Year 7’s camp, to Camp Columba near Gore, in the last week of Term 3 was an outstanding success. The weather was amazing, the girls were amazing and the parent helpers were also amazing! 

Many of the girls pushed past their own ‘fear factors’ over the four days, achieving some personal challenges to do with heights, homesickness, food and shared living. Over two days, each of the six groups attempted high ropes, low ropes, the Flying Weka, raft building, air rockets and team building in the bush with help from the Adventure Southland instructors. Each activity was full of adventure!

There was some very strong team spirit in the Amazing Race on Wednesday evening where teams had to break ice for new clues, stick ping-pong balls to peanut butter and run relays with marshmallows and chopsticks. Thursday afternoon was a time to relax and enjoy the sunshine …. sliding down the enormously-long water slide, conquering the scary concrete slide in a sack, making pom-poms or learning to crotchet under the trees, riding the flying fox or even taking photos for the camp photography competition. After dinner that evening, we learnt how to make safe fires and then roasted yummy marshmallows on them.

On Friday, after cleaning up and before coming back to Dunedin, we attempted some pencil sketches of the John Money exhibits in the Gore Art Gallery and ran around the main street doing a team photo scavenger hunt.

Camp would not have been possible without the help of parents and we are very grateful for that support.