Whenua Iti 

by Fergus

Fun, challenging, exciting, blood pumping etc. That is only one  of the hundreds of what I could say Whenua iti is like it is the most amazing experience for the outdoors I’ve had in a year- it is great.

Week 1: The arrival

When we pulled up at Whenua Iti I gasped- in the distance I saw a 15 meter tall tower, a high ropes, a trapeze and a huge field for games and activities. We came to the small hall of Whenua iti, the sleeping and talking area. We started with a talk about leadership that our three hosts Jo, Johnny and Charlie. After our talk they told us to get into two groups splitting Max and I to either ends of the room then split the rest of the group. They told us my group was doing the climbing wall and Max’s were doing the trapeze and we would swap after lunch. We had our morning tea then set off to our first adventure... the tower was huge.

I teamed up with Reuben and Dylan and we went to the hard climb. The instructors told us to start climbing when we were ready. I told Dylan I was ready, then started up the tower at a great pace. Only 10 seconds later I was struggling climbing on the hard climb. Finally I got past the tricky bit but the worst was yet to come when I was 3 meters from the top 12 meters above the ground things got tricky there were no hand holds anywhere I had to jump I jumped got to the top then got lowered back down Dylan and Reuben had their turns we watched the others then we went back to the hall for lunch.

After lunch we went to the trapeze, we got geared up then I went first I jumped for the bar but missed. I watched everyone else for the rest of the activity but then Charlie asked if I would like another go. I was ready I got my gear back on raced up the ladder and got to the top of the poll for a few seconds I stood there staring into space then I jumped I felt my fingers curl around the bar I had DONE IT, I felt great grabbing that poll the last chance of the day that I had, I had done it. We all went back to the hall the first day of Whenua iti was great I loved it and I could wait to do it next week!

I don’t have time to talk about the other weeks but I'll do a quick summary about them.

Week 2 we learnt games and taught them to the rest of our group then after lunch we had an activity each and my group did the high ropes after that we had a talk with the other group then came back to school.

Week 3 we shared the games we shared with our own group to the other group then we went to the activity the other group went to last week the flying Kiorea (rat). We were hoisted up into the air and swung around for awhile then came back down. After that we went back to the hall had a talk and went back to school.

Week 4 We arrived at the hall and talked about what we were doing today. We got on the Whenua iti bus and drove to the beach 5 min off kaiteriteri. When we arrived we were greeted by 2 DOC rangers they lead us to the bushes on the sand dunes. It was covered by gorse and shrubs so we got to work right away we pulled out all the weeds then planted some new bushes and trees. We thanked the DOC rangers and boarded the bus and drove back to Whenua iti When we arrived we thanked the Whenua iti staff and said our goodbyes then left Whenua iti and headed back to school for the last time.

By Fergus