Kiwi School Camps

I've always enjoyed residential trips. It's good to see the kids in a different light and trying out new things. The best thing, though, is not having to do any classroom planning or marking! After being on some great trips, I have a selection of interesting memories: kids falling into the Grand Union Canal, kids swallowing minibeasts through filterless pooters, kids injuring themselves doing imaginary skate jumps down slopes, etc. Therefore, during my interview, when I said I would be happy to go on school camp, I presumed that it would be similar to the ones I had been on in Britain. Ones where you have your own room, food is cooked for you and transport is organized. Perhaps, I should have realised that it would be different here as it is called a 'school camp'.

My first surprise, was that on the first day of term (an inset day) I discovered that my class would be going on camp during Week 5. That's inconvenient, I thought, but not a big problem. It meant that upon returning home on the Friday, I would immediately be driving over to Hokitika, on the west coast, for the Wild Foods Festival weekend.

The next surprise was that we were actually sleeping under canvas. Still, that was not a big deal as I enjoy camping and its back to nature aspects (dodgy hygiene, sleeping in a tent amongst trodden in leaves and grass, etc.).

We would also be taking all the food and equipment we needed with us. I was told that years ago teachers had to budget for this and organize it. Thankfully, the food is now taken care of by the cookery teacher and all camp equipment lives in a school trailer.

The biggest surprise was that we would not be travelling by coach, but that I would be organizing parents to transport us in their cars. I also needed to ensure that we had trailers to take the food and gear. Okay, I thought that’s a hassle but I can deal with that. It was whilst organizing the transport and ensuring all the other administrative tasks were done (medical forms & lists, permission slips, etc.) that I really appreciated how many non-teaching tasks, in Britain, are done for us. I must have spent hours doing all those things so I am sending a belated thank you to all the secretaries and classroom assistants that have done that for me in the past.

Our camp is at the head of the bay

Purau Bay camp is in a lovely waterside location just a 45-60 minute drive from the school. It is actually a camp/caravan site that is open to the public. We were allocated the corner of the campsite furthest from the owner’s house and away from the public.

Lots of cricket was played during free time

Luckily we had beautiful, sunny, warm weather for our kayaking, climbing and other activities. The kids had a great time but I was not so pleased with their first night nocturnal activities. I must have been awoken at least five times by chatter and the sound of foot steps pattering around the camp. I was less than pleased and just bellowed from my tent which only served to wake up the rest of the camp!

Off climbing to the rocks that can be seen in the picture

On the final day, I made sure that all the tents were taken down early and bags packed promptly, so that after our final activity we would get away on time. We made it back to school safely and on time so that I was able to make a quick getaway to Hokitika for the Wild Foods Festival (read about that trip soon). All in all it was an enjoyable and successful camp.