This year the Tauriko School Tall Poppies were fortunate enough to get to go to the 2022 Totara Springs Sports Camp.

Click on the link to watch some of the highlights, cheerdances and prizegiving from the 2022 Sports Camp.

Monday

We arrived at Totara Springs around 10:30am and were greeted by the lovely staff members who showed us where all of our cabins and bathrooms were. Once everyone was settled in, each school got their athletics, swimming and kayaking teams ready to compete in our first sports of the week.

Tuesday

We begin our day with an hour of Quality Living. After our school briefing, we were sent off to get ready for our first sports of the day Archery, Shooting, Frisbee Golf and Hole in One Golf and much more. Once everyone was finished with their sports we always head into the dining room for dinner. Straight after, we have our indoor evening sports which include Indoor Hockey, Darts, Cage Soccer, Chess and Draughts.

Wednesday

We are woken bright and early on Wednesday for a nutritious breakfast to help us power through our morning sports. Cross country, Rock Climbing, Spikeball and Mini Golf was where this day began. When we began to feel peckish, we were able to go in and get filled up from a rolling lunch. Re-energised and ready for the afternoon of yelling, as the school's Triathlon teams headed to the pool for a briefing.

Clap! The first swimmer dives in and completes two lengths, then the second swimmer does three lengths. The 1km runners sent off for their turn and made their way to the bikers to send them for a lap around the bmx track. To finish the race up, the sprinters, who race to the end of the field.

Thursday

Another day another set of sports ready for us to compete in. Except today is a special day! Semi Finals and then Finals in the evening, but first, Quality Living. The whole day was the Semis Finals for every single sport. Tauriko School competed in 14 Semi Finals, however, we only qualified for 9 finals. At the end of the day we walked away with 5 Finals Cups.

Later that evening all the schools were gathered in the hall for Cheerdance. Unfortunately we did not place, however we had amazing feedback from other schools. We all enjoyed ourselves and made the teachers proud.

Friday

Finally, we were rewarded with a good sleep in. We headed

into the dining room for the last breakfast of the week. Unfortunately we were then sent away to clean up and pack up. Next was the moment we were all waiting for… Prize Giving, which was a huge success. We were then fed lunch, packed up our cars and headed home.

Student Voices

Cole Beach Year 7: Sports Camp was such a cool experience and really fun. It was cool trying out new sports.

Mateo Fakapulia Year 7: Sports Camp was a very very cool experience as many kids don't have the opportunity to compete with other schools.

Poppy Russell Year 7: Sports Camp was a fun and enjoyable experience because there were lots of fun sports and lots of new things to try out.

Brooke Nelson Year 7: I thought Sports Cwas such a cool experience and I really enjoyed playing new sports like Ultimate Frisbee and Totara Tag.

Nikau Taikoko Year 8: Breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday was delicious and very filling. Everyone was nice and Sports Camp was very fun.

Devan Yuill Year 8: The Sports were very enjoyable the other teams were always kind and caring when you made a mistake,

The staff were very friendly and made sure you had a good time at the camp.

Jessica Tokelove Year 8: I really enjoyed playing new sports and socialising with the other schools. My favorite sport to play was Ultimate Frisbee.

Marissa Wallace Year 8: I really liked playing different sports like Ultimate Frisbee and enjoyed making new friends.