Day 2 - Tuesday 10 September

Today I woke up to my best friend at my cabin all hyped up and this was the first time I actually got up excited because it was my first time being away from my parents for five days at camp, we got ready to go and eat our breakfast in the common room, for breakfast we had weetbix, oatmeal, fruit salad and muesli after we finished eating went in our groups, my group was doing bush craft we were
learning about how to tie ropes and making shelter.

Firstly we learned about tying the ropes and making it secure, then we had to go and find a partner and tie a rope on the other side from your partner, then we were talking about making shelter and tying ropes, then we went on another topic about making a fire safely so we went in the woods to find some dead branches and put them in the fire, when we got back we put some of our wood in this tin and some people had a go with the match because most of the wood did not light on fire, so while we were waiting Chris picked some people who should stay here and make a fire while the other people can go and pitch a tent.

Secondly we had to find two trees that we can tie the ropes to each sides and once we were done with that we had to put up the tent so each of us had to be on different sides if we want to pitch up the tent also we had three bamboo sticks with us so we put two on the sides and one in the middle and then we put some sticks in the ground so the tent will be out a bit and I also learn that if you put a tent a bit low then the rain will most likely wont go in the side of the tents and it doesn't matter if the
tent is the right size for you to stand up the rain would still come in your tent.

Thirdly once were done we put our tent inside the bag and untied the ropes and took the bamboo sticks and while I was going back I could see that the people who stayed behind actually made a fire so now our new challenge was to boil water and make hot chocolate so we got a something kind of like a metal milk jug and put some water in it and put it on the fire and wait for it to boil when the
water was finally done we put in some cocoa and my friend Dwayne mixed it up and one person had to get a cup so she could try it and then we all tried it and there was not enough chocolate in it so she put in some more and mixed one more time then we took it into the common room and drank some hot chocolate

After that it was time for us to go kayaking so my group got changed and got our towels and went into the bus and our bus driver Maiki drove us to the beach were we will be kayaking but sadly we didn't go do to the weather but the other group got to go kayaking so since we didn't go we had to head back but on the bright side when we got back we get to go swimming and we had an extra five
minutes when we got to the swimming pool it was very cold but I stayed in there because once you stay there for long you'll get a little bit warmer, in the pool we had swimming races and some of us were just swimming around and having fun but today was a fun day even thought we didn't get to go kayaking i still had fun being around my friends and class mates.

Day 1 - Monday 9 September

Today is the special day that room seven goes to camp,

the first thing we did was loading up the bus with our bags then we said
our goodbyes to our loved ones who waited till we left, we waited a little
while on the bus then when the time hit  7:30 that was our time to
leave so our bus driver Maiki started up the bus then drove us safely to
our destination, we took our first stop to Whangreai
to have a quick bite to eat before we hit the road again
it took us about five hours and 30 minutes to get to Russell
and I also fell asleep on the bus with my friends because we were so
tired and we couldn't wait till we got to Russell and our camp site.

After that long drive to Russell we finally made it, we meet two nice guys there names were Chris and Magnus they were really nice and I can rely  on them to keep us safe while we are on our camping trip, the first thing we did was that we played a game where we had to throw a tennis ball to anyone in the circle and they had to say what's there favourite thing to do.

Then we went to the Marae and they did a Powhiri to welcome us we had to take off our shoes and if you want you can take off your socks, when we enter there was a bright light on the stage
They were really talented and I really liked there singing I wish I could sing like them they make me wanna join kapahaka.

When we finished watching them preform we put on our socks and shoes then we started to learn about the three flags that New Zealand has with Whaea Roi, after talking and drawing the flags we went into James Busby's house I was really excited to go in, as we entered James busby's house there was a book were you had to write down your name and write a comment on it. I was so fascinated and also ready to explore the house, there were a lot of writing and some photos I really like seeing the photos because it is really old and it has some history behind it.

Next we went to the museum but our time was cut short because we had to go them camp site where we will be staying at for the next few days, when we arrived at then camp site we put our bags down and we had to sit down and wait for the teachers to call our cabin numbers, once we got our bags and got settled in we went inside the common room and had dinner, we had fish and chips it was so good. After we all finished our dinner we wrote a reflection on our first day at camp so we will
remember what happen and we can blog it at school.

When we were all done with our reflections we went for a shower and it was kind of scary because they told us if you spend a lot of time in the shower the lights will turn off and we were showering at night. after a long day we went in our cabins and everybody could not go to sleep so the teachers kept on telling us to sleep and after a while we finally went to sleep.