Year 10 had a fabulous couple of days out last week, having a go at surfing, rafting and aerial silks. Aliya Drake, Poppy Henderson and Emily Ung write about their experiences here.

While coronavirus put everything on hold, one thing it wasn't able to stop was the Year 10 camp! Although we weren’t able to go up to Wellington, Mrs Sinclair made sure we still had a way to celebrate the end of our exams. We were split into four groups, two of the groups combined to do rafting and the other two did surf lessons at St Clair and aerial silks. The girls who surfed on Thursday got to enjoy the sun while they were out on the water, but the Friday group weren’t as lucky. Just because the sun wasn’t shining didn’t mean we had any less fun, though. Everyone still got out in the water and gave it a go and we caught some really good waves! 

I think I speak for everyone when I say how thankful I am that my mum was wrong and there weren’t sharks swimming with us! We did see a seal, however. We also were taught some cool tricks on the aerial silks by Rochelle Brophy. Everyone gave it a go, and I'm sure I'm not the only person who came away with aching muscles. While a school camp in Dunedin doesn’t sound quite as exciting as a camp in Wellington, we made the most of the two days and had heaps of fun. 

Emily Ung

After arriving excitedly at school at 8 o’clock, we departed to start our day-trip rafting on the Lower Taieri River. We began our day by getting changed into wetsuits, waterproof jackets, and life jackets before walking to the spot where we caught the jet-boat. We jet-boated over in groups of five to John Bull Gully where we had a barbeque lunch, spent some time having fun together and jumped off a rock into the river. It was cold but so much fun! After this we got into groups of 7-8 and learnt how to paddle and steer the rafts before embarking onto the Taieri River.

Many of the groups took part in the challenge of attempting to have every member walk along the side - standing upright, and not falling into the water. The further down the river we got, the more people were in the water, boarding other rafts, having races, splashing each other, pushing team members in, and creating war cries. Though we lost a pair of sunglasses and a hat, we had an awesome time and created many great memories that will stay with us for years to come. 

Aliya Drake and Poppy Henderson