2023 MERC CAMP

On Monday the 6th of March, 38 very excited Year 6 students and their teachers headed out at 7:30am for Mt Carmel's first overnight camp to MERC!! The students had an amazing time being led by the talented staff of MERC. They did the Giants ladder, rock climbing, went on giant stand up paddleboards, raft building, outdoor survival and many other activities including a camp concert where they showed off their amazing talents! The students and teachers had a wonderful time at camp learning new skills, bonding and stretching themselves to try new things. Thank you to all the parents who helped out over the 2 days.

Please enjoy some students reflections on camp:

My favourite activity at camp was swimming out further into the ocean and paddleboarding because I love being out into the water and splashing, and just overall being outdoors. The easiest thing to do was to hangout with my friends, no matter what time or place it's just easy to hangout with friends. One of the hardest things to do personally was to build a raft, building a raft has difficulty with it because you have to knot the ropes and make the raft secure so that the raft doesn't break apart. A new skill I learnt was to paddle, paddling takes a lot of strength and power to do, once you paddle your arms get tired and weary. I saw beautiful sunsets, sunshine,sunrises, and waves. The combination with waves and the beautiful sky was fascinating and satisfying to watch. Hope you enjoyed my reflection on MERC 2023 Year 6 camp.

Jada

My favourite part about camp would be the rock climbing, it was really fun! I feel like I used my growth mindset by standing up in front of the class and performing by telling jokes because I normally find it very hard to speak in front of that many people. I learnt how to use a paddle while paddle boarding. The hardest thing I did was probably also getting up to tell jokes. I really enjoyed eating the baking, it was very yummy! It was very hard for me to sleep because I could hear very loud crickets and the crashing waves. I learnt how to survive in the water if anything happens. I learnt how long I can survive alone in the forest without water, food and shelter. After all, I had a great time at camp/MERC. I am so glad I went to MERC.

Zoe L

My most favorite moment at camp was doing the paddling it was so fun but my arms were very sore from paddling and my other favorite moment was building a hut but sadly we couldn't finished the other side of the hut and there was a enough room for 5 people to sit in and enough room for 2 people to sleep in.

The most challenging moment was the sleeping part when we were about to go to sleep.  My growth mindset was that I went far into the sea than I'm normally comfortable with and I climbed the giants ladder blindfolded.

Noeline

There are a LOT of activities at MERC but there are 4 main activities, the giants ladder, (which I didn’t do.) paddle boarding, rock climbing, and survival in water and on land. I conquered my first time in a school camp and also going into deep water.The easiest thing at camp was rock climbing.The most challenging thing for me was paddling the paddle board. I learned two types of knots, one was the reef knot, the other was the double 8 knot.My favourite thing on camp was playing with my friends. I love making sandcastles and being a fielder in cricket.

Kenjie

MERC was really fun because we had many rare activities that you wouldn't normally do as well a camp concert including comedy singing and more. I really enjoyed the giants ladder because it was a real challenge, because it was really big (hence the name.) We also went on a massive paddle board and jumped off, and invaded Toru ( there were four groups, Tahi, Rua, Toru, Wha) and we went under a capsized boat, because there was an air hole! We were taught how to tie a reef knot, a figure of eight knot and a figure of eight on a bite which is a figure of eight knot folded over.

Oliver