Well I've been busy at the school for the last couple of weeks!

On the 6th-8th March I was helping with something called year 7 community breakout where the girls are let off normal lessons for 3 days and go on little field trips. I was with clas 7SI and we went to the beach on the 6th to take part in a simulated whale rescue and beach clean up before heading to this scenic reserve to do some weeding and go on a bush walk to learn about bush survival and pests like possums!

the next day we headed to the southland stadium to go climbing on this immense climbing wall, abseiling from the roof and do team building exercises (i just spent most of the time climbing so that was good fun!) and then in the afternoon we went to the museum which was so boring!!

on the 8th there was lots of excitement amongst the girls as it was a joint day with classes from southland boys school. they were all divided into groups to do challenges like build a tower with marshmallows and toothpicks and the 2nd challenge was to make costumes out of bin bags! *deja vu sas '06!*

back on normal timetable for the rest of the week before heading to year 9 camp at lake mavora for the 12th-16th. i was at lake mavora for 2 camps- one monday-wed and the other wed-fri. the place we were camping was so pretty looking out over all these mountains it was so nice!! the first group at camp was really hard work- they didnt want to do anything and spent most of their time there crying and swearing it was so bad i was ready to go home on the wednesday but staying the week! the weather was so weird though- on monday it was really warm and humid- tuesday it snowed! anyways, the next group arrived on the wednesday and it was like a totally different camp- they didnt winge and were much more fun! they didnt even complain on the night rope walk (you follow the rope around the bush with no torch its good fun!) so that was so much better! had a wicked time biking, kayaking, rafting and walking with everyone! oh and for the rafting i felt so stupid because we had to wear: bottom thermals, a swimsuit, a rash vest/t shirt, a merino (thermal jumper), socks, shoes, a waterproof jacket, a life jacket and a helmet!!

so anyway, everything was going all good until the friday. we all got up quite early to clean up the site and the lodge the staff had been staying in and everyone except me and one of the teachers got sent off orieteering whilst we sorted out the food and cleaned and packed up the vans. the lady in charge of the lodge came over at 11 and started shouting as nothing we had done was good enough! (i dont see what her problem was it was fine!!) the girls were all getting back from orienteering and getting on the bus to take them back to the school and we were getting ready to drop one of the vans off to leave for the camps next week when we couldnt find the key!!! the bus set off and me and vicky from the staff were frantically searching for the key and couldnt find it anywhere, thinking maybe nathan the kayak and rafting guy had taken it home with him when he left on thursday night, so we had to drive over to the house in the other van to see whether anyone knew how to hotwire a van. they didn't so we had to push the van over the the field and leave it there before heading back to invercargill in the other van. what a bloody nightmare! thats probably made no sense whatsoever but oh well!

back at the boarding house on the saturday where the weekend crew were playing waitresses to the old girls meeting that was taking place so we spent the morning setting up the tables and helping alice the cook with the food before serving all the food. me, peachy from thailand and pisila from tonga entertained between the courses with me playing flute, peachy playing piano and pisila and her family doing a tongan dance.

thats about it really!

beth
xxx