The amazing Arthur's Pass trip.

The Amazing Arthurs pass trip.

Normally I get a lot of sleep, well that isn’t completely true, I get some sleep but last Wednesday I was surprised that I got any sleep at all!

It was the first day of camp. I was so excited that I randomly started to squeal like a pig that just go pinched by tweezers. The bus finally came and we hopped on and got our seats. I sat next to Sahara and she had a pencil and a note pad and we had turns of drawing things. The second thing Sahara draw was a me as a sheep! She then started calling me Sheepy Sinead! About an hour and a half past and we had finally arrived at the lodge!

We each grabbed a random bag or two and ran it from the bus to the veranda. Rhea got my huge daypack and I got Mr.M’s guitar. We all went inside and sat down. I looked around the room. The place looked extraordinary. It was fairly big with tables and chairs all around. In the corner there was a doorway leading into what looked like a huge kitchen. Then a tall man with a bright red jacket walked into the room. He had eyes that looked sneaky and funny at the same time. I instantly knew that he was Logan.

Mr.M had been telling us all week that Logan owned the lodge that we were staying in and he would be telling us the rules and going on walks with us. He then told us that we were going orientering. The whole room suddenly erupted in questions. We didn’t have a clue what orientering was. It took a while for us to find out what it was but he  eventually got the message through. He told us that every group got a piece of paper with a map and some clues and a place to write the answers on. In my group there was Mia, Lochie, Jack H, Pippa, Kade and I and our parent helpers were Derek Kade’s Dad, Karyn Pippa's Mum and PG Lochie’s Dad. We quickly ran of and tried to find the answers. It took around nearly an hour but we had finally made it back. Our team came second but we were only about 2 minutes later than the first team back. Then we had to do a small but fun quiz about what we had found. We marked the other team’s answers and the team that we marked got 12 out of 15 right. When we got our answers back we all exploded with joy. We had got all of the questions right.

After that it was quite late so we had dinner and went into our bunks. In my bunk there was Natasha who slept in the bunk over me and no one slept under me . There was also Pippa and Mia that slept on the other side of the room. Mia slept on the top bunk out of three and Pippa slept under her on the middle bunk. Caitlin was also in our room and she slept on a separate bunk on the top bunk that was only two beds high instead of three. Karyn who slept under Pippa and Natalie Caitlins Mum who slept under Caitlin. The parents came to bed after we went to sleep so we told lots of scary stories. Mia told one where we all started to randomly die in different places in different times. When the last story finished we started to to drift of to sleep.

Then next thing I knew was that I was woken up by kids screaming. I saw that lots of people were awake so I asked one of my friends what time it was. They told me the time was around 6:30! I tried to go back to sleep but I couldn’t sleep so I decided to get up. For breakfast we had weet-bix, ricys, and corn flakes with peaches and milk. I had 4 serving and I was still hungry but I didn’t have time to eat anymore sadly. When I went outside all I could see was pure white. We went outside and played in all the snow. I had never seen so much snow in my life! We started making huge snow balls and wrecking them. Soon we went inside.  Because we were getting cold.

Then Mr.M told us that we were going on a walk but we had to drive there and there wasn’t enough seats for all of us so half of us went first and when they were done the other group went. Me and some other people also stayed at the lodge first. While they were away we had macaroni cheese for lunch and then we played spotlight in the bunk rooms. We turned the light of and closed the curtains, and turned the torch on but since the space was small, the person that was in had to stay in one spot. After about an hour and a half the other team finally came back.

We all hopped in Logan’s van and off we went. The ride was only short and when we got there we were so excited that we started throwing snowballs at each other. When Logan got out of the van we started to walk. Logan said that we were not allowed to throw snowballs but what we could do was thrown snowballs in trees or just shake the trees so snow falls down on whoever is under you. When we had finished the walk and before we hopped in the car we had a huge snowball fight. I grabbed two armfulls of snow and dumped it on Logan and after I did that everyone seemed to go after Logan. When we were just about to leave one of my friends lied down in the snow and I sneaked up on her, grabbed a big arm full of snow and dropped it on her and smothered some in her face. It was soon time to go back to the lodge so we all hopped in Logan’s van and drove off.

When we got there we all went inside and put our pajamas on. We played lots of games of spotlight but it was finally time for dinner. For dinner we had salad and spaghetti bolognaise. I was so hungry that I hurried to the kitchen, chose what I wanted to eat and sat back down. I had already shoveled up my first helping when nearly everybody around me had only eaten just of half with only maybe a couple people had nearly finished. I ran to the bench and helped myself to another serving which was probably bigger than my first when I finished I looked around and saw some other people still eating. By the time I had finished eating it was time to get into our bunks. We told lots of more scary stories but then it was time for sleep so we all began to drift of to sleep.

The next morning I was woken up by kids screaming too early in the morning once again. We all gradually woke up and had breakfast. This time, I had 4 servings of breakfast. We heard something that sounded like a clown’s nose. We all looked out the window and there we saw the bus. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” I thought inside my head. I really did not want to leave but my time had come.

Before I knew it I was sitting in the middle of the bus next to Natasha. We talked the whole way to school and we were there at what seemed like only 20 minutes. I said my goodbyes to my friends and my Mum can and we drove off.

The next day the whole thing seemed like a blur. When Mr.M told us that we had to do a recount about the whole camp I spent ages trying to remember what we did but I finally remembered. Now I wish that all my camps will be like that one.

Written by Sinead.