A few weeks ago my class went to Bridge Valley in Nelson for camp.
On the first day, we had to be at school at 7:15. I knew I was in for four hours of loud driving. My car was driven by Miss Farr, and in it was Jacob, Max, Gaby, Emma, Tahlia, Grace, Calais, Miro H, and Lucy. There was a lot of singing, especially from Calais and Grace. We also stopped in Murchison for a break.
When we got to Bridge Valley, we ate some lunch and got straight into the activities.
We were put into teams. My team, team 2, did orienteering first. The map didn't help us at all because the clues were wrong.
Next, we did team rescue, where we had to get everyone and a wooden stretcher around a course without touching the ground.
Once everyone was finished, we did lots of different challenges against the other teams, like frisbee golf and an obstacle course.
Water time was the best. It was also freezing. There was a big black slide that made you go super fast. Once you get in the water, it's so cold you can't breathe.
After eating a dinner of undercooked pasta and a game of spotlight we settled down to bed. I was in the year 7 girls cabin. As usual, Grace and Calais were the loudest and kept us awake.
Day two
We had to get up early at 7:30 for breakfast.
Our first activity that day was the Burma Trail. There was one part to it that went over the pond and Lucy almost fell in!
The next activity was the best: Laser Tag! In our games, there was a box that you had to shoot, and it would flash your colour. Whoever kept it their colour for the longest won. There was also a perk box that if you pressed a button you got a perk, like one-shot kills or shields.
There were two teams and three games, overall Alpha (The opposing team) won.
Then we did Low Ropes. You had to balance on rope bridges and mini tight-ropes.
When we had finished that we went on to Team Initiative. Team initiative had lots of different challenges to do in a team, like balancing the GIANT SEESAW or climb a rope to get to different items.
Team initiative was one of my favourite activities.
Day Three
Day three's first activity was fire and damper. We had to make a fire in a wheelbarrow, put the uncooked damper on a stick, and cooked it over the fire. Once it was cooked we sprinkled it with cinnamon and ate it. we found another secret way of eating it: before we put the damper over the fire, we licked the damper and then sprinkled the cinnamon on. It was delicious!
Next was Abseiling, which was terrifying. We also had to get through a maze to get to the top, and I kept bumping my head on the roof.
Another one of my favourite activities was kayaking. We had races and even tried to stand up on our boats!
Slade started trying to ram us and knock us off our kayaks, so we declared war in him. Lucy was the first to fall out, and then Slade. Slade got onto my kayak and rocked it until I fell out! I jumped out of the pond and watched Tahlia and Emily get pushed out until it was time for archery.
Archery was okay. Somebody from the last group had broken some of the arrows and there were only five left. There was always a fight over who would get three or two arrows, the boys or the girls. On my first try, I got the arrow just above the bullseye.
Then Matt told us whoever got a bullseye would get extra dessert! Liam got one, but he didn't get the dessert he was promised.
That night we had a concert. Each group was given a topic and they had to make a performance about it. We got dance, and since we had Tahlia and Emily we were forced to do a Tik Tok. I think our performance was terrible because everyone was just standing around being very confused.
Day four
On day four all we did was play a game called Get Fresh. There were two teams and you had to get the opposite team into your jail. If someone from the other team crossed their line after you, and you have been out longer than them, then they can tag you but you can't, because they are "fresher" than you.
After that, we left. When we got to Murchison, we opened our windows and blasted the song "High Hopes" really loud!
I think this camp was one of the best I've been on, especially considering at my old school I always went cross-country skiing! (Boring).
