The Banter Brigade

Meet the Banter Brigade:

From left to right: Cal, Jack, Seb, Danny, Phil, me, Alex and Cory.

Haha let me explain... You see, every year our school runs various adventure camps for the year 9's. Probably the one with the most adventurous reputation is the "Tongariro Camp" run by my adventure racing coach and geography teacher, Mr. Hewlett. And traditionally Mr. Hewlett asks his senior adventure racers/outdoor education students to help out at the camp as "prefects". Anyway, this year that meant Alex, Cory, Phil and I were invited!
Then (because I was going to be a prefect, Dad was going to help as an adult leader and Oak was signed up as one of the year 9's), Mr. Hewlett invited Danny along too. And then because Cory had a younger brother Danny's age too (Calum) and they had another friend who missed out on this camp last year (Jack) Mr Hewlett said they could come as well. And then Seb (who was a French exchange student) asked if he could go along as well to get a bit of the "kiwi experience".
And that was us! The motley crew of senior students from all around the globe who were supposed to be helping the year 9's but ended up having more fun than any of the little guys :D

 

We spent the week rafting, climbing, hiking, caving, assembling a massive stash of snacks, shooting the year 9's with gummy bears from my slingshot, and exchanging "Phil"osophical banter :D

Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving has traditionally been one of my very favorite holidays. I mean, what can compete with  family, amazing food, sports and no school? But this year I've had a very unique Thanksgiving. For one thing, it was the first week of my Summer vacation! For another, I was away from home, camping with my adventure racing team and doing some intense training, and then even when we did have our feast, it just isn't quite the same with no extended family.

I spent Thanksgiving day in Tongariro National Park, on a practice rogaine (basically an 8hr treasure hunt with full packs) with my team.
      
Although pretty tough and hard, it was also super fun, and we saw some amazing country!

When I got home Friday I basically went straight to sleep, and when I woke up (late) Saturday morning I was immediately recruited to make pies for our Thanksgiving feast with a bunch of the Americans from our branch.

The lemon meringue pie (bottom right) is mine. I literally pulled lemons off our tree and was zesting and juicing them less than a minute later! It made for a pretty delicious pie if I must say so myself :D Although, I have to add that Danny's apple and Oak's strawberry pies were pretty amazing as well.

I think this picture illustrates that even though our Thanksgiving was a little different, we still managed to enjoy it to the fullest :)