Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah...Here I am at Camp Hanmer

With two dry feet back on city turf, I can safely say that I have participated in a New Zealand school camp!! Over the past month or so the year five/six teachers and myself have been anxiously planning and preparing for our students to attend Camp Hanmer Junior Forest Camp. We worked hard to divi up the responsibilities with mine being transport and rainy day activities. Transport, how hard could it possibly be? Get a few parents to volunteer to take kids to and from camp and we're set right? Wrong!! Organizing the transport for camp turned out to be a nightmare, with my final count of drafts reaching upwards of 20! We left for camp on Tuesday, and the Monday before I handed Pauline a final copy. "Don't make it final yet Lindsay, let's wait until the end of the day, there may be some changes!"...and man was she right. With two changes that day, and then some more the following morning, I was starting to wonder if we were actually going to be able to get these kids to and from camp! However, a successful trip there took place and 119 excited and smiling kids came knocking on the bunk rooms at Camp Hanmer. The four days there was amazing, with all of the kids showing just as much excitement as I was (after all, I will be missing my camp fill this year). After an excited first night (with the kids staying up until the wee hours of the morning), our camp was underway and I was ready to show Banks Ave the full on Camp Counsellor that lerks inside of me.

One of the major events of the camp consisted of two hikes: one up Conical Hill, and the other up the Waterfall Track. I opted for the second (and more difficult) one, and the payoff was amazing. At the end of the track the 35 kids and I stood facing a massive fall, at least 100 feet in the air with the fresh spring water cascading down with great force- it was beautiful!

For the following days we had nothing but rain, which proved to have no effect on us what so ever. The programs continued on as normal, with myself in charge of teaching the kids outdoor tenting, lashing, and how to build a lean-to. The programmes were all very educational and the students really gained a lot from each activity that they attended.

We were also fortunate enough to have a nice soak in the Hot Springs in Hanmer Village, which was a very relaxing way to spend our last day at camp....sort of. After many trips down the hydroslides and about 20 rounds of songs, I managed to sneak away for 10 minutes and have some peace with other teachers. Don't get me wrong, I love being with the kids all the time, it's just that with a sore throat and constant questions, the 10 minute break came well deserved!
The week at camp ended with the most hilarious camp concert, where camp parents, students, and teachers each prepared an item. The parents item (a roast towards the teachers) was absolutely hilarious and took the form of an operation behind a bed sheet. Some of the kids had also put in a lot of effort towards their items as well, and the concert went off with great success (especially with the teacher's story of the "Very Hungry Camp Hanmer Caterpillar"!

Now that camp is over and I have given my cold a chance to kick in, I can truly say that I would do it all again in a second. The experience was really valuable to me, not to mention the amount of new students that I got to know from the year five/six team, and I am very excited to get back to school and share once more with the students about their experiences at camp.