Year 7 Excursion

Year 7 Camp trip to Coffs Harbour 

39 excited year 7 students were up early on Wednesday 20th of March, packed and ready to catch the bus to Coffs Harbour. A short 4 hours later the bus rolled into the Big Banana Adventure Park carpark. We met another student at the Big Banana, which made it a total of 40 students for the next 3 days. 

After some photos in front of the Big Banana, the group set off for an afternoon of adventure. Students went to the water park and down the waterslides for about an hour. The water fun was only the start, as afterwards students raced each other on the giant carpet slide and lived out their futuristic military dreams by playing lazer tag. 

The Coffs Coast Adventure Centre was our accommodation and activity hub. The first night's activities had students grouped into teams of 5 to compete in “minute to win it” challenges. These challenges ranged from stacking metal nuts, using drinking straws to transport lollies, bouncing ping pong balls into a cup and other exciting and challenging tasks. That night sleep didn’t come easily to most of the students as they were still excited from the day's activities. However, after a few 'chats’ from myself, students settled into a deep slumber.

The second day saw the group staying at the Coffs Coast Adventure Centre where students participated in 4 activities that focused on teamwork, resilience and pushing students out of their comfort zones. The activities were a high ropes course requiring students to vertically ascend from a suspended log to another to a height of about 10 metres. The Zorb Ball had students strapped inside a huge inflatable ball that was rolled down a hill and only stopped by a slight increase and netting. A 200m zip line had students whizzing down the line at a fast pace. The last activity was a commando style obstacle course that involved physical challenges and a lot of mud and water. The final stage of the course was the mud mile where students were thigh deep in slippery, muddy water trying to navigate the best way they could, slipping, crawling and even getting dragged along.

Straight to the showers after the muddy experience of the commando course in readiness for a night at the local Ten Pin Bowling centre. Students knocked down pins at a fast rate competing against each other to get the biggest score. Some bumpers were used, whereas others battled the gutter balls with a mixture of spares and strike outs. 

The next morning students were up early, packing their belongings, eager to get to the Coffs Coast Wildlife Sanctuary. Here students were provided with an educational information session before lunch. After lunch students were lucky enough to be taken on a tour seeing Turtles, Seals, Dolphins and Penguins. The highlight of the wildlife sanctuary was the dolphin show and interactive experience. Students were able to touch the underside of the dolphins as they swam past. The look of surprise of the feeling of a dolphin was on the face of all students. 

The bus ride home was quieter than on the way down Students were exhausted from a big three days of activity and adventure. Thanks must go to Mrs Koch for the organisation and planning of such a wonderful camp as well as  Mrs Clothier, Mrs Vandermolen and Mr Sattolo for their supervision. 

Mr Craig Cook