9MC & 9JO ON CAMP

Year 9 camp….where to begin? Well let’s start off with the day it all began, Monday the 1st of March. Sweltering temperatures in and around Christchurch and a 4 hour(ish) Tramp.

With Mr Taylor, Mr Knopp, Mr Campbell and the Year 13 Sports leadership group, we arrived midmorning at the Orton Bradley Camp Site and unpacked our luggage. We then continued to sit about for around 30 minutes and then it was time for our walk. At first I thought it would be a small walk, couple of hours at most…But then they told us we would be returning at 5pm. All in all, the walk was not terrible with Native scenery, a wasp’s nest, Waterfall and last but not least lunch. The hot weather meant we had to keep hydrated throughout the day. On arriving back at Camp we set up our three person tents (which took a while) and headed to dinner. Dinner on the Monday was a pretty stock standard (but tasty) Burger meal. As for the night activities they included Spotlight and ‘go home stay home’, then lights out. We took a while to actually go to sleep and this caused frustration throughout the Staff and Year 13s with Hamish Dale voicing his frustration quite openly.

The second day consisted of breakfast (cereals, toast, baked beans and peaches) and our water activities. We drove around the bay to Diamond Harbour where we began our activities. My group was up first for the Coasteering (my personal camp highlight) which involved walking around the coast and jumping off rocks into the sea. The second water activity was kayaking which was good fun and tiring (for me at least). After Lunch was the third and final activity – orienteering. It was hot and in truth we couldn’t be bothered so we convinced Mr Campbell to take us down to the wharf and have a bit of fun. At the wharf every one joined in even those you wouldn’t have expected. By far the best activities. Then after a busy day we returned to camp and had a dinner of spaghetti bolognese. Night activities kicked off with another round of spotlight and then a game of capture the flag…McClintock Vs Joyce, Shirts Vs Skins (sadly MC were skins…man was it embarrassing). Finally sleep Zzzzzz, a lot easier than last night.

Homeward bound, the third and final day of the first Year 9 camp. The mornings were as they always had been, breakfast and briefing with the added extra of packing our bags and putting them all ready for the bus. Next were our day’s activities which consisted of high ropes and abseiling. For me high ropes did not turn out as well, as I chickened out half way through but enough about me. Everyone else seemed to be enjoying themselves. Abseiling was a different story as I really quite enjoyed it, as did most others. After the 15-20 minute walk up there we went up the rock and two at a time began our descent. It wasn’t too high but was fun all the same. That being our final activity we headed back and packed up our tents. A bit of a challenge for some but an easy task for others. My tent packing skills were put to the test on that hot Wednesday afternoon but after about 30 minutes of labouring it was done. We then ate our lunch of pizza and leftovers and hopped on the bus and returned to STC.

In the end the first year 9 camp was a big success in most fields. A big special thanks to Mrs Jo Gibbs who gave up her time to prepare our meals for three days, but also thank you to the teachers and Year 13s who came along and helped the whole thing run as smoothly as it would get with a bunch of rowdy 13 year olds. I believe next year will go just as well (or maybe even better)

Thanks…

By Cormac Gallagher 9MC