with fellow students by being an intern at the company, but gained so much valuable working experiences.

Once a month, I was invited to a social event organized by the BioScience Enterprise program – Friday Forum. In such an event, industry leaders are invited to give speech. This is seen as a great opportunity to students to broaden their network. 

My working hours were between 7.30-16.00 every day, and a normal working day could look like the following:

07.10 catch ride to work (carpooling with a colleague)

07.30 work starts

07.30 – 10.00 work

10.00 morning tea

10.00 – 12.30 work

12.30 – 13.00   lunch

13.00 – 15.00 work

15.00 afternoon tea

15.00 – 16.30   work

16.30 work ends

New Zealand is a small country with a population of only 4,5millions. Unlike what I was expected, the population in New Zealand is an international mix. The New Zealanders call themselves Kiwis, and are generally very very friendly. Kiwis are definately more religious than Swedes. Many Kiwis go to church every Sunday. A Kiwi friend also told me that she is paid extra for working on Sundays because it is the 'Church day'. I got the impression that, except for the Maori culture, the New Zealand culture is a mixture of what its inhabitants brought with them from their own culture – Chinese, Indian, European etc. If you ask a Kiwi what he or she does for Christmas you will definitely get different answers depends on what background the person in the question has. 

Maori is the native people in New Zealand. All signs you find in New Zealand are likely written in both English and Maori. You also find many places named in Maori, for example Rotorua, Wakatipu, Tongariro, Pakuranga, Papa Toe Toe etc. The government is extremely careful to keep the Maori language and culture alive because it is successively dying out. 

Kia Ora 

- a phase in Maori language for Hello. 

You will have no problem to make friends in Auckland and in New Zealand. First of all because Kiwis are awsome, and second because you will quickly find many other exchange students just like you. If you stay at the university housing such as Unilodge, there will be an O'Week in the end of February. O'Week is organised to the residents to get know people. The O’Week activities are normally hold during day time but there are also some activities in the evenings. I also recommend you to join student clubs – Cannoing and Tramping are two popular student clubs which organise trainings, parties, and weekend trips. Facebook is also a great tool to get in touch with people. I personally joined a Facebook group and became very good friends with the people in real life.     

I am sure that you will not be bored just for a second during your time in Auckland and New Zealand. New Zealand is a beautiful country with so much to offer. There will be more places to explore than you have the time to, and more things to do than you can afford. Me and my friends, we used to come together, rent a car and make a road trip over the weekend. Buses is an option is you do not wish to drive. My favorite bus company which often has lower price than the other bus companies is http://nakedbus.com/nz/bus/. The students at the university have a midterm break of 2-3 weeks in April. As an intern at the company you do not have one, but I am sure that you will still have time to do a lot of things during the weekends. If you are interested in doing the entire New Zealand, my recommendation to you is to come to New Zealand a couple of weeks prior your internship start and travel around the country. For the puspose, KiwiExperience offers great tours - http://www.kiwiexperience.com/

My exchange semester has been a fantastic experience which will stay in my heart for a long time. In the role of the first Swedish student to come over to Auckland I was nervous, but my nervousness quickly disappeared by the kindness shown from the New Zealand people to welcome me. My deepest gratitude goes to the BioScience Enterprise team who helped me to arrange a place at Douglas Pharmaceutical Ltd where I could write my thesis. I am also grafeful that the New Product Development family has embraced me as a member. Their support during my thesis writing made my stay unforgettable. The opportunity of working in one of New Zealand’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies has developed me professionally and enriched me as a person with invaluable international experiences to help me succeed in my future paths. For the future students doing this exchange program, I am convinced that you will have good time and the trip will be as memorable for you as it has been for me. 

If you are interested in knowing more about my time in Auckland and New Zealand, please visit my travel blog - http://honginauckland.blogspot.se/