Surf Wairarapa Camp Report

On the morning of Monday 22 November, twenty seven students met at school to depart on our school camp, Surf Wairarapa, heading to Castlepoint. 

The drive took around 3 hours, and we stopped at a park in Masterton for morning tea and to chill out for a little bit. On arrival, we set up the tents that we were to stay in and had a look at the beach. To finish off the day, we learnt how to get on a surfboard and hit the waves. After time on the beach, dinner came along, we had sausages, (which were a recurring pattern) as well as some downtime. To finish off the evening, we visited the lighthouse a top of the cliff for stunning views. 

Tuesday rolled around and we went on a big trek around the lagoon and towards Castle Rock. We were fortunate enough to see some sea lions and seals on our way back. For the rest of the day we went surfing and then diving around at Mataikona. 

Wednesday arrived and we took a walk around to the lagoon to fish, boogie board or throw a ball around for a few hours. Our afternoon was occupied by some diving for more pāua to eat for dinner however, some uninvited guests arrived, as we saw a stingray and shark in the water. 

Thursday was more eventful with an early dawn surf on the beach. Quite a few were skeptical with the water temperature but once in, it was a fun time. Around 10.00am, we got together and formed groups of three to participate in some beach challenges, the first of which was a relay. This included sliding down the sand dune, running 200m and then a swim through the ocean. The second challenge was a game of flags and the third was a sand castle challenge that somehow involved the Castlepoint lighthouse. After this, the majority of the day was free time, to either go surfing or going on the sand dunes. We finished the day with a walk to lighthouse after dinner and managed to sight some whales.

 On Friday however, the weather was not in our favour as the wind was catastrophic with majority of our tents collapsing or falling down. This lead to us packing up and leaving earlier than expected. We left around 9:30am and arrived in Masterton for morning tea to burn off some spare time. We arrived back in Palmy at 2:00pm and that was our camp over.

Josh Carroll and Ian Tsui