Early March, Birk went on a five day camp at Waipu Cove, about two hours north of here. Phones and smartwatches etc. were to be left at home, so they spent five whole days without any devices. All kids survived :)

Preparing (for Norway?)

The preparation of the camp actually took quite a lot of time. Where normally at home you have most of the things lying around somewhere, here we had to borrow them or figure out where to buy it. It was also impressive to see how long the packing list was. Another (Dutch) parent who had a kid temporarily attending this school said: ‘You’d think they go to Norway!’ They needed a sleeping bag, roll, pillow, an extra blanket, raincoat, woolen jersey or fleece, two hoodies, warm clothes for the evening and the nights, long warm socks, two thermal leggings and two thermal tops (very important) and a warm hat. And swimming gear, two towels, sandals/jandals, old shoes for caving and a bowl and plate. All of this should be clearly named and should fit in a ‘cricket-sized bag’, which we didn’t have. But we managed to fit most of it in his suitcase, with a sleeping bag and mattrass attached on top.

Buddies

The bus left on Monday morning in the rain, but happily that was pretty much the only rain they got, so they had fine weather for the many outdoor activities they had. The kids were also well prepared, having put up the tents at school the previous week. They were put in different teams, which nicely mixed all the kids together. Birk slept in a tent with 6 kids in total from the same classroom, with his friend Arian as his buddy (when going to the bathroom at night, they would need to wake up their buddy and go together!). For the day activities, Birk had Alina and Henry as activity group buddies, and those small groups were then mixed with different classrooms. They got a leaflet where this was all noted down, which also said: ‘What to do if you lose your buddy: Find the teacher in charge or an adult immediately’. It also contained a list of ‘expectations’ such as ‘Never go onto the beach unless it is supervised AND permission has been given by a teacher’.

Glowworms and canned spaghetti on toast

Every day they did several outdoor activities. Birk learned about rips and other beach/swimming safety (quite relevant here in New Zealand because there are a lot of dangerous beaches), went orienteering (which somehow meant making a sand sculpture), did all kinds of survivor exercises, and kayaked on waves. He also helped building a bivvy (or bivouac shelter), for which his knowledge of knots gained at scouting really paid off – their bivvy was the best one! He also went surfing, which he found very easy. On his very first try, he already managed to stand up and ride all the way to the beach! The highlight was the caving expedition, where they saw glow worms (you should ask Birk about them) and experienced complete quiet in the dark. The food was also good, he got ‘ham-on-the-bone’, butter chicken, and one of the breakfast options was canned spaghetti on toast (which he liked!).

And did he end up using all the stuff they brought along? Of course not, it wasn't that cold, actually. Birk told us he was talking with one of the other kids who pulled a second towel out of their bag and said: ‘Eh, why do we have two towels??’ Birk wasn’t even aware he had two with him :D.

(And finally, the blog works again - this was the post that was supposed to accompany the pictures :))