School+Camp

01/12/09

School Camp Review

On the 24th of November, all of the Year 8’s at Greytown School packed onto a bus and endured a five hour drive to Whanawhana Valley, where we stayed for the next four days. When we arrived we met our camp instructors: Clem, Shannon, Conrad, Pip and Elsie. We sat and talked with them for a while, they were all very funny so we had a good laugh, but soon the blistering sun made it too hot for us to concentrate and we went for a swim in the river. The river had a quite a strong current and we all enjoyed lying on our backs and floating downstream. Water in the river here was very clear, unlike our river at home, so I think we all enjoyed not having to think twice about jumping in. While we all cooled down the instructors began to set up two marquees - a boys and a girls - for us to sleep in. That evening we had hamburgers for dinner, followed by fruit salad and custard for dessert. The boys were building bivouacs that night out in the bush so it was just us girls at camp. We played some games with Elsie and Pip before heading to a rather uncomfortable night in the marquee. We were out of bed by seven the next morning. When the boys came back they looked as if they had a worse sleep than us. There was a selection of cereals and toast for breakfast, we all ate plenty so we would have the energy for our activities. After this, we moved into our groups and were told what we were doing that day. My group’s first activity was abseiling. To get to the site we had to cross a river, something we were taught how to do properly and safely. I have a fear of heights, so the abseiling was very scary for me. But still I did it, and sustained a few injuries in the process. Our next and final activity for the day was tube rafting. We were split into smaller groups for this and each group was given two huge black rings and some rope. we had to work together to make it into a raft that wouldn’t break apart. Lucky for my group, our raft was successful and stayed together for the whole afternoon. Unlucky for us, nobody in our group was any good at paddling so we ended up going in the wrong direction a lot of the time. At one point we crashed into a tree on the edge of the river, our raft capsized and we all went under. My friend’s jacket got caught on a branch of the tree but fortunately I was able to pull her up, and we all got back on safely. That night was even more eventful. It was the girl’s turn to bivvy out, and there were strong winds blowing. The bivouac I was in didn’t last very long, and just before midnight we were back in the marquee. I managed to get a little sleep, when I woke up the walls of the marquee were blowing and more people had come inside. Suddenly, a few poles holding the marquee up collapsed, bringing the walls down with it. The screaming started, and we were all filled with adrenaline as we grabbed our stuff and escaped. As soon as the camp instructors saw what had happened, they evacuated the boys from their marquee and secured all our belongings. It was about two in the morning now, and we were all very tired and needed a good sleep. The boys were sent onto the bus to sleep and the girls all squeezed into three cabins that were supposed to be for the adults. When we woke up, obviously from the sunlight streaming through the window because none of us felt at all rested, and had our breakfast, all of us looking more like the living dead than people. We were stuck in the clothes we slept in for the first part of the morning. I was ok - I had slept in track pants and a hoodie - but some people had a lot less and, due to the wind, were very cold. Eventually they uncovered our stuff, once the winds had completely died down of course, and we all got dressed. The forecast for that night was winds of 150 kilometres - so to be safe we packed up our belongings and stored them on the bus - keeping the minimum we needed in our backpacks. Our camp instructors were determined not to let the weather get in the way, so after a very chaotic morning rush we got into our groups. The first activity I had was orienteering - though the winds had been a problem to this and most of the markers had blown away. The Flying Kiwi was our next and final activity. I was so unbelievably tired and afraid of heights by now that I chose not to participate, but I think my friends who did do it had fun. That night it was the girls turn to sleep on the bus as due to the forecast we had chosen not to put the marquees back up. But of course, the air was still all night and no wind bothered us. After a better sleep that night, everyone was ready and excited to get home. Whilst camp had been fun, we all missed hygiene, and event though no one was going to admit it, our mums cooking. The bus ride home was noticeably quieter than the bus ride there. School camp had been an exciting and extremely tiring experience that I will never forget.

By Sophie Adams.