29 September 2009

Foundation Camp: An Outdoor Orientation Programme

Four Days at Highland Home in the Pohangina Valley

By Shirley Ghozalli. Edited by Moira Blake.

As part of their programme, Foundation students took part in a Kiwi style camp. Most of the Foundation students, accompanied by IPC lecturers and EOC staff members, went to the Highland Home Christian Camp in the Pohangina Valley on the morning of Monday, 31st August and returned to campus on Thursday 3rd September.

On arrival at the campsite, the students were assigned to the rooms they would sleep in for the next 3 nights and then quickly assembled in the large lounge, where they were involved in several ice breaking activities, before being divided into 8 teams of 6 - 7 students and given the first of their team-building activities. This included the task of creating a skit, which had to include the 8 words the team had just chosen (without knowing what they would use them for). The skits would be preformed on the last night of the camp. After lunch students were involved in set of team building activities on the camp's Confidence course. A student from Vietnam, Huu Tin Vo, said, "I enjoyed playing on the trampoline and the team building activities."

That night and the second night, accompanied by IPC staff members, the teams were put into two big groups and went out to the area surrounding the campsite, one group on a short night walk followed by time to work on their skit preparation, and the other on a longer walk in the bush to see some glow-worms.

On the second day, a series of more physical activities was introduced. These activities were clay-bird shooting, climbing to the lookout at the top of the hill behind Highland Home, rock climbing and abseiling, a volleyball game, and a touch rugby game. Also included in the eight activities were: cranium (similar to Pictionary but including sculpting with play-dough and miming) and another skit preparation session. Many of the activities were very new to the students. One of the students, Misato Kotani from Japan, commented, "Trying many activities was very interesting. I really liked the shooting practice. It was the first time for me and I want to do it again sometime."

On the third day, one group of four teams started their day with a bush walk, while the other teams spent half the morning caving and the other half orienteering. In the afternoon, it was time for the Amazing Race challenge, with activities all around the campsite, and the teams having to solve puzzles to work out the location of their next activity.

That night was skit presentation time. There was much laughter as the audience responded to each group's highly creative dialogues combining the words they had chosen on the first day and accompanying these with at times hilarious actions. The panel of three judges added to the evening's entertainment by awarding random marks for each team's efforts. When all the student teams had presented their skits, three students took over the judges' seats and the staff entertained with a short (unrehearsed) performance.

On the morning of the fourth day, the teams completed their team's final activities. Then after the final lunch it was time to pack and clean. This was completed in record time and everyone returned to IPC in the afternoon with many good memories and for certain, hundreds of photos.

A week after the Camp, the students set up their computers all around the dojo and made their photos and movie clips available for other IPC students and staff to see and ask questions about. Each visitor could go around and ask the students questions about the camp. All conversation was in English, and according to Takahiro Kojima, Dean (ESOL) Faculty of International Studies, the camp leader, it was an excellent opportunity for anyone to find out what the camp was like, and for Foundation students to practise their English.

On this occasion, Takahiro also named the students who were nominated by staff and/or other students as having made the most of their camp experience in various ways, and awarded certificates to them. Some of the individual achievements recognised were "Best Bouncer on Trampoline," "Wonderful Team Member," "Great Leadership Skills," and "Speaking a Lot of English." As well as the individual awards, Takahiro announced the winning groups in the Amazing Race and the Orienteering activities.

Running and using up energy in touch rugby	The tower for rock climbing and abseiling	Shooting practice with a trained instructor
Huu Tin Vo (front left) enjoying nature with friends on the bush walk in the Totara Reserve. (IPC lecturer, James Oliver (back right). Photo by Huu Tin Vo)	On the Night walk across the road from the campsite, with IPC lecturer (in the white beanie) (Photo by Huu Tin Vo)	The Foundation students who participated in the camp

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