Lindsay goes to El Rancho Camp

Lindsay had the good fortune to go to school camp in early November with her year 5 and 6 classes from Carlton School.  The camp was near Wellington, the capital city of NZ, about 2.5 hours from Wanganui.  Quite an experience...and here it is in her own words...

You make sound like such a big deal, Dad. Quite the intro. Little too many periods for my taste, however. Oh, yeah. I'm supposed to write about the camp? Here goes.

So, my school sends the year 5 and 6 kids to a camp somewhere on the North Island (only on the North one, bit of a bummer when I found out) close to Wanganui.  This year, everyone went to a camp called El Rancho. So, Mexican, right? But when they cooked "Mexican food" on the first night, it was less of, "Awesome!" and more of,"Ugh! What is this?". But other than that experience, the camp was pretty cool. I'll give a description of what we did each day.

We departed Tuesday and the day was balanced with both activities and sitting on a bus, which consisted of asking the teachers when everyone were going eat, and reading. The activities were all fun and interesting, if not slightly dangerous. We had 6 activities during the stay at El Rancho, spread out over the first two days. On Tuesday, I had go-carting, archery, and low-ropes. After we finished that, we had dinner (the horrible Mexican one).

Wednesday was the same thing, but instead of lounging on a bus,  I exchanged it for a super muddy beach walk. We didn't even reach the beach, which was a bit of a bummer, especially as many kids'  shoes were ruined.  I had a quick lunch and moved onto the activities. That day I had Team Initiatives, Water slide, and Kayaking.  Team Initiatives was a course where my group had to work as a team to complete the challenges. Water slide was cancelled (sadness), and the pool I kayaked in was freezing(we had a swim afterwards). After taking a warm shower to get my body temperature back up to normal, I had dinner and watched a movie.

Thursday was probably the most fun and exciting day of all. It was the day I went down into Wellington. After an hour and a half ride, the bus pulled up at Wellington Zoo. Everyone was allowed to explore the zoo, which had everything from kiwis to scorpions. We also had a tour guide who showed us some cool exhibits, like the HeroHQ animal house that had all different kinds of bugs and amphibians. After the tour guide finished giving us a tour of the Nest, a veterinary service, the teachers shepherded us out. A quick bus trip took us to our next destination. We split in half, one went to Te Papa museum (the national museum of NZ), and the other went to Capital E. My group went to Capital E, a company that shows kids how to use different video designer websites like Atmosphir. Then we went to Te Papa, which has to have been the coolest museum I have ever been to. It had so many exhibits, like the Giant Squid and the Gallipoli (Scale of Our War).  After a long day, I trudged back onto the bus for the long expected and much dreaded ride back to camp. After getting back, we ate dinner and went to bed.

Friday was the day we returned. After an early wake up call, everyone boarded the bus. An hour and a half later,  the bus stopped for lunch and a swim in a town called Levin. After an hour or so, I was back on the bus. Finally, I began to recognize the landmarks, and before I knew it, we were back at my school, tired, but really glad I got to make the trip!

Lindsay