By Joel Restieaux

Monday. I woke up, pulled back the curtains and what did I see? Rain, rain, rain. I knew I had camp today. My heart was beater faster than a cheetah can run but I knew we were going to have a week full of adventure and challenges. Pouring rain, a huge walk, dark cold caves, wonderful waterfalls, burning fires and an awesome talent show. What an exhausting but AWESOME week!

We finally got to camp but guess what? It was still raining. The cars were all covered in sticky mud, they looked like mud monsters. After we had unpacked our bags and found our beds Nic told us to get into suitable wet weather gear because we were going for a five minute walk. When we got back to camp we were gone for an hour. After that Nic told us to put our wet weather gear in the drying room then we went into the dining room and Miss Hewett had the fire going.

Tuesday was a warm sunny day. We were just about to head off for our long walk up Ngamoko. Everyone knew it would be a long and exhausting walk. Then we had to get in our car groups then we drove to the start of Ngamoko. About twenty minutes into the walk we stopped at the Rata tree for morning tea. The tree was enormous.

It had plants growing off it. The tree was years old, that is pretty old for a tree. We started walking again. About every ten minutes we stopped for barley sugars and a slurp of water.

In one part of the climb there was a rock that we had to squeeze through. About five minutes up from the rock Aaron slipped off a little ledge but luckily Amelia was there to help him up. Finally we got to the top but then we had walk back down. When we were at the end we ended back at camp. Then we had to walk up a little but steep road to get back to camp. YEY WERE FINALLY AT CAMP!! That night we watched ice age 3 but half way through the movie I went to bed.

Wednesday morning we hopped into our cars then we drove to Redoubt. When we were walking we saw the old prison rock. After we had finished walking we started the great lake walk. I really liked the lake because there were rocks that have collapsed that made it really awesome. Near the lake we saw Michael Noonan’s grave. We also had morning tea at the lake then we walked down and we had lunch at a hut. Then it started to rain.

Then we drove to the Onepoto caves walk. The first cave we went though was a wet cold cave. Then we went though a couple of caves but then we had to go down a ladder. After about ten minutes we had to climb up a steep cave. It was very slippery and muddy but that was the best cave we went through. Then we got in our cars and came back to camp. We were allowed to play games then we were allowed a shower, but if we took too long we got hosed.

Thursday was a very warm day. In the morning we drove to lake Waikareiti car park. When we were walking Miss Hewett was asking us Geography Questions. As we got the end of our walk we stopped to have morning tea at a hut. After we had finished morning tea we started to head back. When we finished walking we had lunch on a huge trailer and it weighed 7.5 tonnes. Then we got into our groups and walked round to see the Papakorito waterfalls. They were spectacular. After that we drove back to camp. When we were waiting for our next activity we were allowed to play games and play out side.

When we had finished we walked back to camp and we got our food for the cookout. Then we walked back and got our fires started. When we were cooking we were looking around the other camp fires to see how the others were going. About ten minutes after we were nearly finished we were just making our juice that I brought. While we were eating what we had cooked most of the parents said that our mince was so delicious. When we had finished we were allowed to practise for our talent show. After we had to work with our group to make a flying machines. They were pretty funny things.

After we went back to camp. Then we went into the dining room and performed our talent show. My group did when the mouse came in. It was really funny. Other groups did when some one tripped up and woke up in Egypt, a camp fire song, a story about Michael Noonan and the last one did a remix about the national anthem. Then we went to bed.

‘Yay its finally Friday’ I heard from my cabin. After we had finished breakfast we all had to pack our bags and put them outside. After we had done that all we had to sit down and wait for Mr Crawford. When he came we could go down and play at the park. I was playing donkey with a rugby ball. After we had finished playing we had to walk back to camp. Wow the week was over so fast and we were already jumping into the cars to go home.

The first stop was at a park in Wairoa to stop for lunch. We had chips butties then we hopped into our cars and drove to the corner shop. We had ice blocks. I had coca cola flavour. Yum, yum in my tummy. We FINALLY arrived at school. I really enjoyed this camp and I bet the year 5’s had fun too!!