Happy Holidays

School is over for another year and we wish you all a very Happy New Year.

See you all again on 7 February 2006.

Kaiteriteri Camp

What a great time we had on camp!

We had a tremendous amount of support from parents with 26 parents in total coming out at some stage to visit and join in the variety of activities. With a core of eight adults staying for the whole time it made things so easy for me to organise and the children were fantastic showing enthusiasm and good humour throughout their adventure. The theme for the camp was self-management and self-reliance and children worked hard to practise these goals for themselves.

Thank you so much to all those who supported us.

Now for the photos!!! I will roll out more over the weekend so check back! Also I am making a DVD the camp. If you would like a copy send $10 along to school on Monday and I will do my best to get it to you as soon as possible.

If you want a better quality or bigger photo double click on it and it will enlarge. Also I can email you copies of the photos if you email the classroom saying which ones you want.

The first photo is of us all as we sit outside the dining room preparing for our first lot of instructions! We are very keen to get started enjoying ourselves.



This next photo shows the girls having a swim in the Kaiteriteri lagoon at high tide. To make it easier to keep track of children in the sea they needed to wear coloured swimming caps so we could check the right number of heads were bobbing all the time. Paula kept counting- 1,2,3,4,5,6 over and over again to make sure.



This next photo shows the boys' turn. The water is quite deep so it was great that we had a few hardy parents in the water to make sure everyone was secure and safe.



While the boys were having their turn the girls got to make sand sculptures and play with the tide. They worked well co-operatively and had lots of fun.

Putting up the tents

Having come back from the swim in the lagoon our next task was to put up the tents. This was a real exercise in co-operation and teamwork. We talked about it beforehand of the need to keep going with the job until it was well completed and every single one of us gave the job 100% effort and the job was quickly achieved with no-one succumbing to the lure of the nearby playground.

In this first photo Briony contemplates the enormity of the problem! She was soon supported by willing helpers.



Erin and her team soon got the job done.



Everyone had a job to do and look how involved everyone is.



The Jacksons got the tents up quickly with great teamwork.



Now the tents are starting to look like the real thing! It was quite a little tent city by the time we got them all up!

The tents are up!

After all the teamwork of putting the tents up, then came the job of moving in! The girls look pretty comfortable in their tent.



A photo of four friends together. Jessica R took a lot of photos on her camera too. I wonder how they will turn out?



Three workmen stand proudly in front of their tent.



Charly carries all of his most treasured possessions ready to arrange them all in his tent. The bear has been a friend of Charly's for a long time.



Tim appreciates a good job well done.

Co-operative Games & Waterslide

After all the tents were up and we had had our lunch it was time for games and the waterslide. Lara, our student teacher from earlier in the year, had come with us on camp and showed us some cool co-operative games. We started off with peg ball. In this first photo you can see how pleased we all were when we got one of the parents OUT!!!!



After that we had a go at a three legged race. Some of us had a bit of trouble co-ordinating our legs but it was fun trying- again team work was needed.



Everyone loved the waterslide and the challange was to see what you could do to make yourself go faster and end up at the 'uppy thing at the bottom'!!! Some of us were really good at it and some of us had to use our father's T-shirts as a mat to make the slide more slippery!



As you can see there was a number of different styles!



The boys puffed out their manly chests and impressed us greatly!!!

Food!!!!

After our stroll along the beach we came home for tea! A couple of children needed to be fed on an hour by hour basis as they might have started running out of energy if not fed lashings of healthy food every 20 minutes or so!!!!



Leanne was our chief cook ably assisted by many willing workers. As you can see their efforts were well received with many returning for seconds.



Children helped with the dishes afterwards with one excuse of, "I don't DO dishes!" rewarded with extra practise to catch up on the fun he had missed out on!



After the chores were done we settled down for an evening watching the preview of our movie of ourselves on DVD along with photos we had taken, followed by Star Wars. Interestingly many had never seen the original Star Wars Movie- in my opinion the best of them all. We didn't have time to finish it before bed time but will watch the rest next week.



Most children settled well to sleep as we had had a big day but a few girls needed the extra encouragement of their teacher sitting in the awning of their tent to get the idea that it was time rest. I must admit though that the many moreporks calling to one another over our camp site made it hard to drift off to sleep. Even more so in the morning when every native bird within 50 km came by at five in the morning to wake us to the dawn chorus!

A Walk Along the Beach

After the fun and games of the afternoon we went down to Kaiteriteri Beach which was now at low tide. We had a leisurely stroll along the length of the beach looking for shells and playing with the rugby ball along the way. There was something there for everyone!



Mitchell found this crab that had definitely seen better days!



Everywhere you look there was a photo opportunity!





We had fun looking for little creatures and Mitchell even found and caught this little tiny fish!



At the end of the beach there were caves and small tunnels that we wanted to explore but I wasn't sure where they would end and I didn't want to have to go in and pull someone out! THAT sort of thing wasn't in the risk analysis!

The Launch Trip

After a quick tidy up around camp and only a little drama we were off on our launch trip to the Abel Tasman National Park. Chris had had some trouble controlling her car on the road to Kaiteriteri and thought that something drastic had happened to her steering so we quickly changed cars and she took mine to Marahau for the parent pick-up. Unfortunately in the change-over my raincoat was left in the backseat. For a while there I was left wearing the emergency Nelson City Council rubbish bag as a raincoat. Not the most flattering of rainware!!!

The trouble with Chris' car came from a large diesel slick covering the road which made the road extra slippery. The road was soon to be closed by police until it was made safe again.

In this photo we line up ready to board the Abel Tasman Experiences Wilson's Launch. We are very grateful to the launch company for their group booking they were offering us. It was an excellent deal which allowed everyone to experience on of our national treasures for a very reasonable price.







We thought the launch trip was awesome and got to see Split Apple Rock along the way.

Appletree Bay

For those parents we picked up at Marahau it was yet another adventure. They caught the runabout and boarded the launch out in deeper water. Here they line up next to the launch and leap aboard.




The launch leaves as we count off to make sure everyone is safely on dry land.



Once at Appletree Bay we had our morning tea and re-grouped ready for the walk back to civilisation.

Our Bush Walk

As soon as we landed back on dry land it started to rain so I couldn't get the camera out much. The rain wasn't too much of a problem though as it was warm and kept us from getting too hot and we were well prepared for it.




We saw beautiful waterfalls, fresh green ferns and symmetrical punga ferns. We walked in the sandwich formation so we knew that everyone was safe between the front and the back of the line.

When we got to the Tinline we had lunch. Yum. We had made our own lunch so we got just what we wanted.





Here we are at the end of the the track.

Miss K was really proud of the way we behaved and acted with responsibility and community spirit.



Thank you so much to everyone who supported us on these action packed days. Lorraine who donated fresh vegetables, Leanne who was our chief chef, Lara who gave us her enthusiasm and time and all the families who came with us or helped us from home.

I have very much enjoyed the camp. You can be proud of your children. Have a great Christmas.

One More Sleep To Go

One more sleep before camp. What will we do? No internet! Look back here throughout the weekend and it if is dry enough for photograph taking I will put some photos on to our blog. I'm sure we will all have a really good time. Wish us luck!

Softball

On Saturday Jayden went to his softball game and he played so well he got two certificates for playing so well throughout the year.

by Mitchell and Jayden

Camp Preview

Today I went over to Kaiteriteri to have last look around the campsite and finalise arrangements with the camp personnel. This photo shows the launch we are going to go out on to take us to Appletree Bay. They were unloading passengers as we arrrived.

The second photo shows the lagoon area where we are going to go for a swim.