Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Camp Day 2: After a relatively good nights sleep apart form the occasional giggle we were up and about early ready for our next day of activities - Coasteering and Outdoor living skills. Tui our instructor led us into the dark undergrowth surrounding the camp, this would be where we would act like Ray Mears and survive on hardly anything but look cool doing it! Well try to look cool. The kids had to find the best location for their shelter to be erected and they needed to use basic equipment which had been given to them, the shelter also had to pass the waterproof test....more on that later. The kids worked so well in their groups and some outstanding shleter building took place, while we adults looked on and chilled in the speckled sun, eating brunch bars and fruit. Then came teh end of building time, the kids, with a slightly nervous look upon their faces fitted into their shelters while Tui administered the water testing, which was a bucket of water thrown over the shelter. Suprisingly the kids made water tight shleters so no one got wet, much to the adults disappointment. We then got a chance to construct our own camp fires and if we managed to keep our fires going for more than 5 minutes we were able to taost mashmallows, most of the children were successful in making sure their fires were alight so as to toast a mallow some were very molten at the end. But was a good skill to learn even if we stank of smoke for a good while after!
It was back to camp for a light lunch after such things as Coasteering was the afternoon activity.
After donning our extremely forgiving wetsuits and protective gear we drove to our secret location under convoy. On arrival what greeted us was a rather steep pathway down to the beach. When I mean steep, you had to lower yourself backwards on a rope, practically abseiling down to reach the beach below. This delighted a few of the parents I can tell you. But with positive spirits we all trudged on down! On arriving on the ebach we had to do the kiwi hard man test. Enter the water up the waist and grab the top of the wetsuit, to create as much of a gap as possible then proceed to dunk oursleves up to our neck so the water runs down inside. There were many shrieks at this point. However I was lucky as I thought the water was practically tropical in comparison to home so I managed rather well. We then had to swim out around the rocks and clamber over them to our next challenge - the island challnge where we had to swim out to a tiny little outcrop of rock in the sea! A good 30 m swim for the kids anyway, which proved a good workout for myself as I had a small person gripping my leg and they proceeded to use me as a raft as I dragged them out to the Island. All good fun! Next came the big fun!
Rock jumping or the more laid back kelp surfing! Both good options! All the kids jumped off the first height of rock into the sea, which was really cool. They were all laughing and encouraging one another which was really good to see. Then if their first jump had been successful and safe they got to go up to the next height of rock a good 15ft i would say and jump off. A few took to the challenge and were successful! Big whoops all round. It was a cracker of an activity. 2 hrs worth of good clean fun, well aprat from being immersed in salty water some would say. The only grumble came when the children had to scale the rather steep pathway back up to the cars. There were some tired arms after that climb i can tell you, but still plenty of smiling.
After a warmish shower and a nibble which was Paua Shell and mussel patties, provided by the great Trevor who cooked it to perfection. Paua shell is very much the same texture as Squid/Octopus a little rubbery but not much, couldn't think of the taste that it reminded me of though will keep thinking on that one. Was nicer than dog anyway :) This was followed by the flying kiwi, basically a harness which enables a small person to experience a little bit of flying. All the kids line up on one end of a rope, give ita good pull and the person in the harness is lifted off the ground and well sways a little in the air. Was another good activity. We had a high rope acitivty also children had to scale an air obstacle course, they were about 20ft in the air trying to walk across a log and things which was all good fun i did a wire walk and made it to the other side! Woohoo me I then ahd the role again of belaying much to some adults delight who I looked after! All safe and sound. That sumed up our adrenaline day!
- comments