1. Camp KaitawaCamp Kaitawa By Sophie St Clair Yr 6 Camp

2. As I got into the car with my dad my heart was racing. I gulped in some air as we drove to school. I didn’t know what to expect. As all the Year 6’s from Reignier School piled into the hall, the tension rose in the air. Then, it hit us all. We were going to Camp Kaitawa. *Gulp*. It was a week full of endless walking and adventures. Torrential rain, tiring mountain walks, scary tales, slippery and muddy caves, priceless views, smoky cookouts and some very interesting performances. What an exhausting week!!! Intro

3. As we arrived at Camp Kaitawa after the bumpy car ride on the winding roads, the rain set in. We unpacked our gear and then slipped into our raincoats as we set off for our first walk. We marched to the Power Station as the rain pelted us all. But as drenched as we were, we kept going. Through the muddy grass and slippery concrete, we passed the Surge Chamber, Green Lake and Lake Kaitawa. As the rain covered our sweaty faces, we headed back up the track. But before we could carry on the way up to camp, Mrs Baudinet decided that we would walk up what seemed like an endless looking pipeline. We trudged up the hill like exhausted lions for what seemed like hours. When we finally made it to the top, there was no way out! We were stuck at the top. Awesome.Monday

4. Monday Since there was no way back but back down. We started walking back downhill. Pain shot through our bodies as we finally made it back to the bottom of the slimish green pipeline. We raced as fast as our tired legs could take us back to camp and we took off our sopping wet clothes and put them in the drying room. After a yummy dinner of spag bol, cooked by Rowena, the night finished off with a talk from Aniwa, a worker for DOC. She had brought in a stuffed ferret and stoat, and also a stuffed kiwi. She showed us all a trap that they used to catch stoats and it would kill them. It made a big noise when the trap went off and it was quite scary actually. As I lay in my top bunk that night, with Monica on one side and Amelia on the other, I was excited but nervous to know what was in store for us the next day.

5. Tuesday As we dragged ourselves out of bed the next morning at 6:30am, the sun shone through the floral curtains. When we were getting dressed, Miss Hewett burst into our dorm and said that we were going on the Ngamoko walk today, even though we were supposed to do it on Wednesday, because today the weather was going to be fine and on Wednesday it was supposed to rain. I mean, who would want to walk 15km in the rain? And it was the walk that EVERYONE, even the parents, had been dreading. At about 9am we got into our cars and we drove along the dirt/gravel road to the start of our Ngamoko walk. We got out of the cars and we got into our 5 groups. Kakapo, Whio, Kaka, Kiwi and Kereru. My dad and Miss Hewett were going to be our adults for this walk, but Rowena was going to walk with us until the big Rata tree because she had to drive back and start getting all our dinners ready because by the time we got back it would be about 4pm. So we set off for the Rata tree and that was where we were stopping for morning tea. Our adults were given barley sugars and mini Moro bars to supply us with some sugar We walked at an average pace as we didn’t want to waste any energy that we had. The track was kind of flat until we got to the Rata tree so it was a pretty easy walk there. When we stopped at the Rata tree, it towered over our heads. It even made Mr Crawford look short! We snacked on our muesli bars that we had been given before we left as part of our packed lunch. My dad gave all of my group a barley sugar and a Moro bar to have until we next stopped. Our group was Kakapo, and we were group 2, because group 1 was Whio and Mrs Baudinet was their adult so she led the way. We trudged uphill as the track started to get a bit steeper.

6. Tuesday Every side you looked, there was beautiful trees and native bushes. It was quite breath taking actually. I just used to think that forests were a bunch of trees and bushes and plants, but after my whole experience on camp, you learn to actually think about them not just as things sitting there. We had another short stop for some water and to eat our Moro bars, and then we kept pumping our legs. As we were walking along everyone was chatting about what the Year 5’s would be doing back at school. In fact, a few people were saying that they would rather be back at school doing school work. After another 20 minutes, we stopped again for some more water. Now this got to the really hard part, walking on the muddy slippery track. Everyone had a few slips, I fell once, but only onto my hands. Miss Hewett, on the other hand, fell over a few times, but onto her bum. One time Grace could of stopped her from falling but Grace didn’t even try to catch her After an hour of muddy downhill and uphill steep tracks, we had almost made it to the top. Whenever you do something like this, I always feel like it’s a big accomplishment, and to be proud. But its hard to feel joyful and proud when you think your legs are about to fall off. We stopped for lunch just before we were at the top, and we took in the view of Lake Waikaremoana. As we munched on our packed lunch of a roll, an apple or banana, and a packet of twisties or chips or grain waves, Miles, Lisa’s dad, took out his measurer and he said that we were 1050m above sea level. WOW!!! It was very cool, in a freaky way. After everyone had finished we half walked half ran down the steep winding hill. A few hours later after the priceless views, endless walking and some hot sun, we finally made it back to Camp Kaitawa. YAY! Everyone had made it back in one piece. We slumped onto our beds and lay there for while, playing games, talking and just relaxing. We then had a delicious dinner of devilled sausages, and after that we had had some pudding, we watched ice age 3. I had already seen it, and I was so tired, so after supper which we had about 15 minutes into the movie, I decided to go to bed. As soon as I lay down and snuggled into my sleeping bag, I nodded off to sleep. What a day!

7. Wednesday All the girls woke up early again that morning, so we played some games like Uno, cards and Skip-Bo. We got up an hour later at about 7:00am, and we shoved on some warm clothes. Today we were going to see Michael Noonan’s grave, and we were going to be caving. AGGGHHHH!!!!!! I shovelled my breakfast of Weet-Bix into my mouth and chewed quickly. We also had to take our headlamps today, and we definitely had to take our raincoats as it was going to rain. After we had packed for the day and we had all tidied our dorms, we got into our cars again and we drove to the Redoubt. When we arrived it was kind of chilly, so we put on our jackets. We went into a big shelter with some seats and on the walls there were photos and information about the lakes and the power stations and the pipelines. After we had all got out of the cars and we had read some information that was on the plaque’s, we all set off for another walk, but today it was going to be much shorter. As we were walking we all passed a rock prison where in the olden days during war they used to keep the prisoners. We went up group by group to see the rock prison and when I went up there I took some photos. The prison is basically a rock raised on some wood. It is very small and the plaque by it said that they used to keep up to 50 people in the prison. We carried on walking and about a minute later we were at a beautiful lookout. Mrs Baudinet talked to us about how they had built houses in that place and that they had to chop down the trees there and that it was also the place where the soldiers looked out for enemies because you could see almost everywhere from there. We walked a little further and we saw a sign. It was of what ways you could go on more walks. We went on the 10 minute one that led to Michael Noonan’s grave. We past the little track leading off to the graves because we stopped at a pond for our morning tea. When we had finished eating we got taken in our groups up to the graves. The first grave we saw was Michael Noonan’s grave. It was a black headstone and it said that he had died when he was 16. He was delivering a message to the soldiers to say that the enemy was coming, but as he was delivering it he got beheaded by the enemy, but somehow he still delivered the message, so he saved the rest of the soldiers. It was kind of scary because Mrs Baudinet told us a tale of the headless horseman. If you stood on the grave you would be haunted by Michael Noonan (the headless horseman), and at night you would hear a knock on the window, and then the sound of a horse galloping along. Of course I didn’t believe this because I don’t believe in ghosts or anything like that, but that still didn’t mean that I wasn’t freaked. We then went and saw the next grave. It was a man from Kent, England. He died when he was 43 years old. We didn’t know why his gravestone was there, but Mrs Baudinet said it was because in the olden days, if you were 43 you were considered very old. I think then everyone thought of their parents…. The last grave we saw was of a 9 month old baby who had died of a sickness.

8. Wednesday When all the groups had finished looking we walked back to a hut. In there we ate our packed lunches. As we were eating it started to rain. Great. And next we were going caving. So when we had finished eating, we all put on our raincoats and went outside. We raced into our cars, and then we took a short drive to the Onepoto caves. We put on our headlamps and then we went to the entrance of the start of the track. It had started raining heavier when we started walking along the muddy squishy track. But it was ok for us because we weren't that exposed to the sky because there were so many trees covering us. Mrs Baudinet warned us that there were ginormous holes that could go for 100’s and 100’s of metres… SCARY!!!!!!! She told us to keep clear of the holes because we didn’t want anyone to get lost. So we set off. We walked quickly towards our first cave. We thought at the start that it was going to be just one big cave, but it was just going to be about 6 little caves. After a few slips and slides, we made it to ladder, a big long, shaky ladder. I clambered down nervously, carefully placing my feet and hands of every slippery rail. As the rest of the kids made it down the ladder, my dad had to go up the next cave, to see where it lead to. After a while we saw him again, ages away from us! He was at the top of the cave. Boy, it looked steep! I was about the 3rd child to go into that cave. As soon as I got in there, I was freaked out. The slimy rock walls towered around you as you climbed upwards on the muddy steep ground. Just before you got out of the spooky cave, my dad and Mrs Baudinet were there to help you get up a very hard bit. You had to stretch your leg right up. When I had got up past that, I went up to the opening where you could see a bright light shining through. I stepped outside, but couldn’t see anyone. I gulped. I yelled back down the cave to my dad and said that I wasn’t sure I went the right way out, but then Mrs Baudinet said that there was only one way out. So I looked around for a bit, and then I saw Angus behind a tall tree. I went over there and asked if this was the right way to come, and said it was. So I pulled back the tree and there I saw Mr Etheridge, Charlotte, and Alannah. I sighed in relief as I walked over to them. They then showed me the view that you got. It wasn’t really a view, but you could see all the kids and adults waiting in line to go up the cave. I yelled out hi to Amelia and she waved back. We then had to wait for AGES for everyone else to come up the dark cave. After what seemed like hours, Mrs Baudinet came back to the front of the line to keep on leading us. We trudged carefully along the mud filled track until we finally made it back to the cars. We took off our shoes and everyone put theirs in the back of Marks Ute. Finn, Harry and Amelia, who were in my car, came back to our car once we had got a Freddo frog. We sat in the car, exhausted as we munched on our chocolate frog. As soon as we arrived back at camp, I raced back to the girls dorm, and plonked myself onto my top bunk. I felt like going to sleep, but I was so hungry! After about n hour of ‘chillaxing’ We were all called down to the dining room for dinner. I ravenously ate one hamburger, but then I felt full and a bit sick.  S after pudding and a few quizzes in our teams, all the children went off to bed. I lay there for a while, and then nodded off to sleep.

9. Thursday I woke up very early the next morning. My eyelids drooped back down over my eyes, but I couldn’t get back to sleep. The sound of snoring rang in my ears. I leaned over to Amelia, but she wasn’t snoring. I also leaned over to Monica, but she wasn’t either. So I lay there, quietly, just thinking about the day ahead. After a while everyone started to finally wake up, and everyone started to play card games or just talk. Around 20 minutes later we all got up and got dressed and ready for the day. When we had tidied our dorms we went into the dining room for breakfast. Today we were going on 2 much easier walks, and they weren't going to be very long either. We were going to be going to see the Papakorito Falls. We got into our cars once everyone had packed their day packs. When we arrived at the start of our next 2 walks, we all got out of the cars and we got into our groups. Today Miles was leading the way, because Mrs Baudinet had gone home. So the order of the groups went : Group 3, Group 1, Group 2, Group 4 and then Group 5. So we set off. As we walked along a wide track, you could hear water rushing. On the way we passed 2 different Weta houses, but there weren't any Weta’s inside them. We stopped at a toilet for people that wanted to go toilet. It was very weird just having a portaloo like toilet just kind of sitting there off to the side of the track. After 5 minutes more of walking, we got to a hut, right next to the lake. There we ate our morning tea in the hut. When we had finished, we went back on the track the same way we had come. It was a fairly easy walk, so when we got back we weren’t very tired, which was good because we still had another walk to do. We then went on our second walk, which was where we saw priceless views of some very beautiful waterfalls. When we got back we got back from that walk we all sat on this large wooden trailer, that the adults said weighed more than 50 tonnes and it could carry up to 20 tonnes, and on it we ate our lunch. When people ha finished, we went to a public toilet. It was good to go on a real toilet, because, I DO NOT PEE IN A BUSH.

10. Thursday After our late lunch, we all got given a lollipop to have on the car ride back to camp. So we got into the cars and sucked on our lollipops as we drove back to camp. When we arrived back Mr Crawford asked for any kids who wanted to do the Confidence course. I couldn’t do it because I had hurt my ankle, but I went along to watch. Mr Crawford asked me to record the times. After each group had finished, I had to work out the average time for each group, because the groups weren’t even. After that we all went down to the fires, beside the courts, and we got ready for our cookouts. I had brought the tomato paste to add to the mince, Joel had brought some Raro mixture to add to our water to make juice, and Aaron had brought along some Doritos's, even though we were being given some nacho chips already. Aimee and Brandan didn’t bring anything, because we didn’t think we needed anything else. So we cooked our mince over our little camp fire, and then we added our tomato paste. A little while after, we were sitting in a circle, munching on our delicious nachos After everyone had finished eating, we all got into our group and we had to practise our act for the talent show. My group, Kakapo, we had decided to sing a song. Firstly the girls sang a song that we had re-written to the tune of the National anthem. Then the boys did a rap. After everyone had practised, we had a challenge. We had to make an aeroplane out of our group. It was really fun! After we had roasted marshmallows, we walked back to camp. When we got back we had chocolate pudding for dessert. YUM!! As I lay in bed that very late night, after watching all the performances for the talent show, I wasn’t sure I wanted to leave.

11. Friday Waking on Friday, we all played games and talked, quite loudly. We were allowed to stay in bed until 7:50am!!!! YAY! We got up and got dressed, packed our things and tidied our dorms. Then we had our very last breakfast. The parents had to tidy up the camp a bit, like my dad had to clean the toilets  We all got into our cars, but Amelia, Harry, Finn and I were the last to leave because my dad was still cleaning. After few stops for a chip buttie lunch and an ice-block, we finally made it back to school. It was one of the best experiences in my life and if I could go to a camp like that again, I definitely would. It was tiring, but so much fun!

12. By Sophie St Clair ©