The Directors
To lead this exciting development, St Cuthbert’s College has appointed Christine and John Furminger as the Co-directors of Kahunui.
They are both passionate and highly competent in a wide range of outdoor pursuits.
As experienced teachers their careers have meshed these two dimensions and focused on the field of experiential education.
Prior to their appointment to Kahunui they co-directed the Tihoi Venture School.
John Furminger
John has enjoyed a life in the outdoors, beginning with a love for the back country of Hawkes Bay where he was bought up. He was a member of the SAR first response team while he was still at school.
He went on to become HOD of outdoor education at Rosehill College, Papakura and was on the founding committee for the Whatarau Outdoor Education Programme for South Auckland schools.
John became resident teacher and instructor at the Motutapu Island Camp and then Director of Tihoi Venture School, run by St Paul's Collegiate near Taupo. He is a trained teacher and is highly regarded by the Outdoor Education community and has instructor qualifications in rock climbing, as well as alpine and bushcraft.
Please click here to read more about John in College Ties April 07 (page 26)
Christine Furminger
The past fourteen years of Christine's career has been concentrated at the Tihoi Venture School, the outdoor campus for St Paul’s Collegiate in Hamilton.
As co- director with John her husband, they lead Tihoi through a total plant redevelopment. They also continued to broaden the programme to enable the students to develop greater social, academic and outdoor pursuit skills.
In 2002 Tihoi won the New Zealand Outdoors Programme of the year.
This coincided with the completion of Christine's masters degree in Educational Leadership. Christine has a passion for using the outdoor environment as a learning place to develop young people socially, spiritually, academically and physically.
Kahunui is therefore a childhood dream coming true for her after having enjoyed bringing up her three children who are now adults and pursuing their own careers.