CAMP!

Arriving to school on Tuesday, 13 with all my luggage for camp was tiring, and exciting. Walking through the school gates I was so elevated to be finally going to camp for the first time. Everyone put their bags down in front of the school hall and went inside of the hall. Some of the teachers spoke and then the year 7 and 8 assembled to the bus. As we walked out of the hall we took our bags and put them under the bus. Then we walked onto the bus and were all seated.

The bus ride was very long it took us almost 6 hours to get to Waitangi, although we did take 3 stops so that makes sense. Our first stop was in Whangarei where we took a lunch break and played for a bit. We then were on our way, we drove for about an hour until we stopped in Ruapekapeka, Ruapekapeka is a pa, a maori battlefield with a shattered old cannon. In Ruapekapeka there are a lot of trenches there from when there was war. When we had enough time at Ruapekapeka we left. Our final stop was in Kawakawa where there is a beautiful bathroom there. Then we hopped on the bus and were on our way to Waitangi.

Looking outside of the window driving along Paihia, seeing the beautiful beaches. Once we reached our destination we all were jumping with joy. We all then ran out of the bus and were so excited. We then played on the massive field of waitangi which was awesome. Then we walked to the front of the marae and waited to be welcomed by a lady who took care of the wonderful marae. Once the lady gave a beautiful welcoming we took our shoes off and entered the marae. Then a man, Ti Tiki Wiko said a speech, he told us a bit about himself too. Then Mr Nath, a teacher from our school represented us by saying a few words in his language, Fijian. Once that was all done we walked to the Whare Kai - Kitchen - and they had prepared some snacks for us to eat.

The next day we all woke up happy. We had our breakfast and had gotten changed into our casual clothes. Once we all were finished getting ready we packed our lunch and assembled to the front of the maarae. Everyone was so excited to be going on an adventure to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. Once all of us were ready we started to walk - because the treaty grounds weren't so far away from where we were staying -. Finally we reached our destination the treaty grounds. As we walked with a man who was our tour guide we saw a beautiful waka called the Ngatokimatawhaorua which the queen of England calls HMS - Her Majesty's Ship -. We were then welcomed by a lady and man. We then wandered around the place and saw amazing stuff. We visited the Busby Residence, and the Maori Meeting house across from it. I had learn’t a lot about the treaty of waitangi when we visited those awesome places. When we came back from the treaty grounds we had half an hour to play out of the field then have a shower, eat dinner then bed time.

On Friday we went Kayaking. We were all split up in two groups. 1 group was the first group to be going kayaking and the 2nd group was the group that was riding on the boat. I was in the 2nd group so I was on the boat. We went on the boat until we came too Haruru falls then swapped around. Group 1 went in the boat and group 2 went on the kayaks. Kayaking was very fun also very tiring. You had to yous a lot of muscle to row. My partner I went kayaking with was my friend Manuae. We flipped the boat numerous of times, but at the end of the day we got the hang of kayaking. It was a very fun experience and I wish to go back there one day. When we came back to the Marae we had done our daily routine and then headed off to bed.

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early, everyone was so sad because it was our last day there in Waitangi. We packed our clothes and then packed away our beds. Everybody helped to clean up the marae. Students were sent out to clean up the field of the marae. Everyone took the luggage and placed them on the ground next to the bus. Our bus driver then packed it into the bus while everyone was helping to clean. Then we got into the bus and were off.

Our journey back to Auckland had just began! On our way to Auckland we made 3 stops. On the bus our awesome bus driver had played the avatar movie so we could watch it on our way back home. Camp was a very fun and exciting journey for me. I had so much fun, and as Miss Elia said, camp was a trip of a lifetime for me.

                                                       THE END!