OPC Great Barrier Island
Alrighty! The Complete NZ Post. Probably not as complete as I would like, especially in the light of the fact that I think Huishi has been writing a journal?
Day 1:
Singapore - Kuala Lumpur - Auckland
Typically uneventful.
Could not sleep on plane much, as usual. There was a Malaysian family beside me and they could speak Bahasa, Mandarin, Cantonese and English. Only females on my row, though, the males were somewhere else in the plane. Smallest girl kept staring at me.
Watched Wall-e and The Dark Knight.
They had the Air Supply Ultimate Collection.
Auckland - Great Barrier
There were supposed to be three planes for us. Only two were present. So eight guys had to wait for hours at the domestic airport, which offered minimal shopping options, while the rest went to the island and had a tour of the Outdoor Pursuit Centre/Orama Christian Community grounds. Which is an interesting arrangement - the grounds belong to Orama but they're leased out to OPC.
Boarded the flight past six, at least two hours after the rest. Fabian was co-pilot (or, rather, sat in the co-pilot's seat) and controlled the plane for a very short while. Landing strip was made of grass.
When we reached OPC, there was a barbecue going on (or, rather, a grill, because charcoal was not involved). Sausages, omelettes, bread, mixed veggies.
Before the eight of us tucked in, though, we had to get our sleeping bags and bedsheets and blankets.
Were bunked in the main building where the dining and laundry rooms and indoor basketball court are. Was blissfully ignorant of superior lodgings that deserved to be called 'chalets', which was what our instructor called them. Well! It's not that bad, just a little squeezy (three two-storey beds in a room which deserved two) and mosquitoes on the first night, and a few cobwebs in a few untouched corners.
Evening presentation was just that - a presentation on what we'll get to do/see.
Day 2
Tramping! Or hiking.
Breakfast: French toast with maple syrup and optional cornflakes. With Raro - it's something like a fruit juice. Comes packaged in powdered form.
Lunch is sandwiches, and we make them before and right after breakfast.
Met our instructor, Pieke. We proceeded to draw Bob, create a group contract, obtain equipment, and played three problem-solving games - a blind-people-follow-the-leader one, the typical entangling one, and a river crossing using a canoe which was a little like the rabbit-fox-carrot puzzle.
I'm not sure, but I think the one who drove us to Orama from the airfield was Pieke. But I didn't remember that face too well, so I can never be sure.
Went tramping, i.e. hiking. Shao Wen brought us off the track for a while, and Nathaniel and Mingyang proceeded to play monkey bars, breaking a few (thin, dying) trees in the process. Walked for hours along rarely-used tracks just to see this tree. But it was fun - except for the prickly plants. Went down using a shorter route.
Obtained two splinters on my right forefinger.
Returned to base camp - late for dinner duty. Then it was evening presentation, which started with a talk on four kinds of leadership, and then we had to act out what we did today and what type of leadership we used.
Forgot to mention that a bunch of New Zealanders arrived on this day, so we ate dinner and spent the presentation time with them.
Showered, stargazed for a little while not knowing what I was staring at. Heard that bunnified spent a large portion of the whole night staring at the stars, and (I think) went up the hill to do so.
Day 3
The previous day, Jiajun and Jerome lost their spectacles to the surf. Only realised that today because last night was so, um, action-packed. It's just a little bit like Superman with kryptonite or Iron Man without the nuclear reactor in his heart.
Thank God I brought an alarm clock. I woke up realising, though, that it was not on my bed, but on the floor - I was sleeping on the bunk on top, so it must have fallen a fair distance.
In any case, we had breakfast duty, then toilet and dining room duty (and lunch duty, of course).
Breakfast was pancakes (from now on assume that breakfast includes cornflakes, because it does.)
After that we went for sea kayaking. Their kayaks had rudders and hatches for equipment. Kayaked to the next bay, then sailed back using our z-sacs as a sail. (z-sac: a big piece of canvas which, when used properly, serves as a shelter for the group. It's probably very simple to make, but whoever designed it was a genius.)
Four-plus to dinner was free time. Took a swim in the swimming pool for five to ten minutes, then showered, then relaxed for a while.
I forgot what we ate. If you remember, please comment. I want to know what I ate.
Day 4
Breakfast was pancakes.
Went surf kayaking and coasteering at this beach on the east of the island (we were facing the west).
Surf kayaking was fun. Except when you had to kayak away from the beach and a succession big waves came at you. Heard that our waves were nothing compared to the ones the other group had on Day 2.
In the correct places, the sea felt like a water theme park. Jumped a paltry three metres or so. Picked up mussels, ate some oysters. Had my first cut, which was on the middle finger of my left hand.
Also, this was the first time I saw their toilets, which looked nice until you stared into the toilet bowl, which would be more accurately termed a toilet vault or a toilet pit.
Another rather relaxed day - the other group spent this time packing for overnight, but our group wasn't briefed yet.
Day 5
First day of expedition, half of which was spent packing for it.
To my surprise, we didn't need backpacks. Just waterproof bags, because we will be kayaking all the way save for an hour or so on the morning of the second day.
Went to this island. Choppy waters. There's this rather funny pest-destruction thing going on in the Great Barrier Island, where they set up Great Walls (electric fences) and rat traps and all that kind of thing to create pest-free spaces. Except the Great Wall doesn't extend to the beach, as Pieke pointed out.
Snrokelled, which was not the best of experiences because all I saw was sea urchins, kelp and seaweed, and I kept choking myself on seawater, and the goggles kept fogging up. Threw sandballs - now that was fun. Buried myself in the sand - not the wisest of things to do considering how fine the sand is and what a nightmare people will have washing the thermals, but it was fun.
Pitched tents. There was a titanic debate about paddles vs. ropes. Tents looked like glorified bashas - each tent was composed of a groundsheet and a canvas. Would not have worked in colder temperatures - it was quite warm and humid over there, and I sweated quite a bit.
Dinner was burritos.
Day 6
By the time we finished packing, it was ten thirty. By the time we were briefed and ready to go, the other group had already arrived.
The arrangement was this: we'd pack our bags and equipment into our kayaks, and then we'd walk over and use their kayaks which had their equipment, and meet at this campsite on the main island.
The water was so still. We saw a mussel farm. We arrived at the campsite, had lunch, pitched tents, went to a waterfall. I made manuka tea! Louise added some sugar and made it taste like honey, and I was unable to replicate that taste. Dinner was macaroni and cheese, but the sauce was too thin but nobody minded.
Been doing lots of chatting at night for the past few days, and this one was no exception. Spotted Orion and the Pleiades. I think we spotted Eridanus but I'm not sure. Like the day before, it was cloudy.
Day 7
Kayaked to Port Fitzroy, which was just a sheltered harbour with a few residences and a boat club. Ate burgers. Kayaked back to base camp. Unpacked and ate shepherd's pie. Desert was this amazing peach crumble with whipped cream. I sort of regretted eating so much shepherd's pie, but really both are awesome.
Debriefed. Watched Happy Feet, which seemed to be trying to insert some anti-religious message. Interesting plot but it fizzled out at the end.
Day 8
Country Roads, don't take me home! They didn't, of course; the plane did.
Nothing much worth recording after this besides finding:
- A Rare Books shop
- A CD shop - with prices very hard to find in Singapore
- Er, strip clubs?
- Cool gift shop with Narnia quotes on the shop front! And intricate Narnian references! (There was a lamp-post, cutouts of Edmund, Lucy and Tumnus, the Pevensies' Christmas gifts, and other random thingums which may or may not have been references.)
- Stationery shop with insanely expensive stationery. Bought box of paper clips worth 12 bucks.
Watched Mamma Mia! and Ratatouille on the flight back. Tried to watch the latter again because it was so touching (and I was in the mood for crying) but jetlag dragged me down.
Another reason why I don't want to talk about the last couple of days is because I didn't really like myself when I was in Auckland, and on the way home. Because I behaved strangely. That's for another more emo post.
For now, random things I forgot to fill in:
Food - for lunch we had sandwiches, as I mentioned. We also had dog biscuits, which are much better than what you'd expect of typical army rations - there were raisins, cocunut, etc. Breakfasts and dinners were consistently fantastic in OPC. In Auckland it was... okay save for the Chinese food we were catered for our first dinner in Auckland. But expensive.
The people - were cool. Enough said. I will need to start hunting down LJ usernames soon!
There really isn't much to say about the OPC activities, really, because there are few technicalities, and the fun parts are best described with photos, which I could not take because so much of it was water-based.
Day 1:
Singapore - Kuala Lumpur - Auckland
Typically uneventful.
Could not sleep on plane much, as usual. There was a Malaysian family beside me and they could speak Bahasa, Mandarin, Cantonese and English. Only females on my row, though, the males were somewhere else in the plane. Smallest girl kept staring at me.
Watched Wall-e and The Dark Knight.
They had the Air Supply Ultimate Collection.
Auckland - Great Barrier
There were supposed to be three planes for us. Only two were present. So eight guys had to wait for hours at the domestic airport, which offered minimal shopping options, while the rest went to the island and had a tour of the Outdoor Pursuit Centre/Orama Christian Community grounds. Which is an interesting arrangement - the grounds belong to Orama but they're leased out to OPC.
Boarded the flight past six, at least two hours after the rest. Fabian was co-pilot (or, rather, sat in the co-pilot's seat) and controlled the plane for a very short while. Landing strip was made of grass.
When we reached OPC, there was a barbecue going on (or, rather, a grill, because charcoal was not involved). Sausages, omelettes, bread, mixed veggies.
Before the eight of us tucked in, though, we had to get our sleeping bags and bedsheets and blankets.
Were bunked in the main building where the dining and laundry rooms and indoor basketball court are. Was blissfully ignorant of superior lodgings that deserved to be called 'chalets', which was what our instructor called them. Well! It's not that bad, just a little squeezy (three two-storey beds in a room which deserved two) and mosquitoes on the first night, and a few cobwebs in a few untouched corners.
Evening presentation was just that - a presentation on what we'll get to do/see.
Day 2
Tramping! Or hiking.
Breakfast: French toast with maple syrup and optional cornflakes. With Raro - it's something like a fruit juice. Comes packaged in powdered form.
Lunch is sandwiches, and we make them before and right after breakfast.
Met our instructor, Pieke. We proceeded to draw Bob, create a group contract, obtain equipment, and played three problem-solving games - a blind-people-follow-the-leader one, the typical entangling one, and a river crossing using a canoe which was a little like the rabbit-fox-carrot puzzle.
I'm not sure, but I think the one who drove us to Orama from the airfield was Pieke. But I didn't remember that face too well, so I can never be sure.
Went tramping, i.e. hiking. Shao Wen brought us off the track for a while, and Nathaniel and Mingyang proceeded to play monkey bars, breaking a few (thin, dying) trees in the process. Walked for hours along rarely-used tracks just to see this tree. But it was fun - except for the prickly plants. Went down using a shorter route.
Obtained two splinters on my right forefinger.
Returned to base camp - late for dinner duty. Then it was evening presentation, which started with a talk on four kinds of leadership, and then we had to act out what we did today and what type of leadership we used.
Forgot to mention that a bunch of New Zealanders arrived on this day, so we ate dinner and spent the presentation time with them.
Showered, stargazed for a little while not knowing what I was staring at. Heard that bunnified spent a large portion of the whole night staring at the stars, and (I think) went up the hill to do so.
Day 3
The previous day, Jiajun and Jerome lost their spectacles to the surf. Only realised that today because last night was so, um, action-packed. It's just a little bit like Superman with kryptonite or Iron Man without the nuclear reactor in his heart.
Thank God I brought an alarm clock. I woke up realising, though, that it was not on my bed, but on the floor - I was sleeping on the bunk on top, so it must have fallen a fair distance.
In any case, we had breakfast duty, then toilet and dining room duty (and lunch duty, of course).
Breakfast was pancakes (from now on assume that breakfast includes cornflakes, because it does.)
After that we went for sea kayaking. Their kayaks had rudders and hatches for equipment. Kayaked to the next bay, then sailed back using our z-sacs as a sail. (z-sac: a big piece of canvas which, when used properly, serves as a shelter for the group. It's probably very simple to make, but whoever designed it was a genius.)
Four-plus to dinner was free time. Took a swim in the swimming pool for five to ten minutes, then showered, then relaxed for a while.
I forgot what we ate. If you remember, please comment. I want to know what I ate.
Day 4
Breakfast was pancakes.
Went surf kayaking and coasteering at this beach on the east of the island (we were facing the west).
Surf kayaking was fun. Except when you had to kayak away from the beach and a succession big waves came at you. Heard that our waves were nothing compared to the ones the other group had on Day 2.
In the correct places, the sea felt like a water theme park. Jumped a paltry three metres or so. Picked up mussels, ate some oysters. Had my first cut, which was on the middle finger of my left hand.
Also, this was the first time I saw their toilets, which looked nice until you stared into the toilet bowl, which would be more accurately termed a toilet vault or a toilet pit.
Another rather relaxed day - the other group spent this time packing for overnight, but our group wasn't briefed yet.
Day 5
First day of expedition, half of which was spent packing for it.
To my surprise, we didn't need backpacks. Just waterproof bags, because we will be kayaking all the way save for an hour or so on the morning of the second day.
Went to this island. Choppy waters. There's this rather funny pest-destruction thing going on in the Great Barrier Island, where they set up Great Walls (electric fences) and rat traps and all that kind of thing to create pest-free spaces. Except the Great Wall doesn't extend to the beach, as Pieke pointed out.
Snrokelled, which was not the best of experiences because all I saw was sea urchins, kelp and seaweed, and I kept choking myself on seawater, and the goggles kept fogging up. Threw sandballs - now that was fun. Buried myself in the sand - not the wisest of things to do considering how fine the sand is and what a nightmare people will have washing the thermals, but it was fun.
Pitched tents. There was a titanic debate about paddles vs. ropes. Tents looked like glorified bashas - each tent was composed of a groundsheet and a canvas. Would not have worked in colder temperatures - it was quite warm and humid over there, and I sweated quite a bit.
Dinner was burritos.
Day 6
By the time we finished packing, it was ten thirty. By the time we were briefed and ready to go, the other group had already arrived.
The arrangement was this: we'd pack our bags and equipment into our kayaks, and then we'd walk over and use their kayaks which had their equipment, and meet at this campsite on the main island.
The water was so still. We saw a mussel farm. We arrived at the campsite, had lunch, pitched tents, went to a waterfall. I made manuka tea! Louise added some sugar and made it taste like honey, and I was unable to replicate that taste. Dinner was macaroni and cheese, but the sauce was too thin but nobody minded.
Been doing lots of chatting at night for the past few days, and this one was no exception. Spotted Orion and the Pleiades. I think we spotted Eridanus but I'm not sure. Like the day before, it was cloudy.
Day 7
Kayaked to Port Fitzroy, which was just a sheltered harbour with a few residences and a boat club. Ate burgers. Kayaked back to base camp. Unpacked and ate shepherd's pie. Desert was this amazing peach crumble with whipped cream. I sort of regretted eating so much shepherd's pie, but really both are awesome.
Debriefed. Watched Happy Feet, which seemed to be trying to insert some anti-religious message. Interesting plot but it fizzled out at the end.
Day 8
Country Roads, don't take me home! They didn't, of course; the plane did.
Nothing much worth recording after this besides finding:
- A Rare Books shop
- A CD shop - with prices very hard to find in Singapore
- Er, strip clubs?
- Cool gift shop with Narnia quotes on the shop front! And intricate Narnian references! (There was a lamp-post, cutouts of Edmund, Lucy and Tumnus, the Pevensies' Christmas gifts, and other random thingums which may or may not have been references.)
- Stationery shop with insanely expensive stationery. Bought box of paper clips worth 12 bucks.
Watched Mamma Mia! and Ratatouille on the flight back. Tried to watch the latter again because it was so touching (and I was in the mood for crying) but jetlag dragged me down.
Another reason why I don't want to talk about the last couple of days is because I didn't really like myself when I was in Auckland, and on the way home. Because I behaved strangely. That's for another more emo post.
For now, random things I forgot to fill in:
Food - for lunch we had sandwiches, as I mentioned. We also had dog biscuits, which are much better than what you'd expect of typical army rations - there were raisins, cocunut, etc. Breakfasts and dinners were consistently fantastic in OPC. In Auckland it was... okay save for the Chinese food we were catered for our first dinner in Auckland. But expensive.
The people - were cool. Enough said. I will need to start hunting down LJ usernames soon!
There really isn't much to say about the OPC activities, really, because there are few technicalities, and the fun parts are best described with photos, which I could not take because so much of it was water-based.