Montana's Camp recount

Glentui Camp 2012 

I was uncertain, whether or not I had packed the right gear or not as I walked through the school gates. Did I have a torch? What about long pyjama pants? I knew I’d double checked numerous times. But inside, I wasn’t so sure anymore.

To me my bag looked monstrous and it was bulky and heavy too. I started worrying that I’d over-packed. In my eyes, it looked like a hippopotamus. I was so eager to find out and have a look to see what my bag compared to others, that when I got through the school gates, I trampled and heaved my bag around the last corner… to my surprise it seemed I didn’t have the largest bag after all. There were suitcases, four or five backpacks to a person; we were only going to Glentui Camp for 4 days weren’t we? ‘Ah well’ I thought. My problem solved.

After numerous and detailed directions were given to the transporting parents, we were on our way. Car boots were loaded to the top and trailers stacked so high it looked like some bags were going to fall off any second and we were finally moving. I reckon we were all thinking the same thing, FINALLY!       

I was in Kaylee’s mum’s (Suzi) car with my brother and a couple of other people. And the whole way there, it was pretty loud! We had the Glee CD pumping over the speakers (which my brother, did not enjoy!) and there was hysterical laughter coming from somewhere in the back seat.

As soon as we managed to get to the end of the – what seemed to be never ending – gravel road, we arrived at the ‘BASE-CAMP!’ And once again, all the bags were lined up, the pillows were out, we marched into the dining hall to wait for one more trailer to arrive.

I have to say one thing about the cabin I was in. It was called by my dad, the ‘Trouble’ cabin. Eight girls and all of us loud! It didn’t take us long to finish scrabbling over bunk beds, organizing shelves, and bossing each other around, and soon, we all assembled into the common room, for morning tea. Although, I had one slight problem, I’d forgotten my lunch, so I settled with a KitKat which I’d originally packed for one of our ‘Mid-night feasts!’ I also managed to grab some of my brother’s snacks to keep me going during the rest of the day.

Everyone was split into four groups, I was in group two. The first thing that we did was Initiative games with Mrs. Black. One game we  played was called ‘Shoeing the Horse.’ To play, there were basically two people that were blindfolded and had to crawl around on the floor looking for plastic cups. Then place one cup under each four chair legs first to win! I played against Freya, we bumped into each other a lot, I had a sore forehead by the end of it, but I still won all the rounds that I played.

Abseiling down a not large, but sheer cliff, does that sound like your cup of tea? It’s what we did while we were there. It was our second rotation, and we were all eager to get there, harness up, and prepare for what was going to be one of the highlights or our camp. It was about 3 or 4 meters high, the cliff, and the instructor Naomi, looked after us the whole time. Slowly, my group, one by one, loosened and lowered ourselves down the face of the grey rock. We had to stop for a split second for a photo, carry on, try not to absolutely lose it and let go of the rope in fright. You had to hold yourself together. Face your fears. And that’s exactly what I love doing. As I reached the bottom, smile sweeping across my face, I let out a massive sigh of relief. I’d done it!

The owners of Glentui Camp, Jarn and Gea were from the Netherlands, and they were both extraordinary cooks. On the first night for tea we had pasta; it was absolutely, unbelievably DE-LIC-OUS. For our lunches, Jarn, made the best tasting bun, that I’ve EVER tasted, and best of all, we got to fill them up with whatever we wanted from the selection. For breakfast, we got the choice or cereal or toast, but for me, BOTH!

The second day wasn’t as nice for me as the first day was, I had caught a small cold from jumping into the pool with my friends, which happened to be only 15°
I must admit it wasn’t one of our smartest or brightest ideas.

On day two, our group was doing river study first, just the feeling of the icy water rippling over my feet sent chills of excitement though my spine. I decided to wear jandals down at the river, the idea of having soaking wet sneakers for the rest of our time at camp didn’t appeal to me very much.

Down at the river the water looked so fresh, cool, and clear. ‘Fresh off the Mountain’ as the woman from DOC (Department of Conservation) liked to say. We did lots of things while we were there, we splashed around in the water looking for things like flies, worms, larvae, the more species your found, the more healthier it meant the water was. Towards the end, no one had gotten soaked, only our legs were wet. Until … yes … you’ve got it, someone fell in, and that someone was Olivia. The story involves one slippery rock, and SPLASH! Olivia went in head first.

By the time we got back up the 150 steps, that lead you from the camp and the fields, my lips were blue, and I couldn’t feel my toes, all I wanted was a pair of dry socks. I eventually got my wish, of dry socks, and the feeling in my toes sloooowwwly came back. For morning tea I golfed down a couple of biscuits, slapped on more piles of sunblock, and sprayed myself until the room stunk, with insect repellent, and then slowly, my group and I made our way back down the 150 steps leading to the bottom fields where we did Outdoor Cooking with Mr. Barr.  Freya and I built and lit our own fire, and managed to make 6 pancakes which we ate with blackberries that we’d picked from some blackberry bushes!

I’m pretty sure everyone became more fit those four days, walking up and down and up and down those 150 steps every single day; I was pretty fit by the end of it all. Our last rotation required no physical stuff whatsoever, apart from using your eyes and hands to sketch out our beautiful scenery and surroundings, with Mrs. Mac. For tea that night, we had chicken, vegetables, and potato, wedges and they were homemade! I got thirds on that meal!

Our sleep that night on the second night was better than the first, we were all tired so after the giggling was finished and the lights were off, we could hear snoring next door. Everyone was asleep. So we decided that we should try that too.

Rain. Rain. Rain. The word was dreaded. It had started raining that night, and now there were showers happening on and off. The reason, that it was so bad that it was raining that day, was because we, the fit and ‘brave’ ones, were supposed to be going on a 6 hour trek up Mount. Richardson. Around 10am a decision was made that if we were to go on the Trek, it would be wet, and miserable, and just plain dangerous. BUT – Jarn, the owner of the camp, knew a track that went half way up Mount. Richardson and the track only took him 3 hours to do. When the rain got lighter, they decided that we could do that track and the rest of the syndicate could do the loop track.

The walk was steep, and extremely muddy, we were up to our knees in the mud sometimes. But we chose to be – we walked right through it, by option. It was hilarious. It didn’t rain, though it was spitting sometimes, but it was nice actually, because we were all overheating, from exhaustion and the fact that we’d all worn ‘warm’ clothes. The trek was only supposed to take 3 hours. But it started to go over time. And at 4 hours, we were getting impatient. “How much longer till we get to the bottom?” the question was asked over and over again. By the time we could see the end of the track, it had been 5 and a half hours! We were so desperate to get back; most of us sprinted down the muddy slope – leading to the bottom. We were VICTORIOUS. There was a massive feeling of accomplishment in all of us.

Pranks. The last night on Merrin’s Year 7 and 8’s camps, is known for the pranks. Kids bring permanent markers, silly string, water balloons, you name it, you’re probably going to get pranked with it. Even the teachers join in sometimes, and you wake up with weird drawings and writing on your face, and most likely drawn by the guilty Mr. Barr. Our cabin didn’t have a lot going for us, all we had was a half empty can of silly string that I’d brought. We stayed up till 12.00am but half of the girls feel asleep leaving Tal, Freya, Emma and I still wide awake. We sat up looking at our watches, staring out our half open (so we could listen for noises) window… and eventually Freya fell asleep, snoring. Which meant it was hard to listen and hear noises from outside. So at 2.00am we decided to call it a night.

“Tal?” I whispered. She sat up, squinting at me, half asleep still. It was 7.00am, there didn’t appear to be any strange marks or drawings on her face. 1 girl down, 7 of us to go. “Is there anything on my face?” I whispered.
She looked carefully, at my face now; I watched her eyes move around as she studied my face as she stared at me. Then she shook her head. “No”
Phew. As time went on one by one, the rest of the girls woke up, we carefully looked at everyone of our faces, no one had been drawn on. We decided that, that was a let down. We were kind of hoping that someone would get pranked. We could hear the cabins next door. People were talking about how they hadn’t gotten pranked either. So that’s when we came up with our idea.

We figured it would be hilarious if we drew on our own faces, and pretend that we got pranked, then go out to breakfast like that. We would be that talk of the camp. Kaylee grabbed a blue highlighter from her pencil case, and Freya was our first ‘Target!’ I wrote ‘I <3 MR BARR’ on her forehead, and gave her a beard. Emma drew a big swirly mustache on me. I gave Melissa Harry Potter glasses and a Harry Potter scar on her forehead. Tal and Zia had beards and we wrote I <3 and then two arrows pointing to whoever was next to her, on Emma’s forehead. We did the same with Sophie, except she had a beard too. Kaylee was left unmarked, simply because she didn’t want to get drawn on and so that people would blame her, not come up with the conclusion that it was us. 

We emerged from our cabin, playing along with our game saying things like ‘Oh my gosh, someone drew on us! I’m gonna kill them if we find out who they are!’ And everyone believed us. Some people were blaming Mr. Barr because of what it said on Freya’s forehead. The syndicate was buzzing because of what we had on our face. Our little joke managed to stay the whole day until we’d told too many people and it had gone around. Bummer. It was hilarious to see the boys faces when the saw us.

Bags packed once again and the bunkrooms were clean once again. It was time to go. I was in Kaylee’s mum’s car once again. This meant GLEE! I think my brother was happy that he didn’t have to sit in a car playing Glee for a second time. Kaylee’s mum even stopped and bought us icecreams! And with the blink of an eye we were pulling up the Merrin driveway once again. Home.

My camp experience was one I will never forget. Being my last year at Merrin, it’s one I’m going to remember forever. I had an AMAZING experience, the best time with my friends and I got to do so many things I’ve never done to do before. I would definitely do it all over again.

Abseiling

By Montana-Rose Parry