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| Beautiful Beaches on Great Barrier Island |
Lauryn had an amazing adventure the first week of December and we are finally updating the blog with pictures and info! She represented her school at the adventure racing school championship on Great Barrier Island. On a Saturday she took a very overcrowded 10 passenger van - with eight students, two teachers, and LOTS of luggage - on a long drive up to Auckland, where they overnighted. Then they boarded a passenger ferry and took the long boat trip over to Great Barrier Island. After five nights and five full days of competition, they boarded another ferry - this time a commercial/freight ferry - and came back on Friday night to the "mainland" and
they overnighted in Auckland once again. The following Saturday they drove back to Wanganui, where Jen and Pete were awaiting her return (and then drove her another 3 hours south to Wellington for the U17 national soccer tryouts which began the next day.)
From Wikipedia...
The island was initially exploited for its minerals and kauri trees and saw only limited agriculture. In 2013, it was inhabited by 939 people,[2] mostly living from farming and tourism.[3] The majority of the diverse environments (around 60% of the total area) is administered as nature reserve by the Department of Conservation.[1] In 2009 the island atmosphere was described as being "life in New Zealand many decades back", not without some positive emphasis.[4]
Here is a description of the geography.
The island's European name stems from its location on the outskirts of the Hauraki Gulf. With a maximum length (north-south) of some 43 kilometres (27 mi), it and the Coromandel Peninsula (directly to its south) protect the gulf from the storms of the Pacific Ocean to the east. Consequently, the island boasts highly contrasting coastal environments. The eastern coast comprises long, clear beaches, windswept sand-dunes, and heavy surf. The western coast, sheltered and calm, is home to hundreds of tiny, secluded bays which offer some of the best diving and boating in the country. The inland holds several large and biologically diverse wetlands, along with rugged hill country (bush or heath in the more exposed heights), as well as old-growth and regenerating kauri forests.
Lauryn can describe her activities she had to do for adventure racing, but we will spoil the punchline. Twelve teams had qualified for the national finals, and Lauryn's team, from a very small school compared to the competition, and not having trained with the same purpose or having the same experience in adventure racing as those larger schools, finished a perfect 12th of the 12 teams! Oh well, the memories are priceless nonetheless.
And, now, Lauryn...
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| Teams chilling before the race |
Well it was what I, Lauryn, consider probably the weirdest, most kiwi, and quirkiest thing I probably have ever done in my life. First off, I missed about a week of school in total doing full day practices for this competition, which back in the states would be completely unheard of. Once a week in the run-up to leaving, my team would get to school at 8:30 and drive in a bus to a lake, and we would then spend the whole day kayaking, running, and swimming. Then, I missed a week for the national competition too, so I got to miss a ton of school!
Adventure racing is sorta like a triathlon. It is composed of running, kayaking, sailing, rafting, swimming, and orienteering. Orienteering is when a person/team is given an extremely detailed map with specific points that the person must get to in a certain amount of time. Below is a type of map we would be given. The circles mark the area where the check points are located. Sometimes these check points will have a code you need to write down to prove you've been there, or there will be a staff member sitting there to make sure all teams actually go through there.
On Saturday, my team left Wanganui and went on a 5 hour drive all the way up to Auckland. We stayed the night in a tent on the lawn of a friend's house of one of our coaches. In Auckland area my team went on an easy 4km run to see how we were doing.
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| This is my team waiting for the boat in Auckland |
Sunday morning we left Auckland on a ferry at 10, and we made a two and a half hour trip to Great Barrier Island. We only had one hiccup when our van broke down in the downtown area of Auckland on our way to the ferry. Luckily we were only a 15 minute walk to the wharf, however we must have looked very strange walking on the sidewalk with huge hiking packs, life jackets and smaller backpacks through the city. We arrived at the island around 1, and our first competition started shortly after 2. This was a head to head race where all the teams were put against each other. We had no prior knowledge of what this task would be and were pretty inexperienced, because we had no returning people who did this event last year.
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| Boat coming into Great Barrier |
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| Our makeshift raft that we made it ten minutes |
The race began with each team being given three kayaks, four pieces of long bamboo, four paddles, and several pieces of rubber. We then had ten minutes to strap together a raft that would be able to hold 8 people. We had to get this raft into the water and line up at the starting line. At the sound of a horn all twelve teams began to paddle maniacally towards an island about 3 km away from the beach. Every team had to paddle out and around the island, and then back again to the shore. Once a team completed the 6km rafting, they had to undo the raft and then immediately start on a 6 km run. This run was super hilly and probably had no flat spots whatsoever during the whole thing, so your calves never really got a break. The race was timed and the team finishing first got 500 points and then the teams after them got points reduced from their total depending on where they finished. That day my team finished 10th out of 12.
On Monday and Tuesday, in the morning all the teams would have to compete in small problem solving activities and in the afternoon we would do another large head to head. These problem solving activities were so unique and strange that when I look back at them it makes me laugh so hard. On each day we did three one hour long activities one after another with a 15 minute break in between. For these activities a team would only race another team, until the head to head races.
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| Swinging madness |
On of my favorites was called Swinger and was done in a small gym. Three teammates were suspended off the ground by ropes that hung 5 meters apart from each other. These ropes were in a line that we spaced out equal across the long ways of the gym. However there was a catch. The suspended teammates were not allowed to touch the ground, and the rest of the team was only allowed to step on specific places in the gym. Each team was given two bamboo poles, a tennis ball, and a drain pipe. Basically, five members of a team had to use the bamboo to pull and push the suspended three, so that they could pass a ball from one end of the gym to another. Once the ball gets to the end the last suspended teammate, they had to use the drainage pipe and drop the ball through it into a bucket. The objective is to get the ball into the bucket as many times as possible in one hour. Easier said then done.
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| Trying to get the ball through the pipe into bucket |
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| Trying to get the ball into bucket |
A super fun one was called Bucket Hats and was done on a high ropes course. Every one had to wear a helmet that had this bucket taped to the top of it. The objective was to transport a ball through a ropes course as many times as possible. However all the teams were not allowed to touch the ball with their hands. Everyone had to carry the ball in their bucket on top of their head. The course begins with one teammate having to climb up a pole and put it into a pipe. That pipe transports it to a second part of the course... the net. A teammate had to climb a net with the ball in his/her bucket, and throw it over the other side. There someone had to pick up the ball with his/her bucket and transport it to the last part of the course. This is were four people pull a team member, with the ball in his/her bucket, up into the air with him/her harnessed on a rope. That team member has to touch a rope that is 20 meters in the air. Once that person does that he/she is lowered to the ground and the team restarts at the beginning.
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| High ropes course we had to maneuver through |
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| Trying to balance a bamboo pole is easier said than done |
There was also a memory activity were you had to memorize a set of pictures, while doing silly things like balancing bamboo poles or piggie backing someone while being blindfolded. There was a creative marble game, along with an activity were you got random materials and had to build a raft. There also was a row boat race where the staff placed limitations on how many paddles you can use or how many people have to be blindfolded.
The Head to Head competitions were around 3-5 hours long and comprised of lots of running and water activities. On Monday we did a classic relay race, where there was a running part, an obstacle course part, a balance and control part, and a trying to run with a car tire below your knees part. For the run it was maybe 1.5 km but it was all uphill, so it sucked. For the obstacle course one teammate had to be blindfolded and if you touched an obstacle you had to start over. The third part was terrible, because a person had to balance a tennis ball on a baton... while being piggie backed. The last part with the tire was just super funny, because to keep it below someone's knees they had to run bow legged.
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| Travis trying to stay on top of the dinghy |
Tuesday's head to head was awful, because we had to use two pieces of bamboo, rubber, and a huge cylindrical dinghy. We had to fasten a raft and then the team would have to carry a team member who was onto of the dinghy. Each member had to be carried 50 meters on land, and then into the water, where they were pushed out and back to a buoy. Once they reached the shore a new team mate jumped on and you started over till everyone was carried. It was a pain, because it was very hard to stay on the dinghy in the water. People were constantly falling off and we would have to start over.
Wednesday and Thursday was what they called the big Expedition Day. On Wednesday all the teams got in a line at 8;30 and then the horn sounded and everyone went for probably around a 10 km run. The end of that run was at a beach where three kayaks and all the materials from the first day were left for each team. We then had to make a raft and then kayak for 10 km, where we ended at another beach. We then went for an 8 km run and then had to kayak all the way back to the spot where we found the kayaks. We then set up camp and relaxed; this was around the time of 5:30. We finished 9th that day. On Thursday we were given an orienteering map that had around a 100 points that were all over a map that had the area of probably 250 km. We didn't have to go to every single point. However, we had to be back at 3:30, or we would be heavily penalized. Some points could only be gotten from kayaking there, while others we a good 45 minute run from the coast. If a point was hard to get to it would cost more, then one that was easier to find. I calculated that my team traveled around 50 km in those two days. The top teams probably traveled 75 km.
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| Us finishing strong on our last day |
One big factor that didn't help the team is that Monday morning one of our team mates got sick and had to drop out of the competition. This meant that 15% of our score was taken out each day, so if we scored 100 points we only really got 85. Even though we landed last, my team tried really hard and we had a blast.
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| Our team posing with our high school banner |
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| Beautiful place where we stayed during the week |
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