The date was March 3rd... Year 7 and 11 students congregated at the front of the College. The challenge? Preparing the bus for its departure to a 3 day getaway at Bendalong. Unfortunately the Year 7 students and a group of Year 11 students were delayed because one of the buses broke down, an untimely inconvenience. After the remaining Year 11 students re-packed the new bus, everyone who hadn’t departed already was eager to be leaving for the most important stop in the journey… Maccas!

Once we arrived at Bendalong we hastily set up camp. We had arrived later than expected so it was more of a challenge to set-up tents in the dark, however, they were put up very efficiently so the Year 7 students had ample time to play Battle for Bendalong. The Battle for Bendalong is a thrilling game for the Year 7s to participate in after a long trip up. They spent over an hour chasing each other in the dark with flashlights up and down the beach. The students were divided into their respective house groups with the goal of stealing the most tags and cones from the opposing teams then successfully making it back to their base. By the end of the night, a winning team was announced... Chisholm! However, there was a sudden change of events - Xavier and Mackillop had made a treaty and combined their points together to overthrow the treacherous opposing team.

After the game, the Year 7’s settled into bed, closely followed by the Year 11 leaders. We had all settled into bed and prepared ourselves for a night of rest. The night was peaceful, with Mr Tim Hodges saying, “I had a fantastic night’s sleep. One of the best I’ve ever had on camp.”

In the morning, our Year 11 chefs (under the guidance of Mrs Dalgleish) cooked a delicious breakfast of bacon and eggs for everyone, before each group started their first activity. The groups competed against each other in a variety of activities. The main events involved Drama & Theatre Games, Scavenger Hunts, a Sandcastle Building Competition and Bondi Rescue. Each activity was designed to help encourage team spirit and to build teamwork as well as individuality for the Year 7 students. Ms Sonia Pope encouraged the students to run around and not be confined to their comfort zones with her fun and exciting theatre sports. The scavenger hunt helped increase observational skills and boost teamwork. Building Sandcastles was a fun and engaging way to compete against each other using STEM skills. Finally, Bondi Rescue required students to practise their essential rescue skills. This last activity allowed students to swim and run as well as learn important skills for time at the Beach.

Throughout the day the groups had also been working on short, parody advertisements. Each group was given two random objects and had to make these two objects into an interesting, unrelated product to sell. Each group did something completely different, and there was a wide variety of enjoyable elements such as jingles, humour and audience engagement. Afterwards, the teams competed in an intense game of trivia. The prevailing team was certainly an unexpected twist, the pseudo-team that was comprised of photographers and chefs won!

Day 3 was a day to relax after the enjoyable, albeit exhausting, activities of the day before. Everyone went down to the beach for the final competition... a Sand Sculpture competition. Everyone’s creativity was turned up to 11. Sculptures were made of mermaids, islands, animals, a massive hand and even a couch for Mr Hodges to relax into. After this, we all relaxed and ate before packing up our tents and equipment. The buses were packed, and once everyone made their way onto the buses the camp had concluded.

Due to the incredible effort put in by all the staff we had chaperoning us throughout the days, we were able to have an amazing time full of memorable moments for the Staff, Year 11 students and most importantly, the Year 7 students.

Written by Sam Bath

Edited by Tāne Simons

Chief Photographer: Tāne Simons

Assistant Photographer: Sam Bath