Weka Day Camp

On Wednesday, Room 18, Room 2 and half of Room 1 went on the Weka Day Camp, held every year at the in the Auckland Botanical Gardens.  Luckily we had the perfect day, not too hot and not too cold with none of the Spring showers that the weather report predicted.  

Our day started straight after bag inspection, when we all alighted the bus at 9 o'clock.  When we first arrived at the park, we had morning tea and a toilet stop while our parent helpers joined us.  Then it was a long walk down through the gardens to our camp site.  We walked past a whole forest of monkey puzzle trees, some big and some just baby trees.  It was interesting to read that non-flowering trees like these were around when the dinosaurs were roaming the planet.  

The students were organised into three groups and rotated through three different camping activities: cooking sausages over an open fire and erecting tents; orienteering; and tramping through the bush using map skills and learning about some of our native trees.

Most people enjoyed cooking sausages on a camp fire best, and absolutely everyone liked eating their sausage, even the parent helpers!

Erecting tents separated the sheep from the goats - you could easily see who had put up a tent before and who hadn't!  However, everyone got there in the end.  It was nice having a (short) time to relax inside the tents once they were up.

Then we had to take them down and roll them up, ready for the next group.

There was an orienteering HQ where you picked up your compass and orienteering sheet as well as choosing a map.  Each map was marked with a red triangle which indicated the campsite, a red circle indicating where the orienteering flag was and a red line connecting the two for you to follow.

Mrs Burnett from Room 1 was in charge on this orienteering session.

The orienteering flags were all around the bottom part of the park.  Who will find these two flags?

When you found a flag, you marked your orientation sheet by stamping it with the special stapler on top of the flag pole.  Each flag has its own two letter code and each stapler made different pattern so you could easily see which flags you had found.  If you look carefully, you can see the holes the staplers made on these sheets - Lucas's group found nine flags and Chloe's group found seven.

Here are some of the orienteering groups . . . 

And here are some in action out on the field . . . 

The tramp was a great way to enjoy the bush, learn something about native trees and have a go at map reading.  Here is our video as we enter Totora Park bush:

We learned about some of the native trees.   The Maori name for this tree is punga but the common name is Silver Fern because the underside of the leaves are silvery white.  It is a famous New Zealand icon. 

The Maori name for this native tree is Rangiora but its common name is Bushman's Friend.  The underleaf is very soft so you can use it as toilet paper in the bush.

These spiky leaves from the Rimu tree can be useful in the bush too.  You can use them as a little comb to tidy your hair!

It had been a FULL day so the trip back to school was MUCH quieter as we rested and relaxed in the bus.