Lorna M -- Blogmeister

It was the 7th of March. It was time to go. I couldn’t wait till we got there. Do you want to know why? Well, even if you don’t I’m going to tell you anyway. My learning centre, (Puarenga), was heading out to camp Relf at lake Rotoma. We were going to learn about wildlife and plants in the bush, water safety, and team building. Also so that the teachers could see us outside of school and more importantly to have FUN!
On Tuesday we did orienteering and kayaking. First thing we did when we (groups 11 & 12) got to the beach for kayaking was put our life jackets on. We warmed up with a quick elimination game. The rippling, never tiring lake shimmered like a diamond in the sunlight as we choose our partners and climbed into our double kayaks. My partner was Natalie. We were going to the secret beach. When we got there we played another elimination game with our paddles where we had to drop our paddle and go to the paddle either on our left or right. We then played on the beach, had a swim and want back. We were tired!
The sandy rubber felt like a sharks mouth underneath my hand, biting and scratching me, it was almost impossible to tie. It was Wednesday and we were at raft building. We didn’t have life jackets but I wore my wetsuit instead. Our raft wad made form bamboo, rubber tubes and deflated rubber tubes cut into strips. We started the race against the other group and the parents, but our raft only drifted slowly, even with everyone helping. We made a superaft for both our teams to go and we were able to stand up on it. I think knowing how to build a raft would help you if you were stranded or lost near a river, lake, or, the sea.
Nrrr. Nrrr. Nerr ner ner nerrrr. “ahhhh!” It was Wednesday night, the burmatrail. There were loud, scared screams coming from the bush. The teachers had said that a loopy , phyco guy was loose in the bush. It was taking ages for our group’s turn to go in to the bush, but watching everyone screaming was funny. Finally after waiting about 20 minutes it was our turn. We climbed onto the muddy, slippery path cut into the dense bush. Then the chainsaw started up. All the girls in my camp group (except me) started screaming—Kate ‘claimed’ that she was screaming for fun. If we were quiet the burmatrail would have been useful to get somewhere at night without being seen, (e.g. in the war.)
Mmmmmm! One night for dessert we had steamed pudding with steamed apple and special sauce, yum! But we had coleslaw every day YUCK! We did cooking on Thursday, our last day of activities. We prepared morning tea -biscuit and fruit-, made COLESLAW and we made delicious piklets in a bag with golden syrup! Making piklets in a bag is a good idea for camping.
Camp was amazing with loads of great fun activities. I just hope Thornton is as much fun as Rotoma!
Lorna Macdonald