Year 12 Adventure students have been venturing into the Ōrongorongo Valley. Here is a run through of what happened.

Day 1

After some last minute packing at UHC, we loaded up the vans and hit the road to the Ōrongorongo car park, before embarking on the adventure in our three groups.

Not all who wander are lost, but the team with Mr Carew sure were. They took a quick detour before putting their navigation skills to the test to get back on track (quite literally). 

Meanwhile, Mr Weakley’s group conquered a small peak and endured some factually questionable local intel for their efforts.  Further down the track, some slick looking shelters were built amongst the native bush. 

Travelling up the river bed for the final few kilometres allowed the groups to display their river crossing skills.  Arriving at Turere Lodge saw more ‘My Tarp - My Castle’ level shelter construction, and some stellar weather meant a swim in the Ōrongorongo River to cool off. 

At night, the team got stuck into some camp dinners that Chef Ramsay would be proud of... and some that he might have had some other words to say about. Mahi was fortunate enough to be celebrating his birthday with his friends and favourite teachers, but due to the impractical nature of lugging in a full size cake for the team, Mr Weakley instead presented him with a squished and candled cupcake (which he accepted very graciously). 

As Bear Grylls would say, “Improvise, Adapt, Overcome”. Nightline, Spotlight, and some other hut games and antics brought the evening to a close, and was a great way to cap off a big day of walking. 

Prior to hitting the hay, the team eagerly opted for the option of only getting up when the first person woke up the teachers - holding high hopes for a sleep in.

Day 2

Sure enough, Charlie’s up at the crack of dawn. By extension, that meant that the rest of the team soon rolled out of their bunks, looking like they’d seen better days. 

After breakfast and a not-so-quick pack up, a few time and distance calculations by the students figured that there was a good couple of hours of climbing to be had in the day.  

The teams set off up the mountain, at which point Mr Jaffery’s class looked like they had the potential to put forward a strong team for the upcoming 2023 Complaining Olympics. Less yak, more yakka - and we clocked the tops by midday for a well-deserved lunch.  

A short sharp descent back to the vans - some ran, some walked, a few crawled, but all made it back, which was better than predicted.  

All in all, an awesome couple of days out, with many laughs, memories and some lessons learnt.