Camp Bentzon Recount

Watching the blue sea crash into the sand the year 6’s were waiting for a wild adventure. As we sat on the ferry we had almost arrived at our destination... “WOOHOO!” I sighed when we finally arrived at Kawau Island. When we hopped off the ferry, everybody couldn't wait to begin an awesome journey. After unloading every bag we started our day with a 2 hour hike that tired my guts out.

“Ughhh! Are we there yet!” I asked Zane. “Looks like we have a long way to walk.” He replied. We walked and walked until we reached the top of the mountain.  I was huffing and puffing but eventually caught my breath! Collin (my other mate) put a rock on this pile to show how much strength we put into walking up this huge mountain. At that moment I thought we were going back to the camp grounds but noooo... I thought wrong we still had about an hour left to walk but I sucked it up and did it anyway. When we got to the beach, which actually took 10 minutes, I started to skim rocks with my budds, Matiu, Owen, Louis and my Mum! About an hour later we walked back to camp and went for a swim.

The next day we started our first activity. Peter the camp organizer took us for sailing. He told us a saying which was tiller to the sail that made the boat turn. When he told us all of the steps, Owen demonstrated them to us. After Owen finished demonstrating everyone was sailing to this red house and back. Sailing was so awesome having the nice breeze touching my face while cruising along the water. The next activity was the confidence course with Mr Jacobsen. The confidence course is a variety of obstacles that builds your confidence. I enjoyed the rope swinging obstacle the best as I could swing like a monkey. After this we did Orienteering which was one of the difficult activities because we didn’t use the compasses properly.

We did other amazing activities such as Burma Trail, Abseiling, Kayaking, Raft Building and Bivouac. But I have to say that sailing was my favourite because I got to sail by myself. Also I had a sailing challenge with Owen who won an award for best sailer.

On the last night we had a concert. We had been practising at camp, day and night working our butts off and now it was time for the real thing. First group up was Katz. Their performance was probably the worst because not everyone was singing. Next group was Kawau. Kawau’s dance was good because everyone got involved, they did it with pride. After was Mansion and they performed the song, “All About That Bass,” by Meghan Trainor. They also sang a song that was created by Tamaki College. The last group was mine BENTZON! (The best team of all time!) We created our own haka that mocked other group names which made everyone laugh. Bentzon also did that song that goes I love you, you love me but we changed it to I love camp, camp loves me, Bentzon is our family with a...! As Miss Garden and Mr Jacobsen called out the placings... “In 4th place is Katz!! In 3rd place is Kawau....!” “WOW!” I think in my mind. “And in 1st place is....... BENTZON!” “WOOOHOOO!” My whole team screamed. So after winning the concert we had to perform again.

My experience at camp was awesome as I had heaps of time to hang out with my friends, had lots of yummy food and doing cool activities. The overall favourite part for me was the concert because we WON it. I would recommend this camp to the year 5’s for next year as you will have lots of fun and you will never get an awesome experience such as Camp Bentzon ever in your life... unless you are richer than rich!