When we first rounded the corner into the driveway of Raincliff Camp all of us were filled with excitement. The bus ride there had felt like an eternity and we were itching to start our camp adventure. We piled out of the bus, eager to race off this way and that to our different activities, but we had to wait for a briefing on the rest of the day before we could. Finally though we could get stuck into our activities. After half the day had already been spent travelling for a painstakingly long time on a bus, we strived to thoroughly apply ourselves to what we were doing to make the most of a day half lost. Only doing each activity once, we couldn’t afford to have any regrets or missed opportunities.

Papa Bear, Mama Bear or Baby Bear?

A short trek from the camp (and through lots of mud) was where abseiling was to take place. There were three different abseiling stations along the cliffs, each one a different height and difficulty. If you weren’t so confident you could chose to do Baby Bear. Baby Bear was the shortest and easiest course, straight down without any ledges or overhangs. If you were confident enough you could choose to do Mama Bear. Mama Bear looked to be the highest but it was easier than Papa Bear because it didn’t feature the overhangs and holes that Papa Bear had. Papa Bear was shorter than Mama Bear, but longer than Baby Bear and definitely harder than both of them. Not many who attempted its cliff managed to stay on their feet when they hit its large hole near the top, under that daunting ledge. As scary as it sounds (or exciting if you enjoy a bit of adrenaline) many people gave Papa Bear a go. The first group who did abseiling had to battle the cold and wet as well as the cliffs. Thankfully it managed to dry up a little for the other groups - not sure that it got much warmer though!

Dinner rolled by and after feasting on a delicious lasagne we headed off to prepare for the night activities. After splitting off into groups of 9 or more, each group was handed a sheet of challenges to be completed. These challenges included strangest talent, best homework excuse, dry food eating, and many more. The team selected a person who would do each challenge and then we competed. Points were awarded and after doing half the challenges we settled down to watch Nanny McPhee. Soon enough, we were off to bed, looking forward to tomorrow’s activities.

Breakfast was a choice of cereal or toast, and soon after we were getting ready for our next activity; river safety. Shivering, we crept out of our cabins in our swimming togs and polypros, to the meeting place, where we pulled on the almost-icy wetsuits, waterproof jackets, helmets, life jackets, and our wet shoes. Then, we clambered into the bus, with much difficulty, and were off to the river, sharing bad jokes on the way. When we arrived we discussed river crossing, then got straight into it. In pairs or threes, we crossed the river to the other side - sometimes not very successfully, falling over rocks and each other. Then crossed back in much larger groups of four or five. With many trips and falls, most of us were already soaking in the thigh deep river. But the ones who were not, soon became so, after we all lay back in the river and drifted downstream, practising our floating technique. We also visited “the spa.” Obviously not a hot water pool with lots of jets, but a man made wall of rocks that the water flowed over creating a bubbly effect. Suddenly, we came to the more difficult, faster part of the river where we practised crossing, once again. Only a few succeeded. Tripping and laughing, we clambered back into the bus, where a morning tea snack was eaten. Once we were back at camp, we struggled out of the wetsuits, then raced to the hot showers before lunch.

After toasties, yogurt, muffins and fruit, it was back into it, with ABL and the Weta Caves. We split into two groups, one of which went up to the Weta Caves first, and the other stayed in the field to play fun ABL games. We played, cricket, football, touch, netball, and many other games, sometimes a combination of all of them. Then, we saw the first group coming down the track. It was our turn to go into the Weta Caves. After walking up the steep track, it was time to enter. But the question was, where? We looked around at the hills and couldn’t see the cave! Then the instructor pointed it out to us. We had to walk down to what looked like a slight decline in the rock, but was actually the entrance to the Weta Cave. We were careful with our steps, looking out for the holes the instructor had warned us about. Turning on our flashlights, we clambered through the small gap. Soon it became very apparent who didn’t like bugs. Our flashlights hit the walls which were covered with small wetas, insects that resembled crickets, some people were fascinated, others a bit grossed out. We were told that they were sound sensitive and that they might jump on us if we made a lot of noise, which definitely kept us quiet! At one point we all turned off our flashlights, leaving us in the pitch black that the wetas would normally be in, it was cool, but you couldn’t even see the person who was right next to you- imagine living like that everyday! Venturing deeper into the cave we came across more and more names and dates scrawled into the soft limestone walls of the cave. We were given the challenge to find the oldest date but no one succeeded so we were shown it on our way out of the cave - it dated back to the late 19th century! Walking out of the cave we were a lot more knowledgeable about wetas than we had been walking in.

Dinner that night was chicken, corn and potatoes, then we finished the challenges and watched the end of Nanny McPhee. Soon enough we were wandering back to our bunk rooms and collapsing into our beds.

The final day came around and after leaping out of bed we realised that in order to get breakfast, we had to have our bunk rooms perfectly tidy for the inspection. Man was that hard! After finally getting our room packed up we all headed off for breakfast, munching down cereal and toast. Our final activity was survival; learning basic survival skills that could potentially save our lives. We all headed out onto the field, eager to get going. We started off by screaming as loud as we could, in order to practise if we needed to call for help in a life or death situation. We then split off into two groups and were taught some basic knots, including reef knots and figure of 8 knots, which we would use to make a stretcher. My team started off strong making the stretcher, but the other team managed to whip together their stretcher a few minutes faster than ours.

We headed toward the playground, whispering strategies amongst ourselves. After being lectured on the various obstacles we had to complete, we strode over to the start line. “On your marks, set, go!”. The teams raced off, carrying one person in the stretcher at a time. We had to race as fast as we could around various obstacles on the playground, and at the end of the course we got given a letter and as we acquired more we had to make the most words out of our letters. Longest word got triple points too.

After the stretcher challenge, we got to do a quick orienteering course where we had to answer questions about different things, such as: “What is hidden in my branches?” and “What is hidden here?” When it was a tie, we had to guess the instructor’s favourite food. Tacos! Before we knew it it was time to say goodbye, and we trudged back to camp, wishing that it wasn’t over.

We were greeted by the smell of a barbeque and an amazing white fondant covered chocolate birthday cake on the table.

“Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to Harry! Happy Birthday to you!”

We all lined up for the barbeque. Mmmm… Yum! A great way to end a great camp.

We looked upon the buses with sadness - it was almost time to go. After helping pack the bags into the compartment, we looked back upon Raincliff. Can’t we stay? We could hide in the weta cave, stowaway in the kitchen! But no, we had to leave and as sad as we were about leaving we were all looking forward to our own beds, maybe a bit of sleep as well! Uttering one last goodbye, we boarded the bus, and gazed out the windows. Another amazing camp was over.

“Goodbye Raincliff.”

Raincliff Youth Camp 2017- Purau House

By Issy, Charlotte and Lucy, Room 15