This past weekend we had our Cycling Southland Junior Camp at Borland Lodge in Fiordland – and what an awesome weekend it was!! Makayla Smith, Emma Cumming and Aly Doherty have written a report on the camp, but before you read about all the fun and games we had, we need to shout out a MASSIVE THHAANNNKKKK YYYOOOOUUUU to Andrea Hope, who organised the camp, and also Alan Strong, Dave Beadle and all the many parents and helpers who helped make this is a truly fun and rewarding weekend. Good job team!!!
Our Borland Lodge Adventure 17 -19 August 2012 Friday:
Once we had sorted out all of our gear and how we were getting to Borland we left Invercargill and, after numerous speeches from Emma, we eventually arrived! We then went on to sort out our rooms and teams: There were three teams and we had to each come up with a chant and name. Team Red= Rebellious Reds Team Yellow= Mellow Yellow Team Blue= Blueberry Smurfs.
Team Blue sadly went on to win the naming comp although Red clearly should have!! After Reds devastating loss Sier Vermunt talked to us about his cycling trip around Pakistan, China and surrounding countries with Stanley (his mate who liked to eat chips). He showed us a few photos and it was interesting to see how the other side of the world functioned and how different things were.
After the chaos and excitement had died down it was time to get rested up for Saturday!! Makayla Smith
Saturday:
Saturday morning’s wake-up call was followed by some well-needed breakfast. Next we had a briefing from Dave and Alan and the next stop was the top of the Borland Saddle! A big climb was coming … we got to the first 2km and there was still more than 10km to go. Everyone was staying positive and keen to carry on. The next stop was 5km up the road for a nice wee picture and a well-deserved snack. We sadly had one rider pull out but this was because she had an arm that was already broken from a rugby injury. After a solid 2 hours of non-stop biking, we came across possibly the worst thing imaginable: snow!! But we all decided to venture on! We all struggled to the top, every single one of us.
Now for the down-hill … possibly the most dangerous thing I have done! We were able to try and bike down in the snow with a lot of slipping and sliding … nothing serious to cause any kind of injury. It was smooth sailing from then on, with only one fall – Josh van den Arend. And he just jumped back up and carried on. After a solid 3 hours up, it only took 45 minutes to get down and the ride was all over and done with. Next stop SHOWERING and then lunch.
Our next activity was the team time trial, where everyone gave their full effort to get team points, but everyone was starting to get tired and grumpy! However, Alan and Dave still have some surprises up their sleeves … we all ventured down to the power station and some silly children went down on their bikes for some extra bike miles!
After that, we had some spare time and team games. Tea was next (it was really nice by the way). After tea, we were lucky enough to have Stu talk to us about the build-up to the Olympics with Tarsh, which we all enjoyed. Maybe one that that could be us, in 2012!
Thanks a lot Stu! After Stu’s talk, we had a bonfire which was great fun, even though we didn’t have much of a fire. Overall, Saturday was a great day and everyone did so well to get to the top. We also did some great team bonding!
Emma Cumming
Sunday:
Our Sunday morning wake up was to the sound of Matt Nunn laughing. We thought it was just pack up and go, but at breakfast Dave and Alan had a few tricks up their sleeves. To our surprise we still had a team orienteering challenge to do! We went running up bush tracks, biking and walking down the road and, for the Rebellious Reds, just sitting on their bikes. After 45 minutes of trying to get as many yellow tags as possible we all returned to the camp for a big lunch and a tidy up of rooms, toilets and showers. After all the cleaning up was done the blue team were announced the winners. After that we were all off home, we had a stop at Otautau for a drink then kept driving. After one more hour we were finally home and ready for bed. Aly Doherty