Saturday, March 14, 2009

I’M BACK!!! WOOHOO!!!

I'm back from Pauanui, and I'm liking it. I got a bed that was big enough to fully stretch out my legs in, and not have to worry about being chucked outside for talking to my friends before 7am, or having a cold shower in the morning. The term's pretty much all downhill from here, and I'm gonna enjoy it. Camp was a lot of fun, and there was some great scenery, if you have any pics, I would like to put some of them on my blog (If that's all right with you). There was SOOOO much walking on camp, on one day we must have done at least 5 hours altogether. Before camp, I told you I was looking forward to 'overnight', but it was not as cool as I had hoped. I will type some of my camp diary here to show you what it was like.

On Sunday we got to camp and did a HUGE mountain walk up Mt. Pauanui (about 3.5 hours), and everyone was pretty tired.

On Monday we went kayaking, but we didn't have the keys, so we had to go back to camp and come back after lunch instead. Then we went snorkeling, but I stopped because I had leaky goggles that caught in my hair, a leaky mouthpiece (I swallowed seawater), and I kept falling over in my flippers. After that we just hung round the estuary for a bit, and got some mussels off the docking pontoon. Then we went back to camp and had dinner, and I got a sore stomach, I think it was from eating that seafood pasta, with the fresh mussels in it.

On Tuesday we went to over night by bus (at least we didn't have to walk the 26kms there with all our gear!!!). We did like 5 or 6 hours walking and I got aching calves, because alot was uphill. Dinner was fairly nice, even though we had to cook it ourselves, and there was TOO MUCH CHICKEN SOUP MIX, thanks to my friend. I only slept about an hour (or a half) because the wind was so strong that the overhang on our tent got broken, and we had to go out the back. Also because the two back pegs on our tent came out, and our tent was pretty much crushed and blown away by the winds.

On Wednesday, we climbed Mt. Paku, but it was easy, and the view was spectacular!!!! We also got back from our horrible experience at overnight as well.

On Thursday, we went "orienteering", a 3.5 hour trek round Pauanui, to all the parent's stations. It was kind of like the amazing race, except we weren't in taxis. In the end we were 16th, and it took us about 3 hours, 43 minutes. The winning team did it in about 2 hours, and it went from 9am to 1pm. Thursday night was the camp concert, a range of talent, from none, to a fair bit. There was a freestyle guitarist, who made up the words on the spot, and a few cool skits, and so much else. it went from about 8:45 to about 11:30, it was a very late night.

On Friday, we packed up all our gear (the girls took a bit longer), and hung roung camp for a while. After an 11 o'clock lunch, we set off (all 99 kids, plus adults) in two buses, one of which had two TV's that were playing a movie, and had really comfy seats (the one I was in). After a week, it was nice to have a really comfy bed, my family, and a constantly hot shower.

Overall, camp was cool as, and it was a really great experience. I would like to say a big thanks to all the parents who cooked and looked after us on camp.

Quote of the day: Any war that requires the suspension of reason as a necessity for support is a bad war. - Norman Mailer
The only obligation to which in advance we may hold a novel, without incurring the accusation of being arbitrary, is that it be interesting. - Henry James

No comments: