Rock climbing adventure!

Rock climbing

On Friday 31st June the year 8’s completed their 2nd challenge. 

Picture this… Towering rock faces… Crumbling rocks plummeting to the ground… 

Well, that is what we did yesterday. ROCK CLIMBING! It was super awesome! The polytech took us again, took us to weka wall in Punakaiki. Once we had got our harnesses and done some team-building exercises we got going. 

Our first challenge was getting into groups of three and finding an instructor, to be honest, that took us longer than it should have! I was with Pippa, Caitlin and an instructor called Barbra (His real name was Mitch but his nickname was Barbra). We also had to learn all the safety protocols and learned what a “Backup Bealayer” was (Someone who is also clipped onto the climber's ropes to be a backup in case something happens to the belayer) Caitlin climbed first and I was the backup belayer, then Pippa and then… ME! At first, I found it super hard to get started Even though when I slipped the rope was there to catch me and stop me from falling I was super paranoid that something would happen. I got about ten meters up and then I stopped. It was a super tricky bit to get up and I didn't think I would do it. I wanted to come down but Barbra wouldn’t let me, he said if I wanted lunch I had to get to the top. Even though I almost pooped myself I eventually made it to the top. My favorite bit of rock climbing was getting to the top and looking around, everyone and everything looked so small and when you come down from the rock face it is even cooler because it feels like your flying. 

Rock climbing was by far one of the coolest things I have done this year and I am really looking forward to the next challenge we do!