Totara Springs Camp Diary
Diary Day 1
13-11-12 9:34pm
Today was the first day at Totara Springs Camp. At 9:00 we set of from the school for Matamata. After 2 hours we arrived. When we first arrived we settled down and ate our lunch while looking at the Camp1 people have fun and play around.
After they left we went into our cabins. Everyone wanted the top bunk. Finally we sorted our sleeping arrangements. We arranged our luggage and prepared for our activities. When we were ready we met at the courts.
On the courts we got into our activity groups and went for a tour around Totara Springs Camp. We saw where the activities were.
Finally we could do our first activity: Flying Fox and Burma Trail.
The Flying Fox was on high ground and you go over a river and ends in bushes. The boys fought to go first. The other girls in my group made me go before them, which I agreed to do. I was harnessed and stepped off the platform. There was a falling sensation in my stomach. Then I crashed through the bushes into the protection tyres and back onto the landing platform. The flying fox pulley was taken off and I carried it across a plank on the river back onto the take off platform. On the second time I shouted ‘Avada Kedavra’, and on the third it was a normal scream. The fourth time I did it backwards while shouting ‘Harry Potter is awesome’.
The Burma Trail was fairly easy, only my head kept on brushing against braches. At point I crashed into a trail. Another time I banged my shins on a log. It took a while. I wasn’t scared, more like curious. It took me a while to finish. Without the blindfold I did the track again. It was easier.
Then we did rock climbing. For me rock climbing was easy and I scrambled up like a monkey. On top of the door to rock climbing was a nest of small birds.
Archery was a lot harder than I imagined. My arm that pulled the string ached and my muscles stretched. My first two arrows missed but my last one hit the target board, which I thought was pretty good.
After dinner we had some fun activities. Tonight we made autograph books which looked pretty good.
Now it’s bedtime. Cross my fingers for a good nights sleep.
Diary Day2
14-11-12 8:35
I had a good nights sleep but my cabin members didn’t. This morning I dragged everyone else up and we got our shower. It was a lot warmer than I expected.
After breakfast I went to meet my group(7) for raft building. At raft building we had some rope, a few pieces of bamboo, 3 rubber tubes and 3 floating foam things. Our first idea was putting 2 rubber tubes underneath the bamboo frame. I went into the river first to test it out and to stable it when it enters the water. It was like stepping into liquid nitrogen. The raft was lowered into the water. It took a while to get the seating arrangements prepared. When we set off the raft was partly underwater, but halfway through it broke. So we had a water fight instead. The second time we used all our floatation devices and no bamboos. It worked.
After raft building we went to team rescue soaked and cold. The team rescue was hard, especially when you’re sore, soaked and sleepy. We never got to finish the obstacle course but we tried hard.
Finally we got changed, ate and went abseiling. For a first time abseiler I reckon I was pretty clam. Going down I slipped…twice. By the time I got the hang of it I was already near the ground. It was still a pretty good experience.
Top town was mainly group activities, most being wet. After the activities we changed and had a fight with wet sponges, it was hilarious. The thermal pool was warm but we didn’t get much time.
Low ropes were fairly interesting. First we were blindfolded and gone through a walk, ending by sliding on your stomach through a tunnel. The actual low rope activities were challenging but fun. Unfortunately we didn’t get a lot of time.
After dinner we went eeling. It took a while to the eeling river. I volunteered to hold the cut up liver as bait. We waited a long time when we finally saw a eel. After many attempts we had to go back, eel-less.
日记：第二天
前一天晚上我睡得很好，但是和我同宿舍里的人却睡得不咋样。大清早我把大家叫醒，好能先个洗澡。水比我想象的热多了。
吃完早饭我和我活动组的人集合好去建独木船了。我们组被分成两个小组，每个小组有绳子，几条竹竿，三个像救生圈一样的橡皮圈，和三个泡沫板子，能浮起来。我们第一次做是用竹竿做成一个框，在框底下放两个橡皮圈。做好之后我是第一个下水的，这样独木船被放到水里时有人扶着。我感觉像在液化氮里似的。独木船被放在水里后我们小组花了一些时间把座位安排好。我们刚开始划的时候偶尔会有一角沉到水下，可是划了半路独木船散架了，我们只能边打水仗边把材料往回拽。第二次建船我们只用了能浮的东西，没用竹竿。这次还真的成功了。
建完独木船我们又去参加紧急救援的活动。在那里，我们的任务是带着一个假人穿过一个障碍训练场，就是在木板上行走，脚不可以着地，如果脚碰地会加时间。我们队又冷又湿加上总是有人捣乱，没能在规定时间走完。
之后我们终于换了衣服，吃过了饭，我们去了沿绳下降 ╭(╯^╰)╮（ABSEIL） 我个人认为作为一个第一次沿绳下降的人我挺平静的。往下走时我踩滑了。。。两次。等我差不多掌握要点时我已经到地面了。总体来说还不错。
TOP TOWN 都是团体活动，很多都有水。玩完，我们穿上游泳衣后，用湿海绵打了一会儿水仗。水池很舒服可是我们在里面没待多久。
LOW ROPES 还算有趣。第一个活动我们被蒙住眼睛出去‘散步’了，最后从一个隧道爬了出来。LOW ROPES 都是一些体育东西，像走钢丝，在两条交叉的绳子上走过去。我们没有时间把所有的东西都玩一遍。
吃晚饭我们去钓鳗鱼。走到河边花了不少时间。钓鱼用诱饵是羊肝，是我拿的，如果钓到鱼也是我拿。等了好长时间我们才看到鱼，可是怎么钓都钓不上，最后我们只好回去了。╮(╯_╰)╭
Diary Day 3
15-11-12 9:57pm
Today we all felt fresher. After breakfast I went to Firth Tower. The walk to firth Tower was fine until we reached the farm. The ground was covered in cow pat, and it was impossible to avoid it. Personally I found it funny that the guys were more fussed and disgusted than the girls. The Firth Tower was supposed to be a museum but I didn’t find it too interesting. The scene from the tower was great, but not much else. On the way back the worst of the track had been hosed, making it less foul.
Lunch was hot dogs, which was pretty good. Surprisingly I had a lot of appetite fir someone who has been walking through cow pat all morning.
After lunch I went to the activity I was looking forward to the most, kayaking. First I had to keep an eye out for my partner while she went kayaking. At the current everyone went backwards. Finally my partner made it to the end. Then it was my turn. It was easy until I reached the current. Privately I think I did better than the boys, seeing I was never pushed backwards by the current and moved pretty fast. What I found funny was I spent most my time trying to go back down the river as I couldn’t turn around. I had 2 turns, both with the same results. Afterwards I had a mud fight with my instructor. He dumped me into a mud ditch, so ‘polite’. I washed myself in the river and prepared for our next activity.
Our next activity was Camp Craft. We went out and collected some dried ferns and twigs to start our fire with. When we’ve collected all the fuel we tried to start a fire with friction. We’ve been working on it for a few minutes before we were told that we were allowed matches. We had used up a few matches before we lit up the ferns. Then we had to wait for the fire to die down. That took a while. Then we cooked our food, but nothing was good apart from the toasties.
After dinner I went to astronomy. We made a star chart, but we didn’t physically see any stars outside. Tonight Mrs Lane’s on duty, so we’ll probably be quiet for once.