Camp Kaitawa By Charlotte Etheridge

I left home with butterflies in my stomach! I know there was no reason to be nervous but I just couldn’t help it. At school I ran to the hall to meet my friends and found out that they were just as nervous as I was! We were waiting to head off to Camp Kaitawa. That will be filled with getting wet and tired, high mountains, slipping over in small, dark caves, outstanding bush walks, outside cooking and talent galore!

Monday it was raining but we got to Camp Kaitawa finally. We also walked to Lake Kaitawa and the power station. After that we did another walk to Green Lake and Surge Chamber. At the end of the day we were tired and had a taste of what Camp Kaitawa would be like.

Tuesday we woke up happy to be dry and to have had a sleep. We had a delicious cooked breakfast to start the day. First we made sure we had everything we needed in our day packs like lunch, rain coat, warm hat and we were already wearing our warm jacket and sun hat. Then we got in our cars and headed for Ngamoko. At 850 metres we stopped for morning tea at the big Rata tree.

Wednesday we looked in an old Prison. The prisoners were kept underneath an enormous rock. Their names and the year are carved into the rock. Further on in the walk we had morning tea by a Lake and our groups had turns going up to Michel Noonan’s grave. Next to his grave was another grave that had no head stone. On the other side of the path was a very small grave with a simple wooden cross that belonged to a 9 month old baby.

Thursday we packed our day packs like usual and headed for a walk to Lake Waikareiti. When we got back from our walk we did a geography quiz. Then we walked to the place where we did our cookout. There were three small fires that could have two teams cooking on it and one big one that could have four. We cooked nachos and ate them with sour cream. We added sweet chilly sauce because we forgot the nacho flavouring! After our nachos we headed back to camp to have dessert. We had self saucing pudding because we forgot to have it the night before. Kereru [my group] was on dishes and there was a whole tray of pudding left and we got to get a spoon and ate as much as we liked.

Friday we packed and cleaned up then we left the parents to do some final touches. The teachers and students walked down to the place where we did our cookouts. There was also a tennis court there so the boys played cricket and rugby. The girls played on the grass we played girl hunt and tag. When we came back to camp the parents had done a really good job cleaning up. After a few photos we were ready to head off. Camp Kaitawa was really fun and I’d really like to do it again even the pain!