Monday Morning!! On the morning of School Camp we packed up our car with my stuff and Beth's stuff, put Theo in the car as well and drove up to school. We got to drive in the staff car park and around through the school, a place where cars don't usually go. That was pretty cool. I said goodbye to Theo and went to see Beth's Teacher. She said one of the parents had pulled out because of illness and would I mind also towing the trailer? I said that'd be fine, but a bit later on one of the parents with big V6 diesel ute arrived and said he'd tow it, which was a much better idea. I'm sure Lurge could have towed it just fine, but with a bootload of stuff and 5 people, it would have been a bit of a struggle. Plus I wasn't looking forward to having to drive with a trailer around all those windy roads! Eventually all the kids arrived at school, everything was loaded into the various cars and the trailer for all the stuff we couldn't fit in the car and we set off. There were quite a few stop/go signs along the way, but the trip still only took us about 45 mintues which really wasn't too bad considering,
We arrived and unloaded everything, I found my room (I got one to myself!) and then we all met up with the school camp leader person (Shan) and everyone played icebreaker games. Titanic, Bopper-Chain and then Catapiller. Then it was lunchtime. Then they went up and did the low-ropes - the parents had to be spotters for the kids for this activity. Then back for afternoon tea. Then we went to the working dairy farm and kids got to meet newborn calves, lambs and see all the cows walking onto the milking machine and getting milked. then backing out of the milking machine and walking off.
Then we had dinner (Burgers then Fruit Salad and Icecream), then went for a night walk, and then did walk where we had to follow a rope along while blindfolded in the dark. That was pretty neat. Only the adults were allowed torches and once we finished the walk we all just sat out quiety (and the kids did a pretty good job of being quiet so as not to spoil the finish for the others) and looked up at watched the stars. With almost zero light polution out there the stars were amazing.
Tuesday morning we got up about 6am and did the breakfast service, then the kids were off to Flying Kiwi/Spaghetti Tangle. That took all morning with morning tea break in the middle as the two groups swapped over. Our group did Spaghetti Tangle first of all, then the flying Kiwi. I thought Beth wouldn't like Flying Kiwi but she loved it, in fact all the kids did. I think when all your classmates are doing an activity, you don't have time to be scared/nervous you just get on an do it. That's seems to be what happened anyway because not a single kid didn't have a turn. The Spaghetti tangle was mission for them, they had to follow a carabina along a rope. The rope would be wrapped around trees, go through tunnel obsticles etc. The last bit was where the rope was wrapped over another rope - that caused HEAPS of confusion. In the end they all, pretty much, managed to get to the end.
Once I'd seen Beth on the Flying Kiwi I sprinted up to camp to help with lunch prep. Then it was time for the canoing. It wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be, I ended up onboard with Mrs Cornforth (Rachel). Our boat was a bit useless to be honest, they never really got the hang of working together and a couple of kids kept going on about how tired they were. Still we did good at the quiz at the end, we won that. I think George might have worked to ensure we did win though, seeing as we'd come dead-last in every other challenge!
After that it was MUD RUN time! The mud run was intense as it was promised to be. For the mud run the adults had to help either push kids up to pull kids up through all the waterfall bits. The whole place was smashed because of the cyclone so the mudrun's second half was pretty raw. Lots of mozzies too! We all got very wet, muddy and at the end you had to strip down your togs and get hosed off with water from the tap. It wasn't that bad. At least then you got a nice 2 minute hot shower to warm up.
Tuesday night was Nachos for dinner. Hayden used to be a chef and he was a pretty magical cook, the Nacho mince was PERFECT. So tasty. It was the best meal of the camp by far. Then we went down to roast Marshmellows by the fire, then we all came back and it was time for the talent show. Everyone put on a performance. Sadly Beth and Daisy had to cut theirs really short becuase they didn't have the space to finish it. Which is a shame because they worked hard on it. Still it was ~9:45pm by the time all the talnet show was finished, so I don't blame the teachers for trying to get the kids to hurry along as quickly as they could!
Wednesday morning was pack up the camp day. I didn't really see much of what was going on, I was on breakfast duty which meant dealing with THE TOASTER again and doing the dishes. But eventually we got all the rooms emptied and cleaned. We weren't leaving camp though, just leaving the hut so that the next group could come along. We drove down the Flying Kiwi area and had a lovely ~2 hour nature walk with a guide Lyn who knew all about the different trees that had been planted from around the world. It was a really enjoyable walk and talk, the sun was out and shining and everyone had a great time. Then we went back and everyone played on the Flying Fox for an hour and a half until it was time to leave. Daisy's Dad arrived which was nice for her, so she went home with him meaning I only had 3 kids in the car instead of 4.
We all drove back to school, unpacked everything, I went and collected Theo early from class and we came home! Started on the pile of washing. I had a couple of beers from the WilliamsWarn, I haven't brewed anything since December so it was nice to have some beers on tap again. I must get back into it more often.
So overall, I really enjoyed camp. As a parents you were never, ever sitting still. From the minute you got up at 6am and got a coffee in, it was just go go go go. Breakfast preperation, getting out all the food. Making sure everyone had a bowl etc. While they were eating you might find a minute or two to get some food in at the adults table, then it was back into the kitchen to clean up, rinse the dishes, or put them through the industrial stregth dishwasher/sanitizing machine (reminded me of my days at the South Arm RSL doing Saturday night dishes). Once they came out of the dishwasher you had to quickly dry them and stack them away! Or you'd be helping scape plates etc. And yea when you weren't doing breakfast duty it was just generally being their for the kids in case they needed help with something etc, or making sure they weren't trying to set the place on fire. It was non-stop and you'd go to bed exhausted every night, but it was great fun. I'm pretty sure every kid loved, probably some more than others but that's OK. Beth had a great time, she took along Kermot and Sniff Pillow and they both managed to make it home just fine as well. Oh in the kitchen to make toast there was a 6 slice toaster. I've already linked to a photo above. It had a 30AMP 500 Volt plug. It was INSANE. Shan told us "This thing WILL burn your bread" and she was right. It would go from being white bread to brown and about to catch fire in about 40 seconds. It was a beast. I was on toaster duty both mornings and it was a serious job!! I managed to not set fire to any toast though, nor set the fire alarm off. I'm quite proud of my efforts on the toaster, it was an experience. You just had to stand there and watch it the whole time. No slacking off. Just watch it, get the toast out, load it up agian, repeat.
The Mooney gang got back from Fiji today, so Sarah took their car to get washed. Oh I didn't even mention the saga with the boot of that thing! We picked it up on Sunday, Sarah took it to get grocieries while I came home with the kids. Then I got a call about an hour and a half later, Sarah said the boot just wouldn't close. It's got a power boot, it does it itself, you can't really do it manually. Something had happened to it and it wa stuck open at the supermarket. So the kids and I drove out to Pack N Save to rescue her, in the end we just loaded the groceries into Lurge and drove both cars home, Holly's with the boot not properly closed and beeping a warning at me all the way. Once at home we called the AA and bless them they turned up in about 15 minutes (amazing) and after a bit of magic, he fixed it! I can't tell you how releved we both were, Sarah was super stressing that it would need to go to the Toyota dealer and cost a lot of money to fix. But it just needed the AA man with a screwdriver and a bit of knowledge and we were good to go again.
Also randomly, Holly mentioned to Sarah that Isla couldn't find her Oodie anywhere and was really worried. Sarah mentioned this to Beth who just suddenly piped up with "I know where it is!". Beth said she'd seen it at swimming two weeks ago in the lost property pile but she didn't say anything because she wasn't sure it was Isla's and figured if it was she'd pick it up when next there. She saw it again the Saturday just gone but figured it def can't be Isla's because she'd have seen it and picked it up. But they've been away in Fiji so of course she couldn't have. Anyway Sarah rang Holly and told her, so Holly went to swimming grabbed it JUST as the lady was taking all the lost property to be donated. So a super lucky save right there. Amazing the little thought processes the kids have and don't tell you about.
Ok well this story is long enough. We had a great time at camp, Theo had a good time with Sarah for a few days by himself. It was back to work today for me which was just super fun, I feel so phsyically exhausted. Probably from lifting those damn canoes, I tried to tell the guy I work in IT and I can't lift shit, but he made me anyway. I was able to do it, but man are my arms still moaning at me! Good exercise Timothy! We had a blast, I hope I get to do it with Theo in a few years time.
Tim
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