In week four of term one, the Year Nines of 2019 went on their first Garin Journey. Based at Whenua iti Outdoors, Journey focuses on self growth; helping improve confidence and trust in your peers. Whenua iti organised some amazing activities that helped grow trust, including high ropes, kayaking, raft building, low ropes, trapeze and lots of adventure-based games focused
on team building.
The high ropes were where we climbed up a pole unsure of what was going to happen; if these three people you barely knew were going to hold you up and keep you safe. When you came back down again, you felt like you could trust those people with your life, and you just wanted to get back up there and do it all over again.
With all the activities we did throughout the day, at night after dinner, we all sat down in a circle and reflected on our day, our spirituality, our school values and recounted the achievements we had made. Over the three days at camp I personally made so many memories, new friends and pushed myself out of my comfort zone every second of the day.
A big part of our New Zealand culture is the Haka, and we got to learn an amazing one. The pronunciation was hard at first, but the instructors helped us through every word, making it a very enjoyable experience. Whenua iti did the most amazing job of pushing everyone out of their comfort zone and showing us that even if you are scared to do something, just do it because you won’t regret it.
Ultimately, Journey pushed everyone to do things they weren’t so sure about and brought us all closer together. I can’t wait for next year’s Journey!
Written by Evielyn Pearce