Hello, we are Fe, Izzy and Hanna from Germany. We are all together in one Outdoor Education class and went on a camping overnight trip from Monday 24 to Tuesday 25 September.

We met with all the Year 11 Outdoor Education students at school on Monday at 8am and put all our luggage, food and tents into the school vans and drove out to our camping site at Waiora Scout Camp. When we arrived at camp we set up our tents and then started our five to six hour day tramp in the bush. The track took us along the Silver Stream Water Race tracks, up Little Coal Creek, down Steve Amies track and back to camp.

Shortly after we started walking it started to rain, but we didn’t really mind because we were protected by the trees above us and we all had the correct clothing on to keep up warm and dry. The track was really muddy and slippery in many places. This was a problem when we had to walk up a steep, steep hill. We felt that we  walked up, and up, and up ...… There were parts where we climbed more than walked because it was sooooo steep. It was really funny (and a bit frustrating) when Miss. Ward told us that we didn’t have to go up any further, but then we turned a corner and saw that we would still had to walk up hill for a while. Finally we could walk downhill again and the last bit went by quite quickly. Hanna tried to keep us all in a good mood by singing songs. That was really funny.

When we got back to the camping site we all felt really cold and were happy to get something hot to drink.  We cooked our dinner outside on camping cookers. For some people it was really easy, others found it more confusing at first. The food was actually quite good! After that we washed our plates and cooking utensils outside. In the evening we played some really funny games, for example Werewolf, which is apparently kind of like Mafia and Wink Murderer, where one person has to guess who in the circle is killing people by blinking at them. The last thing we did before going to bed was sitting in a circle all together and had a de-brief about our day. We played spin the bottle and whoever got chosen had to answer some self-reflecting questions. We then brushed our teeth and headed out to our tents. On the way Fe stumbled over a tent and fell into the mud. It was quite dark already so all Hanna could hear was the loud “OOUCH”! Fortunately Fe didn’t hurt herself. The night was really cold and rainy and not many people slept well.

The next morning we ate breakfast and prepared our lunch for the day. After that we all helped to pack up the tents and clean up the camp, then we put the luggage back into the school vans. The teachers decided to choose an easier track than planned for the day which was less steep, because it had rained the whole night. We drove to the Taieri River Millenium track in the school vans and we listened to music, which was really funny. The track was a lot nicer than the one from the day before because the sun was shining and we had a great view over the river. We walked to a nice place at the water where we ate our lunch and played Camouflage.

We think it is awesome the school is offering such amazing trips, even though it was cold during the night. It was a really great experience and we had a lot of fun! It was a wonderful opportunity for us to get to know our classmates better and see some lovely parts of Dunedin.

Thank you to Mrs Leunissen, Russell, Miss Ward and Miss Young for coming to support us on the tramps. :-) hipp hipp hurra!