Year 12 and Year 13 Outdoor Education Tramp

With major rainfall forecast for the Welcome Flats  track the decision was made for the Year 13 OE class to join the Year 12 OE class on the Heaphy Track.

The forecast gradually worsened for the upper South Island with rain starting to fall steadily on the day we started tramping. By the time we had reached the hut on day one everyone was saturated and had to negotiate usually dry creek beds flooding over the track.

The rain continued over the next two days with students showing great self-management with drying their equipment each night.

A group explored some caves in the limestone cliffs, finding some rather large spiders and native land snails.

On the last morning the group started tramping out at 6am in the dark listening to the roar of huge surf crashing into the coast from the the storms in the Tasman Sea. Fortunately the heavy rains had subsided to give some pretty good views as of the coast as the track weaved in and out of the dense native bush.

The students did an excellent job of dealing with very extreme weather conditions over the week, their spirits were always high, they did a great job with their navigation assessments, and never complained once about the weather or the wafting smells coming from having continually damp and musty clothing.