This week, the year 7 & 8 syndicate set off for camp at Waipara Adventure Centre for an action-packed three days of new and exciting activities. We are so grateful for our wonderful parent helpers that made it so successful and a huge thank you to everyone who supported us with our fundraising throughout the year.

Some students in Year 7 & 8 have written something small about some of their highlights from camp. 

Low Ropes-

Certainly the Low Ropes course at the Waipara Adventure Center Camp was extremely fun! This course used two important things which included trust and teamwork. Everyone had a turn going through every obstacle and while people were waiting they had an important role as a spotter where they held their hands up ready to catch someone if they were to fall. Everyone who gave the Low Ropes course a go, did a brilliant job and pushed themselves to their limit! Although this course may have seemed hard to some, everyone gained so much more confidence within themselves. 

Diaz C- JE

Abseiling -

I enjoyed abseiling because we could encourage our teammates and overcome fears of heights. It was interesting looking down from the top of the wall and seeing how tiny people looked from that distance. Everyone tried their best, and encouraged each other. 

Elizabeth S - MR

My favourite thing about camp would have been abseiling, and the faulty towers because I love doing things up high and they were quite challenging and made me step out of my comfort zone. Abseiling was probably my number one favourite because we had to use skills that we haven't used before. It also was good being able to do it with a buddy. It was nine meters tall but looked way taller because you couldn’t see where the rock met the ground. I got to do it four times and it was definitely one of the best things at camp.

Sophie M - CF

Archery -

At the Waipara 7 & 8 camp we had the opportunity to participate in archery. I was a bit skeptical to begin with but once it had all been explained and we started I was a lot more confident, even though I wasn’t that good and missed the target almost every time. Around the end we put balloons up as an extra target and only a few people actually hit them. Overall it was really fun and I enjoyed it. 

Matilda B - NT

Balancing Beam - 

One of the camp activities we did was the balancing beam and your whole team had to be on the unstable beam and keep it off the ground for as long as possible. The OAS syndicate had a competition to see which group could balance for the longest. Up until Wednesday morning, the best was 6 minutes, until my group tried it out and smashed that record by getting 20 minutes. We had two parents there watching to make sure we didn't cheat.

Casey B - CF 

Waterslide - 

The waterslide was one of my favorite Activities we did on camp. Everyone was having so much fun, cheering everyone on and trying to get to the end! Lucah holds the record of going the furthest on the waterslide they used a technique where they would point their toes, lift there bum and push there back into the slide to gather speed. Miss Robb, Ms Lowen and Mrs Thompson as well went on the slide and Miss Robb was very close to breaking Lucahs record! 

Lara D- MR

I liked the water slide because it was steep and there was a big pool of water at the bottom that you went into at the end. The slide was very fast if you got the right technique. It was funny when the teachers went down and went fast.   

Kaitlyn C - CF

Faulty Towers - 

At camp we did an activity called Faulty Towers. This activity can be done by stacking milk cartons on top of other milk cartons and climbing on top of them without your tower falling over. The instructor that we had was James; he was probably the best instructor. The OAS record that we made was 23 milk cartons, that record was made by Sophie Regan.Alexander M- JE

At camp, my favorite activity is Faulty towers. I got 16 milk crates stacked up into the air. At the start it was difficult and after I got going I got into a rhythm and it got easter and it was really fun. In my group Sophie R got the highest with a height of 23 milk crates which was really great.

Paige W-N - CF

Shelter building:

I really enjoyed the shelter building at camp because it was cool to work in a team to build a shelter that could protect your team from a bucket of water.

Oliver P - JE

Confidence course:

This was a challenge where you had to carry water in an ice cream container through all these obstacle courses and it was the person with the most water at the end of it. Then we challenged ourselves to see who could get through the course the fastest, Manu was holding the record at 1 minute and 41 seconds until Ciara beat him by getting a time of 1 minute and 26 seconds.

Bella C - JE

Thanks to Megan Lowen for stepping at the last minute to support the year 7 & 8 camp. We really appreciated all of her outdoor-education skills. 

We were really grateful to have Julie Evans' expertise on our fun and successful camp. This was her last school camp and we are sad to see her go. We wish her all the best.