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Last Wednesday-Friday, Jess and I were able to help lead Year 6 Camp, a huge tradition in New Zealand. Tirimoana's students get bused to a local camp and stay there for 3 days and 2 nights during the school week, with parents and teachers chaperoning. It's a camp similar to summer camps in the U.S., complete with cabins, a huge green space and bush (forest), big buildings, full time camp employees/counselors, and lots of things to do for free time.
There were many activities to keep the kids busy in their activity groups (about 8-10 kids) throughout the 3 days--ziplining, air rifles, canoeing, raft building, a confidence course, survival skills, outdoor cooking, rock climbing, slip and sliding (I absolutely partook in that), paint wars, archery, building an old fashioned go-kart, swimming in the water hole... and the list goes on.
Jess and I got our own cabin room which was awesome! Besides being woken up at 6am by some excited and disruptive little boys next to us one morning... it was a WONDERFUL time. The parents that chaperoned were awesome and really fun to get to know, and they helped us have our full 'camp' experience.
Throughout camp, I helped facilitate several activities like crate stacking, where students were harnessed up (similar to rock climbing), and had to stack a stackable plastic crate to go higher and higher, with the ultimate goal of touching the ceiling. It was awesome to watch!! Some kids got all the way to the top, stacking 17 or 18 crates. I also helped with the confidence course, which was similar to like a ninja warrior course of many different physically and mentally difficult tasks. Seeing students overcoming fears and gaining confidence was an incredible honor! All of the kids I worked with finished all or most of the confidence course, and you could clearly see how proud they were of themselves at the end.
I also got to be a part of the 'Burma Trail,' a HUGE NZ tradition. It's basically like a haunted trail, with parents and teachers hiding right off the rope trail ready to scare students. It was so hilarious--the kids look forward to this for months leading up to camp and it's a big right of passage for Kiwis. Most of them really enjoyed it, and then they also had a group led by a teacher that was a 'no scare' time where nervous students could use a torch (flashlight) and go through the trail to still experience it.
There were 2 all group activities as well--Rainbow Tag and the Amazing Race. During Rainbow Tag, students had to run around and get their hand painted with 6 different colored face paints, but all the painters were hidden (I was white paint)! There were adults also running around with wet smudges, wiping off all their paint progress, causing them to have to go back to all the paint people again. During the Amazing Race, students ran around camp in their activity groups with clues, having to find different stations and things to accomplish throughout the camp area. Some of which included a student rock climbing blindfolded, swimming across the water hole, eating an onion!, making free throws in the gym, along with several other things. I helped with the blind folded rock climbing and it was crazy! There were some pretty determined kids!
During the final night of camp, there was a camp skit in which Jess and I were the 'arms' of 2 Year 6 teachers!! It was HILARIOUS. We pretended to get the teachers ready for school by feeding them milk and cereal and applying sunscreen and brushing their teeth. The students and parents (along with the audience who visited) were not aware any teachers were performing a skit, so it was really fun and exciting.
I don't have many pictures of this weekend, but obviously you can tell it was a great time. I'm so glad I came at this time of year to Tiri so I could go along to camp!
My main gal, Jess, and I with gross boy cabins behind us! ;)
Me and the Breakfast Club, 10 year old boy edition ;) love these guys. They had me try Marmite, very similar to Vegemite, and it was nasty, haha!!
LOL if this isn't the realest picture ever captured of me, I don't know what is. Pictured here you will find a struggling me at 9:30pm having to sit between a few unruly boys during our camp reflection. GOOD TIMES, FOLKS.
Living our best lives on the confidence course bridge! Man was the confidence course difficult, lol.
That's all for now!