College students learn outdoor skills

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 1, Issue 39, 20 March 1984, Page 5

College students learn outdoor skills

Ruapehu College has been running a series of summer camps in the Kaimanawa Ranges as part of their outdoor skills programme. The programme started in early February under the supervision of Graham Brebner and Robin Rowles assisted by other members of staff from time to time as they transported pupils and supplies into the camp sites. Classes of 30 or so students accompanied by teachers spent up to a week at a time learning basic survival and bush skills such as setting up camp, firelighting, building bivouacs, crossing rivers, cooking, planning meals, reading compasses and

maps, practising first aid and protection from exposure. They had to build and then live under their own 'bivvies' which were constructed from fallen logs, moss and polythene sheet. They learned how to cross swollen rivers ... in fact one

group crossed the Tongariro River 22 times with developing confidence. Some senior students from the 6th Form home economics and physical education classes also joined the camps from time to time to assist with cooking and outdoor skills activities.