Excitement was the one emotion I was feeling, all the emotion in the air was either excitement or nervousness/anxiety. If I was a rag doll I would be parting at the seams with excitement, this was my thing, the adrenaline was awesome, just the feeling of climbing and completing the wall.
All the year 8’s arrived at the high ropes place around 9:45 am, after 4 of the 5 cars got lost. We all got started at 10:00 am doing some games we then got split into groups of 6 then into a further group of odds and evens. I was an even. In my group I had Holly P, Marcus R, Brooklyn B, Samuel P, Rhianna B, Lachlan R, Hugh T and Jack B.
We then started doing some team games, the first one we did was to get a ball through all 9 of our hands in the quickest time. It took us about 7 goes till we got the fastest time ever which was 0.5 seconds. The way we got that time was by cupping our hands together into a circle then vertically dropping the ball down and it worked out well, we learnt from trial and error.
The second activity was using a box half a meter wide by half a meter long and the aim of the game was to get all 9 of us onto the box and to sing the first verse of twinkle twinkle little star using a looped rope swing without anyone falling off. That one was particularly easy and on the second go we completed that level.
The third one was to get two feet from different people on one of the nine 30 by 30 squares. The first and second tries didn't work as people would fall off, the third try worked really well as being the last swinger I placed my feet on the squares with a delicate swing which led to no one toppling over.
The last team activity that my group did was the magic marshmallows. The aims of this game was to get all the 9 wooden bricks across a 5-8 metre square without anyone touching the ground. There was one rule where you had to have one foot on a wooden brick, otherwise it would sink. After a few tries and a lot of shared ideas we all got across and it was time for morning tea.
With all the team games that we played, one skill that I picked up on was that my group used a lot was communication. It's always good to share your opinion with the others as Brooklyn came up with the winning idea for the first activity.
After we all had our morning tea we went and formed a circle with a bottle in the middle. We were asked random stuff such as did we like riding horses, who liked working in the classroom and who liked to climb 25 meters in the air. If we liked that topic then we walked into the middle of the circle and if we didn't then we stayed where we were.
For the first one I stayed where I was as I don't like riding horses, for the second one I walked into the circle but not into the middle, for the last one I walked straight into the middle. We then were told about the harnesses and helmets, we got given one of each, put them on and then split back into our groups from the start.
The first activity that my group did was the giant's ladder. We then split into a further 3 groups from our original group of nine; in my group was Holly P and Brooklyn and we were the first small group to climb up the ladder. Holly and I helped Brooklyn climb up the first 4 one meter high rungs on the ladder, Brooklyn then stopped as her fear of heights got to her but at least she climbed up about 4 meters. I got to the top first and looking down at everyone was a bit frightening but I calmed myself down as my legs were shaking helped Holly up on the second to last one, I got up first because I had been using a corner. When all of the group had finished, we switched over with the other one and got ready to face the Vertical playground…
My team was up first again to tackle the vertical Playground, we attached ourselves to the ropes and started climbing. Holly was taking the lead as I was struggling to transition from the twisty climb to the rock climb wall. After Mr Priddy held the twisting pole still while I moved on, I found that these foot holds were easier to climb than others that I have done previously.
I kept climbing onwards wanting get to the top, being cautious of where I was placing my feet and thinking is my foot going to slip off? I kept on climbing, one hand grabbing the next hold moving my foot up two, once I was off the rock climbing part and onto the rope ladders. I got up the rope ladder really quick I found that certain obstacle was the easiest out the vertical playground. Next, I climbed onto this cross like frame which was sort of difficult as it was moving. I then climbed up that and onto the final obstacle the Spider Web, before me a lot of the other group had gotten their feet stuck in the web, so I was being really cautious to not get my feet tangled in the net. One foot higher, one hand higher. I can almost reach it and I grabbed hold of it and hauled myself up onto the seat, a wave of accomplishment and proudness overcame myself. I told my team down below that I was coming down after sitting up there for a good 30 seconds, I leaned back and let myself fall knowing that I was going to land on the ground.
Once all the groups had finished their activities we had our lunch. After our lunch we went back into our groups from before, there were three last activities that we had left the Flying Islands, Diagonal Pole and everyone's favorite, the Flying Kiwi. My group went first for the Flying Kiwi. How it worked was by hooking our harnesses to a rope cable and the person who had the chest harness on and was strapped onto another rope would run as fast as they could in the opposite direction from the rest of the group. Samuel went first, Paul the person leading our group harnessed up Samuel, then clipped himself onto the rope cable where everyone else was. We then ran the opposite way to Samuel. After 4 more people had their turn it was finally my turn, I was extractive it looked so fun and exciting. Paul hooked me up to the rope that was connected to the runners rope. We went through the quick check, I then ran as fast as I could the opposite way to the rest of the group. I didn't get very far before I suddenly lifted up off the ground, I felt like Wendy off Peter Pan. It was short but so fun and if we hand more time I definitely would have done it again!!!
Next we went onto the flying islands and the diagonal pole, at first I wasn't quite sure but then I pushed myself to do both of the climbs. first off I did the floating Islands, I was nervous as there was nothing to hold onto. We had to be careful as the rope would get stuck on one of the boxes as we were climbing up. One small jump at a time going to the next box was my method of getting across, I was really nervous while crossing, but I watched Holly cross before me and I payed close attention to her techniques. I got onto the second to last box, Mr Priddy set me a challenge to not use to thin rope to get onto the last box, I thought about how I was going to place my feet. I then hopped across and made my way back into the middle, leaned back and dropped safely back onto the ground.The diagonal pole was so much easier as you were only walking up and then down to the middle of it then being dropped back to the ground, I did this one twice as it was super quick and easy.
Overall I have definitely taken on board a lot of stuff from this experience as it was very thrill seeking to myself, I and very proud of myself with what I had achieved. I Would definitely do it again if I had the chance to!
