Khi Khi: November 2014

My First School Camp

On Tuesday the 28th of October 2014 I woke up feeling nervous and excited about the coming week of adventure. As I was leaving to go on my year 8 school camp that day. I tried to remember what I needed in my suitcase, I thought I had everything. My mates collected me on the way to school at 7:30am. At 8:50am we left on two buses going up North of Auckland for two hours drive. We arrived at Waipu Cove in time for morning tea and went for a walk on a walking track. After an hours walk, we finally arrived at the beach, where some of the year 8’s swam in the waves. We got back on the buses and continued our journey to Marsden Bay Christian Camp.

We unpacked the buses once we arrived at the camp. The camp managers took us on a tour of the property, and told us where we could and couldn't go. My cabin buddies were James, Htawara, Neo and Kyal. None of my cabin buddies were in my Kawakawa B team but my amazing team was Gloria, Zariah, Gianna, Paris, Henry, TJ and me. My team was the best at getting points for the activities during the week. We had a great parent leader Maata and Gloria who encouraged us to work super hard at getting points whenever we could.

My favorite activities at camp were Kayaking, Archery, Fire Pit Challenge and Frisbee golf . We went Kayaking on Wednesday afternoon by walking to a man made lake near the camp. The kayaks were waiting by the edge of the lake ready for us to hop in. We had an instructor Shannon and Maata who helped us put on life jackets before we went out kayaking. This was my first time kayaking and I felt really scared of falling into the icy water. I paddled slowly while I was learning how to maneuver the kayak but once I got really confident, I was speeding past all most everyone. Shannon said I caught on very quickly learning how to kayak, which made me very proud of myself.

Archery was done between the camp and lake. Maata instructed us on how to use the bow and arrow properly. This was my first time doing archery and I had a lot of fun learning how to aim at the bulls eye. I did manage to break an arrow accidentally by using my own special technique that I taught myself. But I did find that it worked better when I used the bow and arrow as Maata has instructed me.

The fire pit challenge was a fun activity cooking over an open fire, because I got to eat melted marshmallows between chocolate biscuits. We also learnt how to cook eggs using oranges skins over an open fire. This is how we cooked our poached eggs.

Step 1: cut the orange in half

Step 2: scoop out the inside of the orange and eat it

Step 3: crack the egg into half the orange skin

Step 4: cover the orange with tinfoil

Step 5: place the orange in the open fire place carefully

Step 6: after 10 minutes take out your special poached eggs and enjoy like I did.

Frisbee golf was another activity that I really enjoyed because I finished first out of my team. The team started the game by throwing the Frisbee through the first hoop. There were 12 hoops that varied in the amount of difficulty because the hoops were at different levels. We stood at different distances away from the hoops. I was able to get the Frisbee through the hoops after a few throws which helped me win the game.

By the end of the week of adventure my nerves had been replaced by confidence as I did each activity. My team Kawkawa B had the highest points scored by the end of camp. This proved we grew together as a team and got on with each other having heaps of fun. The food was amazing as I could have seconds every meal. Selwyn was a great cook and I really enjoyed his dinners as they tasted fantastic .