Hannah's Long Bay recount

On Monday the 7th of April, 2014, rooms 9 & 10 went aaaaalllll the way up North to go to a beautiful beach, Long Bay. We went there to learn about what to do when we are in the wild and how we do things. As the bus driver dropped us off at the beach, a lady who turned out to be Sarah, led us to a little fale where three other instructors were. There was Sarah, Morag, James and another Sarah. There were three different activities we had to do. We were also put into three different groups. My groups first activity was with Sarah. We were learning how to pitch tents and cook sausages, camping style c: She took our group while the other groups went with their instructors. First, we had to get the instructions off her to start pitching and cooking. We started off with the pitching. We were split into three groups. My group and I started pitching our tent and tried to beat the other groups. And happily, we beat them at pitching it and taking it down, putting them neatly back in the bag. Secondly, we started cooking our sausages. My partner was my friend, Eseki. She and I had a sausage each and we cooked them on a pan. We were told what to do BEFORE we had to start cooking our sausages. When she finished explaining EVERYTHING, we started frying our sausages. We sat in somewhat we call a 'circle' with frying pans for every partner. It didn't take that long for our sausages to be cooked. It only took like 10 minutes for it to cook and then we eat it.  When my partner and I's sausages were cooked we ate them with bread and tomato sauce. It was definitely delicious !

The next activity we did was the stretches with Morag. Stretches are something we use to help someone with an injury when we are hiking in the wild. But first, we had to remember what we need. Like a whistle, hat, rain jacket, first aid and a lot more. We had relays at first, we had to run down to the other end and grab one thing from the box that we need when we are in the wild. It was really crack up because whenever I ran, I always ended up doing a little trip. We kept on doing that until we actually got the chance to make stretches with long, thick sticks and a few warm, strong sweaters. There were two groups and we had to work on our own, how to make the stretches. But we got some help from our instructor and our group teacher. We worked, worked and worked to try and make it 'till  we finally did it. When it was properly made, we started carrying people one by one on the stretcher and act like they had an injury that we are trying to save. Everyone had a turn, especially our teacher AND instructor. It was hilarious ! 

After that activity, we had lunch back in the fale. We met everyone else there with food gripped in their hands and putting it in their mouth like there life depended on it. I ate 'till I was full when it came to last 40 minutes that we had. During that 40 minutes, my group went on a bush walk with James. When we met him, he told us that he was pretty much ... lazy. So, WE had to do all the work with a little bit of his help. We took our maps and discussed which way the leader will take us and I was the first leader. I made my first steps and we headed up to where the water was. We had to stop there, and James told me to choose a different person to be the new leader. I chose Eseki. She led us to where she wanted us to go. We went almost to the top of the mountain we were on. But, during that walk, different people has been having turns being the leader. I really enjoyed that walk. I learnt about different islands that we saw during the walk. We also saw the Rangitoto island during the walk, too. It was really fun !

Finally, it came to the very last minute of our trip. That was when we had to go back to school and head home. We sang a little song before we left and said our goodbyes. I was really fascinated with the views I saw. It was really beautiful. I felt free, again. I also learnt how to make really steady stretches, how to pitch a tent properly, how to cook sausages and how to read a map when you are going somewhere far. I really enjoyed that day and I hope we get to go there again.

By Hannah.
Read more of Hannah's blogs here