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Year Nine camp

This year's, Year Nine camp took place at Orton Bradly Park 30 minutes from Christchurch in the Lyttelton harbour. The camp ran from Monday the 13th to Wednesday the 15th with the Marlow, McClintock boys.

These  group of boys showed resilience and character and even with the pouring rain, the year 9’s still had smiles on their faces and demonstrated the virtues of a true St Thomas man.

Here's the diary of events that took place .....

Monday 13th

Once the boys had arrived at the camp ground they put on their wet weather gear and went off on the nature tramp. It consisted of a 4-hour tramp through the bush and up a mountain. The rain made it difficult to get up the steep tracks and then we all had to turn back and learnt how to build temporary shelters out of materials in the forest.  Once we got back to the base camp, the wet weather gear was hung out to dry and the day was ended with team building activities.

Tuesday 14th 

On the Tuesday, we woke up and the weather was still abysmal. The boys had some great activities lined up for them. These involved Coasteering, mountain biking, low ropes and orienteering. The boys were faced with lots of challenges on this day and they were put out of their comfort zone. The weather cleared later that day so we got the boys to set their tents up. The boys were really happy about this. Later that night we played spotlight. The year 13 leadership team gave the year 9 boys a good hiding. 

Wednesday 15th 

The next day, at 6.30am, the boys packed up their gear and got ready for the day. The boys then had two more activities to do before we headed back to school. These were high ropes and abseiling. This also put the boys out of their comfort zones by testing their team work skills.  After these activities, we then went back to the camp, packed up the bus and headed back.

Overall, the year 9 camp was a great experience for these year 9 boys. The kids enjoyed it and learnt more about each other. Big thanks to Mr Taylor, Mr Milne and Mr Knopp. Thank you to Joe Gibbs for cooking all our meals and to the camp instructors who took us for the activities.

By Sam Irving and Strathern Harrsion

and from 9MC ....

Day 1 

A lot of anticipation on the first day as the boys were all very keen to get on the bus and get to Orton Bradley.  Once we arrived we all got straight into our activities.  The first activity was orienteering of which quite a few boys found it a bit challenging, but at least we didn’t lose anyone, which was good I guess.  After this we all went for a walk up the hill to see two waterfalls that were good to view.  We concluded the day with a game of rugby, nice hot meal and a game of spotlight.

Day 2 

We awoke to a beautiful day.  The day consisted of three main activities: 1) my group was involved in coastering which involves walking around rock faces along the coastline. It was great to see the boys stepping outside their comfort zone and giving it a go. Second activity involved kayaking and raft making.  Mixed results could be seen on the raft making front. The final activity for the day was meant to be orienteering, but we ended up jumping off the Diamond Harbour wharf for a good 2.5 hours.

Day 3

The boys were by this stage extremely tired but we had to push on and complete “high ropes” and “abseiling.”  I believe that these two activities were probably the best to be involved with because I could see the boys step outside their comfort zone and build trust and friendships that will hopefully see them through STC and beyond.

A big thank you to the staff especially Mr Biggs, Mr Campbell, Mrs Lee and especially Jo Gibbs for being Camp Mother and giving up a week of her annual leave.

By James Cranefield