Chief Scout Rimu Award Adventurous Journey
by Hannah Penty, Rose Parkman, and Hamish Brown
On the our group we were taking to our camp met up at the den to get some things ready to take with us. After 15 minutes we took off in our car groups to go to palmerston north, we took a pit stop half way through to stretch our legs at Hawera to walk up to the Hawera water tower.
The walk was short but very steep, my legs ached by the time we reached the top of the hill where the water tower was placed. This water tower has a spiral staircase with 215 steps! I was incredibly dizzy when I got to the top. Hannah, Hamish, Amelia, Kalina, Trinaya, and Rosie joined me and we all were amazed by the view, it was a lovely view that looked over the river Tanga Hoe River, we spotted a huge metal ball placed on the grass by the bank next the river. We began the trek down, it was even more dizzying the 2nd time though. The boys, Matt, Connor and Toby didnt join us, their loss though.
We ate some lunch up there and then we walked down. There was a tunnel at the very bottom leading the the elevator which the leaders were going to take but then later discovered that it was broken. We took a nice photo in there. It was quite echoey in there and the boys went in for a bit when left. Not very social of them.
When we met up with the leaders again we went to the near by Paknsave to pick up our food. Unfortunately later when we were at the the cabin we discovered we’d forgotten a few bags that were in a different locker to our other food. But then after that we went back into our cars and set off to our final destination for the day, Konini Lodge.
When we got there is was very foggy and covered in forestry. It was so beautiful we were above the clouds. Dinner was burgers and then was it we realized we had forgotten the other bags at paknsave. Hannah and Hamish drove back with a leader while I was there to keep an eye on the others to make sure they didnt burn the place down. Not very ideal considering we were sharing the cabin with many other people. There were 3 or 4 other rooms there with 1 big kitchen in the middle separating the room big common rooms, with symmetrical kitchen applyiences and layouts. There was 1 hallway down the side with the 2 bathrooms and drying room.
Thankfully Hannah and Hamish came back to nobody harmed or anything broken.
We were all incredibly bored. I was just a teensy bit hyper, drawing on the windows, being told to sit down by Kalina and Hannah while Rosie brought her sleeping bag out next to the table and just found a spot to sleep on the ground (keep in mind there was a perfectly fine cabin across the room from us) and just, slept. Conner, Matt and Toby found a blow up baseball bat and ball so they played with that for a while, although quite proud of them for not annoying the neighbours.
After we had dinner we did a review on the day, all was good but the paknsave incident came up alot. But that finished up quickly and we calmed down for a bit and then headed off to bed, it had been a long day and we needed the sleep.
The next day we woke up and had some breakfast which was just some toast and cereal. But then came then we had to mentally prepare oursleves for a trecherous climb up Mt Taranaki.
We set off at about 10am and there were, so, many, stairs. Majority of it was just straight stairs. We had music thanks to Matts great playlist and Hamish bringing his speaker so it made the climb faster and more enjoyable. We reached the point where we were out in the open and no longer in the trees, the view up the Mountain was so pretty and awesome but we couldnt stop, not then. We werent even halfway up. I found it really entertaining watching Rosie catch pokemons with the app on her phone.
Finally after hours of walking we reached the halfway checkpoint. There we had some morning tea and looked at the view and all the graffiti sprewn all over the walls. The view was even more spectacular. “Hey, its not that bad, were halfway there. And atleast its only stars and not a straight up cliff” I told everyone. Very optimistic of me. We ate some food there and carried on up the mountain.
The boys rushed off ahead and just sped up the mountain. Ages later we reached a hut. Stratford Hut. It was a private one so we just sat outside enjoying some talk with the leaders and soaking in the breaktaing view. We didnt walk up to the very top but Kym and Derrick took the boys and led them up the mountain even more, but the rest of us walked down too tired to do any more.
My legs literally died hahah. It was so worth it though, the view was amazing! The steps down were almost as tough as the steps up! I tripped a few times but never fell over thankfully, it wouldved been painful.
We had some interesting convos on the way down, one of them planning to go to the gym, but it went by so quickly! When we got down to the bottom, we went to the information center and ate some lunch and watched the thick fog pass by.
I had to dibbs the shower because i wanted one so badly! But when we got there I rushed off to the shower while the others put on some music and played Ps & As the card game. I joined in like 5 rounds later and then left again to get my socks on because it was COLD! After that we all went to the cabin and got on the top bunks and played some baseball with the blowup bat and the blowup ball. It was *interesting*. Nothing got broken thankfully but it was very fun and we got lots of laughs out of it.
Then after an amazing hour or so, Matt, Connor, Toby, Derrick and Kym came back and we just chilled for a bit.
We had dinner a bit later and it was Nachos, a scout classic. I cant quite remember what we had for desert but I do remember matt making some questionable images with whipped cream on his plate (THAT STILL HAD THE NACHO JUICE ON IT!!) and ate it. I felt quite sick afterwards. Then we had the BEST idea to ambush the leaders while wearing teshirts as masks to conceal our identities. It was very interesting, Matt came up with a whole game plan and everything. I think we slept a little better that night after a long day of climbing for several hours straight :).
The next morning we all slowly got up and out of bed and had some breakfast, we had some bacon, cereal and whipped cream which made me nauseous. Our main goal for that day was to pack up before 11. Somebody put on some VERY helpful songs like itsy bitsy spider and the clean up song, in courtesy of Connor. We ended up singing some taylor swift songs during that. I think i should also mention some taylor swift songs I now know of by heart, theres never been a camp that ive been on with Hannah (within the last year and a half) where I HAVENT learned some songs off by heart, anyway.
We packed up by 10:30 and we took off leaving the hut better than how we found it. The drive back went by too quickly, so fast I can’t even remember where we stopped for lunch! Anyway we get back to the den and everyone gets picked up, everyone of happy and tired, so thats a win in my book.
Overall I think the camp wasn’t quite a success, couldve been better but it was near a success. If only it werent for the paknsave incident, it wouldve been perfect.
More pictures are available here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/XCuJqdA9iXYphfrT9
