Day 113: Kayaking at Carey Park

Today was the first of three days of instructing that I have to do for Carey Park Christian Camp in West Auckland.  They have a school group of year 6, 7 and 8 students in for four days, and they are rotating through a series of activities each day.  One of the activities is kayaking, which is what I'm in charge of.  Each group that comes to me has 1 1/2 hours for kayaking.  So I take them through putting on life jackets, parts of the boat and paddle, how to paddle and steer, and then we get in the boats and paddle upstream.  There are  a bunch of rocks that have been placed across the stream a short distance upstream, and that keeps the kids from going too far.  At the end I have them raft up (a difficult task for some of the groups that don't work together very well) and count off by two's.  Then the one's have a challenge to stand up in their kayaks and do the chicken dance without falling out.  And then we switch and the two's try and do the hokey pokey.  Luckily the water is only a few feet deep so if they fall out they usually just get wet and don't even flip their kayaks.  Although some do.  Even though the water is not deep it is still quite cold.  I try and avoid getting wet at all costs, since I am kayaking all day and wouldn't have a chance to get dry.  After we have finished this challenge (sometimes I got them to do the macarena, too) we head back downstream to a deeper part of the stream, where it opens up into a little pool with a bit more space.  There are ropes suspended across the pool and here we usually play a bit of kayak "basketball" which the kids enjoy.  Usually at least one person falls out of their boat while this is happening.  And by that time the session has ended and it's time to get them out and get ready for the next group! 

I really like being at Carey Park.  It reminds me of Camp Cedarbrook, at home (of course.)  Everyone here has been really friendly, too, and made me feel very welcome.  Plus, they have killer cooks who make excellent food and when you work there you get fed, too!  And there are some flash coffee machines that make yummy hot chocolate and moccachinos.  I'm sure the coffee is good, too, but I haven't tried any.  This job is definitely a reminder of God taking care of me since Anthony from Carey Park contacted me about working.  He got my name from Steven Parker at Adventure Specialties who recommended me.  So I didn't do anything and the work just fell into my lap!