Beach Bush City Reflection

In Year 9, instead of staying at an overnight camp, we were lucky enough to receive three awesome excursions, including a trip to Melbourne CBD to explore the Sea Life aquarium and shop to our hearts content at South Wharf DFO. A scenic drive to Lorne where we were able to push our limits and face many tough challenges on a ropes course at Livewire. And a relaxing day at Anglesea, where we got to canoe up the rivers and play fantastic games on the beach. On the whole, the Beach, Bush, City camp will be one to remember, as the memories that we all made were priceless.

To kick off the first day, my class along with another Year 9 wellbeing group went to the city. Upon our arrival, we entered the aquarium and got to experience all of the wonderful creatures inside with our friends, and discover incredible things about them. Some of my highlights from the aquarium were getting to watch the aquarium’s 4D movie take on “Happy Feet”, immersing us all in a fun short film, and the crocodile that was over 5 metres long and weighing over 750 kilograms. Finally, after admiring the penguins, we left the aquarium and walked down to the DFO (Direct Factory Outlets). Here we were given $15 to buy ourselves lunch and plenty of time to roam around the shops. Here many people bought gifts for Mother’s Day (and themselves of course!), as well as friends and family. All in all, it was a great day, and left a lot of us very tired but even more excited for the next two days ahead.

On Thursday, we went to Anglesea for the day, and split into our classes for the two activities. My class started the day off with canoeing, and thanks to Ecologic, found ourselves either canoeing around the rivers (and getting into splashing wars) or up towards the main beach, of which offered very stunning views, especially in the perfect weather. After our canoeing experience, we swapped over with the other class and headed up to the main beach, where our Year 9 leaders led some fantastic games, including poison ball, capture the flag, cricket, and a sandcastle building competition (just to name a few). To end the day, we all regrouped on the bus and shared all our funny stories with each other.

Finally, Friday began with some unfortunate weather conditions, leaving us a bit worried about the outdoor excursions. But thankfully, they all went ahead and to avoid the rain, those going to Anglesea went 10 pin bowling first, and our trip to Livewire was still going ahead. The drive to Lorne was along the Great Ocean Road, of which all of us were in awe of, even despite the rain. Upon our arrival, it had seemingly stopped, and we all thought that we were going to have a dry rest of the day, but boy were we wrong about that! The crew at Livewire got us all set up and ready, and whilst doing the practise course on the ground, the rain came again. But we all pushed through and continued on anyway. Many people braved the hardest courses first, whilst others (such as myself) who were a bit afraid of heights, began on the easier courses. I found that everyone in our classes pushed themselves and conquered fears, despite the fact that we were all drenched from the rain. We were very thankful when our teachers called the bus early and took us to Anglesea to buy some hot chips to warm up a bit. We all walked away with smiles on our faces, as we had such a great day that will never be forgotten.

Overall, I would like to thank Ms Blythe and the other Year 9 leaders for such an incredible 3 days, as it wouldn’t have happened without them, and I can’t wait to hear about the future Bush, Beach, City excursions from the year levels to come.

Jemma R – Year 9