Amy Xu's Kaituna Camp Story!

Room 14's camp at Kaituna valley was literally the best out of my 3 camps, first of all the campsite was GREAT and the food was awesome too. If you're interested, please make yourselves comfortable and listen to my amazing camp story.........

It was a cloudy and misty morning when we took off for camp.I waved good-bye to mum and settled my backpacks into Gabrielle's car trunk. I was a bit worried because of the weather, but after a while tiny rays of sunlight began to make their through the thick cloud and I knew it was going to be a fine day.Along the way we spent most of our time chatting or working on our camp booklets that Mrs. Follero handed out.It was a very smooth ride.

Then after ten minuts our car pulled into Halswell Quarry, there we met the park rangers Murray and Vicky. They explained where the quality rocks that we build our houses with came from. Then they lead us on a tour around the quarry and showed us some of the rocks that people used as materials. Vicky mentioned that we had to each carry a rock up the hill so that we'll get to know how it feels to word in a rock mine like this. It was soooooo heavy! OMG! After that they showed us all the National gardens here, there were gardens of China, Korean and Japan.

Finally we arrived at our campsite. As soon as I got out of the car I fell over. That is because we parked our cars on a slope.  It took me some time to get used to the uneven landscape but I still looooooooved room 14's campsite: There was a creek and a swing ball stand. There was also a "Liam swing thing" and the best thing was that our tents were already set up for us! We saw some white, fluffy sheep wondering towards us trying to see what was going on.

On the second we were waken up by the sound of Mr. Rait singing, actually I was already awake because I couldn't sleep last night. Ella and me readied our backpacks then joined the group down at the kitchen. There we filled our drink-bottles and prepared our lunch for a long, tough day. We are going to climb Mt Herbet! Last night we declared our goals about climbing Mt Herbet, my one was to mot groan or moan or whimper to at lest half of the way and to walk with the middle group and not at the back.

The walk began. The trip through Mr and Mrs Depass's land was easy because it was flat land but once we've passed the gates the lands began to slope up steeply. Thorns and sting nettles began to appear in huge bushes even. Even though it was a glorious and sunny day the ground was still wet and covered with mud puddles. I STEPPED INTO ONE!!!! And the worst thing was that it had poo in it. The mud went up to my ankles and I shivered, wondering how will I get it off when I get home. Each step made a sqealching sound as I walked. Every time we had a break Mr. Rait would hand out biscuits to everyone and then we'd be energetic again.

After the Fores Ride our group entered a plain. Since no one destroyed this land, every single grass were the same length and as the wind blew on it, it made a gentle ripple that made the plain look like a sea of glittering gold.Then 2 hours has passed and we still haven't reached the top ,so students began to ask Mr. Rait why we've still not at the top". Sorry but we're  not even on MT Herbet yet!". He remarked loudly.

Finally we came to a half and had lunch. It was a beautiful scenery. The light blue sky with just a hint of puffy clouds and an equally gorgeous landscape to match it. We were up sooooo high that we can actually touch the clouds. After lunch we started off again. This time we entered a maze of prickly bushes. Full of cobwebs! Seriously there were spider webs wrapped tightly around the thorns. One brushed against my cheek! Eew!

After hours of burning in the sun, tripping over and dehydrating, Rm14 has reached the top. There we took pictures and filled our drink bottles.

Man!! Glad that's over! But I still liked the climb a lot!

After we got back to camp, it nearly 3 o clock. There we had a BIG rest and a delicious dinner and dessert. I went for a little swim in the creek to relax my foot muscles a bit more. We also played some games to fire off the time. My favorite one was a game called "Iceberg" It was all about teamwork. As I lay in my sleeping bag, I decided that this was truely the most best and challenging camp ever! I loved it!