Facing and Meeting Challenges - Camp 2017

Giant Ladders:

It was a very cold day, however, the sun came out most of the time on for our camp challenge on Friday the 23rd of June 2017

The long-awaited day had finally arrived and all the Room 8 students went to Camp at Long Bay known as MERC (Marine Education Reserve Centre)  All students arrived at Camp and started off the day with an introduction.

The students were split into two groups. Both groups did the same activities but were rotated across these at different times. Before we set off with our groups to do our first activities, we were introduced to our instructors, Akari and Jono.

As Akari and Jono talked to us about MERC and asked us questions, they also talked to us about our first two activities.

Abseiling was my group's first activity. I felt very scared so I cried in tears because I thought I could not make it to the top and to the bottom. But really, we only had to climb down and that was it. The wall did not look that high but when I stood up at the top it was REALLY high. When It was my turn, I felt super scared so I just went slowly and slowly until in shock, my foot touched the ground. I felt amazed that I made it to the bottom with a little bit of encouragement and tears.

When it was my group's turn for the Giant Ladders, I felt afraid because I thought that I would not make it to the top, it really was high up and each step was further away from the previous one.  Our instructor Akari, gave the instructions of how giant ladder works and how to put on our gear such as the harness and the helmet. There were many importances of each gear, so we had to listen very carefully. The harness was a bit different to the harness we wore during abseiling.

As the minutes felt as seconds, it was my TURN to climb up the really giant long ladder. My partner and I helped each other out when we needed help because it was a bit tricky for us to climb. We climbed up and up with help and encouragement. However, we couldn't make it to the top but at least we made it just to the one before the top ladder. It was now time for us to climb back down to the ground just like a frog. It was really hard and scary for me because I thought I would fall, however, the anchor people were holding me safely and tightly. As I climbed up, I was a bit happy because I was climbing up really long giant ladders

At last, I felt like a champion climbing up and down just like I’d climbed up on a normal ladder! And I also felt happy that I climbed and achieved my goals for the day, I had faced the challenges and overcome my fear!