Year 12 Outdoor Education Tramp
The students have just been tramping in the Kelly range.
I arrived at school amped to be heading off on another Outdoor Ed practical. We were divided into two groups. My team piled into the van ready to get going. We arrived at the launch point and started walking where we were met with an immediate uphill climb, but we were feeling good with fresh legs so tackled it in our stride. We then breezed through the flat 8k in two hours and were sent up a 1000m climb. This was draining for most of the group including myself but we persevered into the dark. We arrived at the campsite where the other group was waiting for us. My food group made dinner which was a form of fried rice, we then pitched our tent and went to bed.
On day two we woke up to a cold but fairly cruisy morning. We packed up and set out, my team was going off trail across the Bald range. This took all day walking around the pristine mountains, which gave us plenty of opportunities for amazing scenic photos. It was draining but the views were worth it. At one point we had no idea where the start of the trail was and Mr Talbot jokingly said ‘if you don't find the trail almost all of you will cry!’ But luckily as it was getting dark we found the trail and began our descent from the mountain to the valley floor in the dark almost everyone had fallen over as we were walking this trail but morale remained high and we worked as a team to get to our next stop. We got to the hut to find the other group waiting for us and Mr Talbot said we could sleep in the hut because it had been a rough day. So we made dinner and went to bed.
Day three started with the usual pack up routine ready to walk out to the same flat we did on day one. Once we got out we waited for Mr Talbot and Mr Lee to get the van, while they were doing that we were eating and both teams were sharing our stories of our adventure with each other. Before we knew it the van arrived we drove back to school, we hung up the tents to dry out and went home for some well deserved hot showers.
Outdoor Ed is my favourite class, it gives me the opportunity to experience the outdoors in ways I haven’t had before, in the most amazing settings. Mr Talbot and Mr Lee are great teachers with so much experience behind them but they never make you feel like you don’t know anything. They help guide us to learning and challenge us to reach our full potential, often surprising ourselves when we pass what we thought were our limits. I especially like the feeling of whanaungatanga as we connect as a group supporting each other through each experience. They also help us to understand the school values more by relating all our learning back to the values. I feel privileged to have the opportunity to experience Outdoor Ed and can’t wait till my next practical assessment, out in the field.
Nā, Natal Conn-Priest
Year 12 student