1. Year 6 Camp Kaitawa By Eilis

2. A scream rang out shattering the heavy silence that had fallen. Hearts were rushing as we, the year 6’s from Reignier School, left the silent school grounds, wonder yet again what excitement would await us when we reached Camp Kaitawa. Little did we know that what awaited us was filled with treacherous rain, thunderous mountains, muddy hands and knees, gorgeous waterfalls, talent shows and… CHORES!!!

3. Monday As we clambered out of the lovely warm cars into the pouring rain we raced under the shelter of the veranda. Then we went for a tour of Camp Kaitawa. When we came back we were soaked and chilled to the bone. We fell into the chairs. A couple of minutes later no one could believe it, that even though we were on camp we still had to do chores! (The one week we’re meant to have a break!!). Just before bed a D.O.C (department of conservation) ranger came in. Her name was Aniwa. What she had with her was a stuffed kiwi, a stuffed stoat, a stuffed ferret, a ‘kiwi egg’ and a trap. The best bit about the trap was how big of a fright we got when it snapped shut, bending the defenceless spoon. I’d hate to be an animal caught in that trap!

4. Tuesday Ngamoko. The walk of all camp walks. It was Tuesday. We chattered nosily as if we were parrots. Then fell silent as Nic started to tell us about the long walk ahead. ‘Wow’ The tree was huge. The Rata tree was old and humungous. It was around about 800-1000 years old. We were hyped up on Moro bars and barley sugars. A couple of hours later we found out that we hadn’t walked for 5 and a bit hours we had walked for 6-8 hours. We were mortified that we had been walking for that long and no one had told us!

5. Wednesday Michael Noonan is told to haunt Camp Kaitawa, with his ghost horse. So if you disrespect him, you better watch out, his ghost will haunt you and then cut of your head just as it had happened to him... So of course on Wednesday Nic brought us to his grave. At his gravesite we also saw the graves of two adults and a 9 month old baby and Michael Noonan’s grave we can’t forget. The muddy horror was slowly covering my hands and knees as I crawled though the slippery mud stricken floor of the tiny cave. As I crawled out I saw we were back were we had already been. Finally we made it out. That night when we had our showers we all had to go into the BOY’S bathroom because our showers only had cold water. Unfair!

6. Thursday When we reached Lake Waikareiti to eat morning tea it was really funny because the boy’s started to sing we will rock you by queen then the feet and hands started going. When we had found the cars again we started our walk around the most gorgeous waterfalls you will ever see. The rushing, rippling bubbles were beautiful, but deadly! When we got back we got ready for the talent show and started the campfires. The coolest bit about the campfire was us being able to toast marshmallows. It was really cool to perform our song to everyone, our song was the C-A-M- P-F-I-R-E-S-O-N-G song. That night no one wanted to be the first to go to sleep and finish camp to early.

7. Friday Before we left Camp we went to the courts so we didn’t mess anything up in the spotlessly clean building. When we got into the cars everyone was restless and ready to get in to the cars for the long trip home. We stopped off in Wairoa to get lunch. Lunch was the best! We got chip butties from Fish & Feathers. I love that name! As a treat we got ice-blocks from Tutira. I got coke flavoured but you could also have gotten Lemonade or Chocolate flavoured ice-blocks. When we got back to School I was so happy to be back on firm ground and more than ready for a good nights sleep!