BACK FROM CAMP!

Oh my god. Best five days of this year, definitely. Definitely definitely the best five days of this year. And again! BEST FIVE DAYS OF THIS YEAR.

I suppose it really helped that I wasn't going there with high expectations. All the time when people keep bitching about how little food there is I'm enjoying it. All the time when people are complaining (ahem, Brandon) about shit that's happening, I cruised through it. And, Camp was fun. I did so much shit and it was all wicked. In no particular order, let's start with some random thoughts.

- There was a playground! Imagine 17-18 year olds (with the exception of me) on a playground, and the hilarity that ensues.

- There was a dairy about a ten minute walk from the campsite! I must have been there about three times in the five days and spent like, $10. (Which reminds me, Brandon owes me $20.)

- I walked around barefoot 94% of the time. The only time I had shoes on was Tramping, Mountain Biking (which wasn't really that, but more on that later) and Caving.

- The food...not too shabby considering they have to cater for like 300 people. No mean feat I can assure you. The hot chocolate was pretty much sugar water with food colouring, but the macaroni and cheese dinner one night was very nice.

- I met so many people it wasn't funny. (Well, in a strange way it was, but in a cool not funny way. I digress.)

Well, what did I do in five days? I'll just copy off the sheet.

Abseiling

This wasn't a highlight for me. More like a midly enjoyable filler activity. I don't know about you, but controlled falling just doesn't really do it for me. It was pretty freaky to start with when you look down and you're like SHIT but then when you actually start falling at the speed of a walking fat American, it's like meh.

Rock Climbing

This was alright. I show my general ineptitude at all things physical by ruining the harness for one of the rock climbing stations, thus preventing everyone behind me from climbing that rock face. ALRIGHT! I did climb the easiest rockface. At least I tried my best. And I can say that I ruined the harness because I tried so hard. Yup. -_-

Caving

What a huge contrast to what I thought it would be. I expected that I'd just go for a walk through a dark hole. And hell yeah, caving is walking through a dark hole. Only fun! Who knew that getting your clothes ruined and smelling like crap was so much fun? Sliding around, squeezing through impossibly narrow corridors and all those stalactite things. And that water, oooh nice cold water. Best activity I did on camp. Kamal agrees with me, therefore we are correct and all those losers who enjoyed sitting around doing jackshit like those Korean girls in our group are wrong.

Archery

Despite me not having done this in like a year, I fluked getting a yellow on my first arrow. ^_^ Andrew Wallace fully had the mean aim, all he'd do was raise the bow, let go, and it'd find its way to where he wanted it to go. No aiming, no mess, just fucking load and fire. I didn't really do very well but I was the only person to pop the balloon attached to the targets which were waving in the wind and whatnot.

Water-based Activity

Better than I thought. I managed to stay very very clean compared to everyone else, the stupid bastards, heh heh. Basically, we all build rafts and played a game down a river. The only gay thing was that on my raft were two useless girls, Kate (I don't know her last name) and Sarah Fels. Kate kept yelling at me and Andrew to paddle while just leaving her paddle in the water, making us turn and forcing me to compensate for her cockup, and Sarah Fels didn't seem to understand the concept of turning on a raft.

Speaking of Sarah Fels I've just noticed (I can't believe it slipped by me) that she has a huge ego. Backtrack to Archery for a bit. She boasts she's going to beat everyone because she's done archery for three years and she rules at it and blah blah huge fucking pile of shit. For half the time, all she did was shoot her arrow over the target. I wonder what she did for three years, learn to use her fingers? And then there was the tramp, where "she totally ruled" and held everyone back. And there was pistol shooting where she held her gun at the barrel, increasing the chance of her shooting her fingers off (not sure if that's a good or bad thing) and got a few fluke shots and said she ruled and shit. She took like 5 minutes to shoot once, and held us all back. Then she missed the target after about five shots. And Kurt beat her score by miles.

Enough about Sarah Fels.

Pistol Shooting

Damn I suck at this. I don't have a particularly steady hand so you can imagine what happens. I did hit the target once though, which I'm quite, uh, proud of. (Hey, at least I hit the damn thing!) Kurt ruled though. He shot lying down on the floor, gangsta style, it didn't matter, whatever he did, he hit the target.

Screen Printing

I put "Congrats, you now have sars" on my T-shirt. Hilarity ensued.

Tramping

Hooray a walk in the bush. That's what I thought. But it was fully wicked! Sure, climbing up like a 70 degree slope which is muddy and smells like arse isn't too good, but going downhill kicked arse. I can't believe I went so far either, amazing. I fully thought I'd collapse about halfway through, but I made it and I was fine after. Strange. (I do, however, have a mean sore thigh from that stupid uphill shit.) The fish and chips we bought from the takeaway were legend too. Mmm. (Speaking of the shop, they fully made a crapload of business when we were down in Ngaruawahia - and the chicken burger I bought from them was hell nice.)

Mountain Biking

Not exactly mountains. Just a ride around the campsite. It was alright even though the name was misleading, I hadn't been on a bike since last year's triathlon so it was kinda nice.

Dr. Edwards Workshops

Mixed feelings on this one. At times he was droning on and on, but he makes really good points, even though my book I doodled in says otherwise. They didn't really have to be that long though, he could have been more precise and to the point rather than waffly. I suppose he's getting paid shitloads so he doesn't care.

--Other things that I can say--

Accomodation was, strange. There was a disturbing white stain on my mattress in the cabin me and seven others (Byron, Ryan (the saf one), Kamal, Kurt, Heusen, Kev, Yu-nan and Christian) were in. The ladders to the top bunks (I was on one) were designed for five year olds, or midgets. One of the two. The food was alright as I said before, there's always something I didn't really like and something I liked.

The showers sucked. I fully tried not to take a shower but I couldn't stand it after caving. There was fully no pressure, the hot water was fickle...but I suppose at least there was a shower.

--Entertainment at night--

First night's entertainment was Fear Factor, where people tried to get skittles out of a tub of baked beans with their head (and the tub wasn't changed, ever - so the later people had to deal with recycled spit too), drinking lots and lots of milk, throwing around a spicy sheep's heart (yes, sheep).

Then after, there was the man-o-man. High/low points were:

Shern. Doesn't seem to be able to keep his shirt on (much like everyone else in the competition)
Sam Forde. A bunny suit, then red undies and a leopard skin top? Uh...
Rikky. With a T-shirt that says "testosterone man", he really should have won.
Fraser. Best pickup line ever - "If I throw a coin what are the chances of me getting head?"
Chris White and Steve Arnold. Imagine wrestling in a jockstrap and tighty whities between the two, who were covered in baby oil. Yes, nudity ensued. Yes, Steve Arnold lost his underwear.

Second night was some lame attempt at a singalong. As nice as the idea was, it doesn't really work if only the ten people around the guitar can hear the guitar. I don't think we even finished a song. Saving grace was John Boden's mint solo performance though. Nice.

Third night, hot pools! Oh yeah they were good. Oh very much so. Despite rumours that someone took a dump in the pool and Teyla had her period in the pool, it was still good. There was this strange smell, but I hope it was just the sulphur.

And last night, the concert. Skits from houses, and the teacher skit. Oh man, the teacher skit was funny. Miss Rowbotham trying very very hard to keep a straight face. Ms Warner being Judge Hardass. Rule 69 about Sexual Harrassment! Arunum trying to copy Rikky's eclipse gum ad rendition, fully bombed it did. What a loser. I think he changed his name to Daryl for some stupid reason as well. The skit which involved KFC, a black guy, and a Steve Irwin impersonation.

---

The view was good. The camp environment was nice, there were fully sheeps and cows and horses there. There was even a horse that looked like a cow. Crazy. The camp was great because of the people, no less. All those new people I met, good mates, random hilarity, it was shitloads better than school. Huge props to the school eh.

Yeah. It was wicked, wicked. I'm probably going to forget by next year, but at least I'll have this blog, maybe.

Also, Kevin didn't believe I was my brother's, uh, brother. That's all. (And Philip Wong is a tosser). Oh yeah, and Brandon doesn't stop complaining. ^_^

---

I'm tired. Supposely there could be a get-together. I'm angry, I can't find my Monty Python DVDs. I don't have any mode of transport anyway. Once I blog, I'm going to call him and tell him I can't find it. Yes. Well, that's it. I don't really remember anything else about camp. (Oh yes, Tineke got really shitty at me. Must be because I keep pissing her off. >.>)