Camp Wanakita!

Hi Everyone!

I have been very busy over the last week, but I have had heaps of fun!
On Saturday we got up early(ish), and drove south. We went down past Niagara Falls, and across the border America. Despite having purchased a Multi-Entry Visa, I still had to have my passport taken inside and checked, and I had to pay extra – rather infuriating. I didn’t buy too much, but I did manage to get a pair of Chucks for only $20US, which is around $30NZ! I was pretty pleased with that purchase! We had lots of fun, and I can now say that I have been to New York State!

On Sunday morning I left the house at 6.30am, and Terry drove me to Emi Johnson’s house. From there her dad took Emi, Misaki and I to Milton, where we got on the bus bound for Wanakita, along with 30 odd other students. The bus ride took around 3 hours, but before we knew it we were at Camp Wanakita. We went and set up our cabins, before going down to the lake to build our quintzees. We had to make a big mound that night, which was hard work, and we had to go back in the dark after dinner to get them finished! We also started learning to cross-country ski that day.
The next day we started to dig out the quintzees, learnt how to snowshoe, and went for a big cross country ski, across the lake!! It was so beautiful, it was very exciting, the idea of skiing on ice. Half of us slept in the quintzees that night, though I waited until Tuesday night.
On Tuesday we had to make ourselves lunch, and pack it into our bags before heading off on our snowshoe trek! It was lots of fun, and we walked through the woods for 6 hours, until we reached a tiny waterfall, that is partially frozen. The woods were incredible; it looked just like we were walking into Narnia. We also had lots of fun shaking the trees that people were standing under, and making snow fall on them. Our instructor showed us a moose carcass that he had found just a week before! He said when he found it there were wolf tracks all around it, and it had been entirely eaten, all that was left was the skull, backbone, rib cage, and the fur. Everything else had been eaten. We got to see rabbit tracks and fox tracks as well!
That night I got to sleep in the quintzee! It was made for 4 people, but we had to fit 5 girls in there, which was a bit of a squish. There was Kirstin, a Canadian outbound; Tammi, a Canadian outbound; Mickie, a German; Mille, a Danish girl and then me. We were packed in very tightly, so we all had to lie on our sides. It wasn’t at all cold, but the ground was pretty hard, and a good night’s sleep was not had.
Then on Wednesday we all packed up, and split into two groups - one group got to break down the quintzee, the other got to go Tobogganing. I chose tobogganing, which was so much fun!
After that we all got back on the bus, and began the drive back home. I still can’t believe that the weekend went by so quickly; it didn’t feel like I was there for 3 nights.
Thursday, the day after Wanakita, I went snowboarding with Misaki, Emma and Ashley. None of us had snowboarded before, so it was definitely an adventure. I had lots of fun, although I think I spent about 2/3 of the time on my butt.

I miss you all,
Sarah.