Days 78 - 88: Youthtown Holiday Programme

The day after getting back from Cape Reinga, it was back to work for Youthtown, this time with their teen holiday programme, Breakaway.  The government has provided some money for teens from disadvantaged areas in Auckland to attend a holiday program for free.  So we were working with kids between the ages of 14 and 17 doing a variety of outdoor activities for the two weeks of their school holidays.  Here are what my days looked like:

On Tuesday we were at a scout camp in west Auckland where, I assisted with abseiling and then taught a camp craft session, which involved camp set-up, outdoor cooking (we made vegetarian foil dinners), introduction to camp stoves and firebuilding (we had a firebuilding competition to see whose fire could burn through a suspended string first.)  I had designed the camp craft session and as this was my first time running it I didn't feel very encouraged about it after the first session.  I realized the next day that it wasn't that things hadn't gone well, because we'd accomplished everything that I'd intended, but I was just questioning my ability to lead and teach, mostly because of one of the other instructors who was assisting but was putting off vibes that I wasn't doing things correctly.  So I just let my insecurities get the better of me.  Wednesday was a very similar day, except I felt much better after my session.

On Thursday and Friday we moved venues and brought all of the kids north of Auckland to Wenderholme, which is one of Auckland's regional parks.  There we had a rotation of four activities: kayaking, coasteering (walking along the coastline), bush craft and orienteering.  I ran the bush craft sessions, two a day, where we practiced some knots and the kids built shelters and tested them to see how waterproof they were by dumping buckets of water over them.  The intent was to teach a little bit of first aid as well, and to do some first aid simulations, but none of the groups had time so instead I just gave them fake injuries (we had some fake blood) and sent them on their way.

The next week we started out on Monday with some Active Sports.  Youthtown has a team based in South Auckland (where I live) who go into schools to organize sports days.  So we did warm-ups with them, then played a game of soccer (my team won like 7 - 0); then touch rugby, which I didn't really know how to play, but I figured it out, and then in the afternoon we played capture the flag.  I was so beat after that!  I pretty much went home and fell into my bed.

Tuesday was another day out at the scout camp, with another camp skills session and abseiling and archery and a challenge course.  Then Wednesday we went to the high ropes course at a nearby college.  I got to help belay and encourage kids.  It was fun, but also frustrating because the kids are so selfish and have a hard time being involved in anything that benefits the group as a whole, once they've had their turn they're not really interested, and they don't encourage each other, they just put each other down all the time.  Thursday  was the best day of the whole two weeks: we went to Woodhill Forest and went MOUNTAIN BIKING.  It was amazing.  They have heaps of trails out there and although it was scary at first I think I gained a lot of confidence and got to be better at going down steeps and over roots and even on a couple of structures (oooh!)  Such good times.  Another good workout that day, too.  We even rode our bikes through an area where they just finished filming the new Yogi Bear movie, with Justin Timberlake as one of the voices.  The movie won't be out for another couple of years, but when it does come out, you can say you heard about it here first.  Nifty.

The last day, Friday, we took the kids on a ferry out to Rangitoto Island.  This is an extinct volcano just off the coast of Auckland.  It has a distinctive shape and looks like a woman lying down (kind of like the mountain that you can see from Sugarloaf, I think it's Saddleback.)  Anyway, we got off the ferry and hiked over sharp volcanic rocks for an hour to Wreck Bay, where there are the skeletons of several old ships that were dragged into the harbor there and left to rot.  Nothing actually shipwrecked, they were just left there to dispose of them.  So that was pretty cool.  Once we got back to Auckland we had a pool party (the only photos I have are from the pool party and the ferry ride and the hike.)  And then the kids went home for good and the staff had their own little party which was good fun.  All in all it was a way cool two weeks and I got paid to do some really fun stuff.  Good times.