As part of the Year 9 options, students who elected to take Adventure have been working on their teamwork skills across two classes. Teacher, Philip Carew, reports on what has happened this term. Note, that all Year 9 options change for Term 2, unless a student is doing a language.

Whakataka te hau ki te uru

Whakataka te hau ki te tonga

Kia mākinakina ki uta

Kia mātaratara ki tai

E tio, he huka, he hauhunga

Haumi e! Hui e! Taike e!

Get ready for the Westerly

Be prepared for the Southerly

It will be icy cold in the inland

It will be icy cold on the shore

May the dawn rise red tipped on ice on snow, on frost

Join, gather, intertwine

Outdoor education is about lots of things. One of them is challenging yourself. This Whakatauki tells the story that life is always a challenge and we need to face it with the knowledge there is always hope, (the dawn is coming), especially if we join, gather, intertwine; that is, if we work together.

At the start of Adventure Ed. we saw some YouTube videos of gliding, abseiling, parachuting, rock climbing, kayaking, hunting, tramping and others as well. These were all examples of adventures people have.

To have adventures we needed to work on our team skills. We transported water in guttering as a group. We also worked out how to sort ourselves into height order and birthday order while on a beam without falling off. We need team building so that we can trust each other, work together and not ditch each other when things get difficult on adventures.

We learnt about map reading. This included grids and contour lines. We discovered that true North is at the top of the map. We learnt to calculate travel times from maps. We learnt how to take a bearing to see what direction we should travel in, using Magnetic North.

Gear management is really important. We need the correct gear when tramping. Everything needs to be in waterproof bags. We need to make sure we have a polyprop or wool top, good walking shoes/ boots, sleeping bags, a wool beanie, wool socks, and a good raincoat. We also need to make sure we are not carrying too much.

We learnt to make sure we tell someone where we are going and when we expect to be back. If possible, we need to take a cell phone, locator beacon, or mountain radio.

We learnt how to use gas cookers and be safe with them. River crossing was another important skill we learnt; strong person upriver, second to strongest downriver, less strong people in the middle. Grip around the waist. Move with the flow.

Bivy building was fun. Building emergency bivys that shield our group from wind and rain is very important.

We also studied Māori concepts. We learnt about the atua, Whakatauki and Karakia and what these mean. We had to recite them on our day trip and explain their meaning.

Our one term course ended with a tramp. It was not an overnight because we were under 'red traffic light' for Covid. 

The tramp was a challenge. Some of us went for a swim at the end. It was freezing! Some of us were fast. Some of us were slow but we still worked to keep together. There was a lot of uphill. The nature was cool. 

We learnt about going to the toilet in the bush. We were in two teams going in opposite directions and swapped van keys halfway along. Adventure education was really good and many of us want to carry on having adventures. Some of us have asked to go on an overnight trip sometime this year.

We all brainstormed this report. Thanks to Ava Schofield for keying it up for us.