Our Year 7 and 8 students enjoyed three days of adventure, camping in tents, cooking their own meals, walking in the hills, team building, challenging themselves on the water and high ropes courses.

The year 7-8 camp in Lyttelton Primary is, by now, almost a tradition. It was challenging at times this year, but enjoyed by everyone who went. Because of the huge range of activities we did, I'll list one.

Cooking

This year, due to the location, the teachers decided that we should cook our own dinners while on camp. We were put into cooking groups, with around 6 or 7 people. The groups had to sort out the meals, who bought ingredients and utensils and how much it would cost. Each group spent around $80-110 on the whole. When camp did come around, the groups were all very prepared for cooking their own meals.

The ability to cook a meal is one we definitely learned while on camp. The camp had a small cooking building, with stoves, ovens, and even fridges (and a dining hall) so the groups had all they needed for meal making. It was, undoubtedly, challenging to cook for a group of 6, but all of the groups seemed to fare well. Here are just some of the meals cooked by the students: burgers, nachos, pasta, hot dogs, wraps, pizzas and even chicken nibbles.

I think that all of the groups learned a lot from this experience.

By Kayden Leftly

Kayaking

We went kayaking after the other activities. Everybody went at different times. Kayaking was the last activity and in my opinion also the funnest one. It was after raft building.(and that was one messed up raft we made.) Our first activity was called something like piano notes or keyboard. Anyway so it’s like we in are our kayaks up side by side and someone walks over them like someone's finger over a piano it felt so weird, and with our sound effects it sounded like ding dong ding dong ding dong. I was the only one who didn't fall into the water. Only three people did it though. Then we did some kind of game where you have a rock on the nose of your kayak and you try to keep your own rock on your kayak and get the other rocks off the other kayaks like shooting fish in a barrel…

For the other kids that is. My rock got hit off nearly straight away. It was so annoying watching the rock sink to the bottom like a dead fish. Soon after that we went back to Orton Bradley camp.     By Arni

Coasteering

We walked down a steep path down to a line of mountainous rocks. The sea shone as the sun was just getting hotter.

One by one we jumped in the water. There were calm waves that moved me along straight to where we needed to go. We climbed over and across rocks, and I nearly slipped a couple of times because of how wet and slippery it was.

Finally we got to a sharp rocky surface and climbed up a dusty hill using a rope to pull ourselves up. Then we walked back to all the cars and drove back to camp.  by Laila

Touch

The ball is passed manically down the line.  I get passed to and catch the ball.  Just before it hits the ground I quicky pass to the person next to me who finds the gap and dives at the try line.  A small group of people slowly grew and grew until our make shift field was full.  With brand new players and experts, the game was full of different skill levels.  There was the occasional "offside, play on" or "forward pass, it's our ball", but this game of touch brought together lots of groups of people, including adults and staff.  This was definitely my favourite part of the camp.  Livvie Kingi

Spotlight

We huddle in a group, shoulder to shoulder.  The full moon casts an erie glow on the ground, illuminating each others faces.  The pine trees look fierce in the dark, towering above us like giants.  Suddenly we're off, the game begins.  Torch beams pierce through the darkness.  The muffled scrambling fills the air, quiet whispers echo everywhere.  The darkness takes over, spreading to every corner, taking back the light.  Whispers slowly change to silence.  Then we're off, trying to slip into a patch of darkness, weaving in and out of trees.  Diving face first onto a tree root if necessary!  We run as fast as our legs can take us.  I make it into the group unharmed, just a little out of breath.  I hear a scraping sound from the gravel, which turns out to be Olive, lying face down and crawling on her stomach across the road.  I can't quite picture the pain and dedication that took!  Ruby Aitken

My body plummets down to the damp grass, like a rock being pulled by gravity. I lie innocently blending into nature. The beaming torch uncontrollably rummaging through the swaying trees. I pulled myself into the bush behind me, dewdrops blending into my hair. Not to mention Haawi aimlessly walking past me multiple times. I Stand to hear the words I wish I didn't, with a white blinding light in front of my face. “Spotlight”

By Sienna

High Ropes

The sun beamed down on us and the trees swayed in the warm breeze. We strode confidently towards the 10 meter high rope ladder. Clipping on the carabiners , we prepared to climb as the countdown began. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1! Swinging our legs over the first bar, we pulled ourselves up. Using the same technique, we breezed past the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th. We were so close to the top, we could just reach. We hauled ourselves over the final stretch.

We’d made it! “ DONE!” we yelled in sync. “ 54 seconds, That’s a record!” James called back. Screaming in delight, we high fived as the belayers lowered us down, “ I feel like I’m flying!” Venetia yelled. “ I have scratches all up my legs, what about you?” Aleshya replied. We both laughed. It had been our favourite part of camp.

• By Aleshya and Venetia