An excellent specimen of a pukeko above ^^^

After sleeping on the ground in the cold and wet (well, we had tents but it was still raining, and our tent fly was damp also from the morning dew) EVERY GODDAMN THING IN YOUR BODY IS STIFF! Although it was mostly my back, from carrying those gigantor kayaks the day before. It was already light at 5.00am (it got dark at 9.00pm) so I got up to use the toilet/portaloo (lying squished up in the tent next to my sleeping tent mates wasn't going to get me anywhere) while no one was there. Shortly after, I had to go wake up some people in other tents across the field (I was an alarm clock!) and as a reward I got food (nom nom nom).

I ate so much food at camp.

Our first activity started at 8.30am, so we needed to have brekky, wash up and change by 8.25am. For breakfast we had pancakes! The cheap kind that you buy in a powdered mix in a bottle and add water to make batter. It actually tasted and smelled pretty good. Unfortunately, we forgot to bring maple syrup. Caitlin had quite intelligently bought jam chocolate and so we improvised and melted the chocolate to make ganache and then WE DIPPED THE PANCAKES IN THE CHOCOLATE!!!

When I went to camp I had two objectives.
1. To lose weight
2. Get tanned
You would be pleased to know I achieved none of these.
(Well actually, I did get sunburnt FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE! And a leeetle bit tanned, and I lost 2kgs :P)

Anyways, I had to do the washing up and unfortunately the melted chocolate made it quite messy. It took me 20 minutes under the camp tap. Then I had to go get ready for Beach Education and Surfing! I love surfing! We were a bit late but that's because some people slept in. After numbering off (everyone has a number, and we have to yell them out in chronological order one after another) we headed down to the beach. The sand wasnt so hot since it was nice and fresh in the morning. We still had to carry the surfboards onto the beach, and my stupid short arms did not help in anyway. I had to carry my surfboard on my head like an African woman carrying a jug of water. Skills. We didn't have to get wetsuits but they provided rash tops (And they had cockroaches in them! Ew! Thank God I brought my own rash top.) Our small class of 24 got divided into 2 groups of 12. My group got to do surfing first, yay! I was first up, as in standing up on the board. I think surfing is the only water sport I enjoy. Our waves were very calm, they barely classified as waves, but we had a good time out on the water.

Beach Ed was just as fun. The life guards taking us were extremely enthusiastic to get us sand covered. We played Beach flag (damnit I came second to the very vicious Coral haha ASIANS RULE!) involving lying down on the sand and diving for flags. And relays which involved pencil and forward rolls on the sand, but we got to swim out to sea to get all the sand out of our togs and shorts and hair and everything! The water was so clear!!! And salty, but that was besides the point.

Unfortunately, we were late finishing that activity, so we only had 5 minutes for all of us to get changed, so I ended up with tonnes of sand in my hair and a scruffy looking pair of shorts because I couldn't find any short ones to get tanned :(
Our next activity was GAMES- team bonding of course. We had to find ways to fit people creatively on pieces of carpet, starting at a 50x70cm piece going down to a 25x40cm piece, with 6 people! I think our methods were very creative :) The next part of games involved us diving to 2 groups of 12 again, and then heading to a small section of grass with 30 numbered tags. The objective of the game involved numbering off from 1 to 30, but to number off you had to actually find the number and hold the tags, which were not placed in chronological order.

Our group won :) with a time of 16 seconds.

It was lunch next, we had mac and cheese, accompanied with last night's left over tomatoes and burger patties. It was heaven. We were really good at improvising, just adding in any left over food that was tasty. I cooked so I avoided the dishes hahaha

We had snorkelling after lunch! I was actually kinda freaked because I though creepy fish were going to come and eat me, but thankfully nothing of that sort happened. It was 'preferred' that we wore wetsuits (which basically meant it was compulsory), but it was quite cold in the water so we were grateful.

Not our class, but I snapped some pictures of another class looking funny in their wetsuits and snorkelling gear! Sarah (middle) looks perplexed from the wetsuit aliens!

Amy looking patriotic with an Epsom Girls Grammar School donned there.
Snorkelling buddies!

Snorkelling was amazing. The water was chock full of sting free jellyfish and jellyfish eggs, but once you got used to them it was fine. I didn't duck dive, but my friends who did were paranoid about the little jellyfish swimming into their snorkels :P
We saw snapper and spottys and crayfish, it was so cool. If it wasn't for my fear of water, I'd be a marine biologist.

After snorkelling, we had mountain biking. 2 courses were available, an actual mountain course and a flat loop along the drive way. All the previous classes had complained that it was ultra hard, and heaps of people had just opted for the easy course but our ENTIRE class was awesome and did the hard course.

Of course, half way up the hill I started to regret my decision. I was only able to ride my bike half way up the hill (I did the last half, the first climb was too steep!) but I was still one of the first ones to make it, everyone else dragged behind puffing and panting while we eager ones had a good rest and breeze at the top. (No pictures sorry :( )

We also had to lift our bikes over several gates because they were all padlocked, and after the 2nd gate, all this fresh cow poo started arriving. The teacher that supervised us, Ms Cleere, was deliberately riding through the cow pats to see how many she could get through. No one wanted to help lift her poo covered bike over the gate!

After the up hill climb, the rest was a breeze. The trail was ultra bumpy from all sorts of dried poo and the sorts, when you rode fast over them you could feel the fat pulsating off your arms (which was good! that's where a whole kg of random fat I had disappeared to!)
The down hill was just as steep as the up hill, and covered in even more dried poo than was imaginable, but it was the best bit of the entire ride. A couple of people took dramatic tumbles, but overall, everyone escaped the dreaded poo covered field unscathed.

So...that was our activities for the day. Our dinner was some sort of packaged pasta, so I opted to go steal food from my friend's tent. Hotdogs! nom nom nom
My dear friend Katherine cannot cook for her life, at lunch I caught her making mac and cheese from a microwavable packet on a camp stove, and SHE COOKED IT FOR 45 MINUTES! Never in her life had she attempeted to cook anything other than in a microwave.
I find that very sad.

After dinner, it was the same story...free time. I tidied up the tent a little in preparation for the next day, and then we had night games! Since it wasn't raining.

We played spotlight, and we had to find a whistle in a bucket, in the dark, without getting 'out' by a teacher shining a torch in your face. Our class didn't win a single round, so we all though it was kinda lame (haha bad sportsWOMANship 10DY!!)

And then it was to bed again.
I like marshmallows.