Sindy at Camp

Freezing with coldness, I was walking to the hill and on top of the hill was a slide. It had freezing cold ice on the slide, I didn’t go down the slide, so I walked to the bottom of the hill and  just in front of the river was some bamboo, tyre and strings. After listening to the instructions I headed to the building area.It was hard to build but I did do it with my group. My group went last to put our group raft in the water. As we all got ready, we all took a life-jacket and one paddle and off we went sitting on the raft, paddling slowly.
When we stopped  at the end we had to bring the raft back with bare feet on the
freezing cold grass.

By Sindy
Room 8

Camp Activities

Abseiling positives

I was glad that everyone gave it a go no matter what everyone else says.We got to go on the merry go round after each turn.

Rock Climbing positives

I made it up to the top of all the climbing walls.It was good that everyone tried there best



Kayaking negatives

I didn’t like kayaking because people kept crashing into me.Also I didn’t like it was because it was really hard to turn. It was bad because Miss Lister wet me. It was also bad because there was a big rock in the middle of the river.


by Danielle

Crate climbing

Scattered across the auditorium floor were about 15 milk crates. After listening carefully to the instructions I headed into the climbing area. My group agreed to let me go first. So I set off stacking crate by crate. When the crates began to wobble I could hear my team screeching my name repeatedly then the tower collapsed and I swung down screaming in terror.

Hannah P
Room 8

Raft Building

Just as I woke up I remembered excitedly we had Raft Building at 1:20.       
We cooperated building our rafts. It was difficult to think of a design. Then a teammate just randomly imagined it and it worked PERFECTLY.

But one of the negatives was trying to get everyone on board.
We also didn’t row at the same time

so we kept on going in circles.
We also ended up getting stuck.
But at least somebody was there to rescue us.


By Richard
Room 8

Crate climbing

Oh! We rushed across to the auditorium after lunch to do crate climbing. There we had instructions for crate climbing. After the careful instruction, we started to run across to the crates. After we split into two groups, everyone agreed on who would climb first. Everyone waited for the kids to finish the climb. After a few climbs it was my try on the climb now.

It was very not good that when kids had finished their climb they began to say sad things about the climb and wanted to go again. Suddenly, some in the group said I had to go last for some reason and then they began to argue who is going next. We asked the instructor who would go last and she said, “Lets see about the climb first.”
Then we had resolved our problem of the climb.

By Samuel Yan
Room 8

Abseling And Crate Climbing Mania

In front of me I saw an enormous Abseiling tower swirling through the fog. After the instructions we all had the same opinion about who should go first. So off they went, abseiling down to the ground, After cheering for the others, I finally got a chance to abseil. I was extremely happy. First I felt nervous, but as soon as I got up the tower, I didn’t feel nervous at all! As I was leaning backwards, I felt nervous again. When I kept going, I wanted to go down again, but I was already down, at the ground, before I knew it.

There I was, standing in the Auditorium waiting to stack crates. But before I knew it, we were fighting about who should go first. Then an adult chose for us. When it was my turn, when I got 9 crates high I got angry because I fell off. If I didn’t fall off I would have been super duper high.  Then we had another turn, but we fought again. Then Kimberley said ”Harry, you go first! ” . I was still angry for the rest of the Crate Climbing.

Eric

Rm 8

Frozen toes

Early in the morning me and my team were hiking down to the river again. As soon as we got there we started to listen to the instructions. After the instructions my team rushed off to fetch the things to craft the raft but as soon as we were in the water it was freezing and all my toes were frozen.

Right in front of us were two boards for Archery. Yay it was my turn. I swooped up the bow and arrow pulled back and WHOOSH! I hit the  board. I picked up another arrow YES! on the board again. My last arrow BANG! hit the board. Feeling proud I rushed to the back of the line.

Samuel Kirkup
Room 8

Camp Days

Raft building!

Bamboo, rope, doughnut tubes and paddles.
What are we gonna do then suddenly we get the idea. We construct the raft we hobbled down to the river to get in the raft. We paddle as fast as we can while our legs dangle from the raft.




Rock climbing!

AH WEDGIE! ... okay better now, almost there last one no, no, NO. Oh I didn't get to the top, no fair.
Wheeeee! I like coming down from the top. this harness is tight as I flew down I got a wedgie.

by Helaina
Room 8

Krissy at Camp

Will it float?

RAFT BUILDING  was horrible because it was the second frosty morning we had been down at the river.  Someone nearly needed to carry some of the girls in the group as we paddled quickly to the end of the river.  It was a long wet walk back to the pools.

here is Chiara on the abseiling tower.

ABSEILING
We were listening closely and carefully to the abseiling lady. I swiftly sprinted to the top and I happily listened to the people  at the bottom cheering me on.

By Krissy
Room 8

River Teamwork

Kids on a raft

 As my team and I marched down to the river we were filled with excitement in our squishy brains. Wondering to myself,I thought should I work with my mates, Richard Ioka, his cousin Toevai Ioka and one of my BFF Hannah Mead, so I did.Together we all made an excellent team with a awesome raft that floated steadily down to the finish line.


The complication with raft building was we couldn’t  decide in our group what our raft would look like. In the end Toevai had an interesting idea so we used his, and the raft turned out great. Another problem was we couldn’t paddle at the same time, In the freezing cold river. So we sorted it out by saying “paddle” at the same time together.

 Annalia Morton
Room 8

Fear!

I was excited about crate climbing today. Our team walked into the auditorium with a smile on our faces. Then I felt really scared and shaking so I decided that I couldn’t do it. I was scared because it was so high and I don’t like heights.

Megan
Room 8
 

Perseverance at the Rockclimbing Wall

In front of me I saw a wall, a rock climbing wall with lots of rocks and concrete. After listening to the instructions a few of my team members went, then they agreed it was my go. I started to struggle but Mork came to help me up. I said to Mork I can’t further so he let me down. A few minutes later Mork told me to come and try again but this time he helped me up as far as I could go. A few steps up my knee clicked. I ignored it and kept going. I went as far as I could which was not that far up.
Gary Brandli
Room8

Camp Adventures!

Hydroslide

The enormous drop loomed ahead of me, as I zoomed down the hydroslide at Totara Springs. Warm water pushed me forward, as I slid down the humungous,breathtaking drop. My friends screamed encouragement as I turned the last corner.SPLASH!. I landed in a pool of hot water, and chortled as my friends followed in my wake. I was proud of myself for conquering the hydroslide, and it was an experience I’ll never forget.



RAFT BUILDING
Feet frozen, I stood and listened to the instructions for raft building. South Africa, my team, began to use the black rubber tubes and long rope to build a working raft. Diligently,we carried our raft down to the icy water. We resolved our argument by taking turns and rowing together. Eventually, we arrived at the sandy bank. Grabbing our broken raft,we ran back to the cold, shady area. We managed to get away with a time of 12:25.

By Katelyn Varga
Room 8

Crate-Climbing Experiences

Our team quickly strode to the auditorium with excitement . I jogged in and in front of me were a lot of red and green crates. Confused I stared at them. The crates looked so breakable that I was about to fling myself out of the auditorium. After listening to the instructions carefully, our team decided and agreed on, me to go first. So off I headed to the crate-climbing area. Crate after crate, I climbed higher and higher. My team strongly encouraged me and gave me some of their most astonishing experiences. At the maximum point, the crates wobbled and swiftly collapsed to the hard, wooden floor. I  loudly screamed out with terror of frights. I bravely swung down to the hard, wooden floor. My team cheered me up.

During crate-climbing, our team argued with loud screamy voices. The conflict was extremely disagreeable that I got absolutely annoyed with it. Suddenly “STOP!” shouted Sumeet. Our group stopped with a quick fright. Our loud screamy voices lowered down to small whispery voices. Our group communicated with Sumeet, we talked to each other and the problem got fixed. The crates looked so breakable that my mind slowly filled with fears. I got absolutely shocked. My brain quickly flew away and I felt sleepy, really sleepy. The other part that astonished me was I only did nine crates.
By Terry Shen Room 8

From a French Perspective Day 2

Bonjour mes ami... 

Today I woke up feeling bright and early. I first got into my clothes remembering about kitchen duty. So I got up and walked to the kitchen with my group. I had to put out jugs of milo and milk. Then when it came time to eat I had to serve yay. After breakfast I had archery. I was excited but it turned out I didn’t like it because it was hard to hold onto the bow. After archery I came in for morning tea. I then had abseiling. I had a turn and I decided to look down and I freaked out. It was hard at first but then I got the hang of it. After abseiling I had lunch then go karts. At the go karts I was feeling excited and ready. When it came to my turn I wanted to show what girls are made of by…

turning my engine on, accelerating and skidding round corners.

And now here I am  diary writing. That’s what I have done today.

                                        By  Annalia, la mademoiselle francais

Challenging Yourselves

At Howick Primary School Camp 2012 we learnt to challenge ourselves.  Some ways we did this was to try new things and just give it a go you never know until you try.

If you try .... anything's possible, like in raft building  - if you try you can build the best raft ever in the history of building rafts.

So challenging yourself means to set yourself a goal and  if you do complete this challenge be proud and you will feel good.   From the beginning kids from Howick Primary School said "I can't do it!" but a little birdy (Mork) said "You can do it!"

We used kidpix to create images of us challenging ourselves at camp.

by Amy J & Alex

Thank You Parents

Kia Ora  everyone,

We are here to say a huge thank you to all the amazing parents who went to camp [ Totara Springs ] with us big seniors.  Thank you for being at our side and rescuing us from heaps of terrifying activities and encouraging us to do our best when we are about to do something scary.   Thanks for being our cabin caretakers, showing us around and telling us what to do.

We appreciated how you showed us interesting things, what they are used for and how to use them like kayaking, archery, slug shooting and abseiling.   Thanks for guiding us through the ups and downs and the times we said "I can't do it!!"...   You said to us "There's no such thing as can't".  Thanks for giving us gold, silver and bronze medals when we worked together in our groups at the activities.

We really appreciated your help and generosity to come to camp with us and we hope we see you again next time. 

By Hannah and Kaitlin

Room 6

More Camp To Come ....

Thanks everyone for the positive comments and feedback we received from everyone while we were away at Totara Springs, we really appreciated it.

Please keep on visiting our camp blog over the next few weeks as the year 5 and 6 students continue to add their camp experiences and learning to it.

We have lots more images and videos of everyone in action .....

Thanks
Mrs Pittaway

Raft Building in the Fog

Australia was our last group to experience the early morning challenge of raft building but instead of white icy grass they were greeted with the "fog" that was going to stay with us all day.

This is enough of a challenge to have to create your own raft and float it down the freezing cold river, but add to that the last day of camp, over-tired bodies that are not used to experiencing three very physical days .... spirits were a little low for some. 

This was not going to stop Australia from achieve "Gold" medals for all 4 success criteria - here are few photos to show you them in action.

Raft Building in the Fog....

All balanced carefully and about to head off!!!

Or are they????

Add caption

"Our raft!!!"

No that's called determination - off to catch the raft and sole paddle ....

Warming up in the pool after raft building

Day 4 - Last Morning

Last morning of camp and we have woken up to a blanket of fog over Totara Springs so added a different feel to our camp.

Didn’t stop of our boys from there usual 5.00am wake-up – those Dads deserve a gold medal!!!

Just  a few shots of this morning take note of the boys cabins – lots and lots of happy noise, outside playing handball …..

Girls cabin – lights on, no-one to be found – are they up????

Fog does not dampen a game of handball!!!

Who's that peeping from around the corner!!!!

Girls cabins - not a soul in sight!!

Pea Soup

More pea soup!!!

Day 3 - Group Highlights

Slideshows to follow - photos are uploading all takes a little while when you are away from the big smoke!!!!














 

 









 

Day 3 - Camp Highlights

Everyone was pretty relaxed today, knew where to go and were well prepared for the challenges.  We were really lucky to have a Mrs Callister come and visit us for the day and watch us all in action ...

This is all the crew before we set off for our afternoon activity. Notice the tree, just like our blog background.

EVERYONE!!!!

Day 3 - Camp Highlights on PhotoPeach

Day 3 - Diary Writing - England

Hi diary!

“Owww!” My feet are freezing, and my nose is RED! We had to go raft building first thing in the morning. And my feet were REALLY numb - but we still did it. When you stepped on the frosty grass, your heart beats faster then ever!! There’s frozen ice on the grass, and the grass doesn’t even look green, it’s as white as fluffy sheep wool!! I couldn’t believe my eyes!

When we had made our rafts, we got it into the water then we hopped into our raft. My brain froze! I couldn’t do any thing, but paddle. I could hear the parents on the side trumpeting loudly and cheering for us. That’s when we felt so confident, so I told my group not to worry and keep paddling.

We made it to the end!  Hooray!

Our next activity was archery, it was so… fun.    I got a bull’s eye but it bounced off. I was devastated!  At least I some of the rest of the team got some bull’s eyes!

Well I have to go diary off to the hydroslide!

CATCH  YA  LATER!

TALIA - ENGLAND!

Day 3 - Totara Springs

A repeat of day 1 and 2 – thank you !!!!

Off to another brilliant start, Mr Morton is doing an amazing job with our “grace” before all meals, just finished morning tea in the sun and off to our 2^nd activity for the day.  Our raft builders and kayakers all deserve gold medals for braving the yet again icy conditions down at the river.

Day Two - Camp Highlights

There are sooooo many highlights to choose from but here are just a few ....


Day 2 - Camp Highlights on PhotoPeach

Stars and Stripes

USA we are so... excited for camp. We are going to try our very best to win the gold medals and to win the prizes.   Our activity groups are based on the 2012 Olympics GO USA !!!!!

Hannah, Kadison, Nida, Mykie, Gary, Alex, Najae, Joel, Alex, Danielle and Estrella

GO ENGLAND GO! GO ENGLAND GO!

Our WONDERFUL group is so... EXCITED about camp!

We are crossing our fingers and hoping the week will go well.  We hope you like our pictures.  Our camp is based on the 2012 Olympics, so our group will have a red cross on our hands, representing E N G L A N D ! We will try our very best, to do what we have been learning from the teachers over the past few weeks! And we'll most importantly have FUN!!

GO ENGLAND GO! GO ENGLAND GO!
Talia,  Melissa, Krissy, Dillan, Jacob, Samuel, Baxter, Kalani, Silvie, Alyse and Karen

Raft Building, Kayaking, Abseiling

We have been thoroughly spoilt rotten with the amazing weather today.  This started off pretty brisk for our kayakers and raft builders down at the back of the camping ground where the sun does not arrive until midday.  Fortunately for the activity groups in the afternoon the day could not have been better!!!

Lots of challenges today, initial reluctance at the abseiling tower and after one or two had a go the rest followed like sheep.  The smiles as their feet landed made it all the worth while.

Raft building was an problem solvers dream - rubber rings, rope, bamboo and lots of kiwi ingenuity resulted in some pretty amazing vessels float down the chilly river.  

Dinner is being served - so time to log off ....

Day 2 - Raft Building - South Africa on PhotoPeach Abseiling - New Zealand Day 2 on PhotoPeach Day 2 - Kayaking - New Zealand on PhotoPeach

Day 1 - Diary Writing

Today was okay but we had to driver here, so that was abit of a bore, but it’s really cool to see Totara Springs.  It’s 3.45pm and we’re supposed to be on free time.

I’m going on the HYDROSLIDE in free time and in the HOT POOLS…

I can’t wait for tomorrow because are going GO-KARTING!!!

By Jemma B

New Zealand

This morning my mum and I arrived at school with my bags and we put them on the bus.  My mum said goodbye to me and we left for camp.

It was a 2 ½ hour drive but I really enjoyed it.  Finally we got into our cabin.  Next we had a tour around the whole of the camp ground.  It looked amazing.  We’re going to have dinner soon and I can’t wait for tomorrow.

By Sophie d

China

Free time Day 1 and 2

Free time is the best at Totara Springs - have a look at our hydroslide, slide show .....
Freetime Day 1 and 2 on PhotoPeach

Day 2 - Diary Time - Australia

Today I was so tired because I stayed up to 1am and woke up at 6 am…. I just couldn’t sleep I was soooo excited for the next day.

This morning my group and I “Australia” went to absailing -  it was freaky, I was so scared and nervous to go on.  First my friends went on then finally it was my turn, I started walking up the steers, before I knew it I was at the top, I was so high… then I looked at the man it was my turn.

The man told me simple steps about how to get down the wall, so I listened to him, I started leaning.   He told me to take a step, I did then I fell against the wall.  He helped me up and I started again.   The harness felt really tight around my waist and when I started to move of the top of the tower it felt quite sore.

Jumping Jack in Action

My group called me “Jumping Jack” because as I got to the end of started pushing my legs against the wood and jumping backward and forwards.

It was really pleased with myself and glad that I had taken a risk it made me feel really brave – I couldn’t believe I did it!!!!!

From

Jack R

Room 7