The Amazing Race

What an amazing way to start the year! Totara Village students and staff were split into two teams then began their Deaf “Amazing Race” to a mystery location for a two day camp.

On Tuesday 31 January at 1pm, everyone assembled in the KDEC Common room with backpacks and sleeping bags. The two teams were handed a quiz. The students exchanged their answers to earn their first clue.

The envelopes contained train tickets and instructions to walk to Fruitvale train station. Teams arrived with a few minutes to spare and caught the train to Britomart in Auckland City.

The clue said find a person wearing a brown hat.  Tickets for the Devonport ferry were their second clue. The teams raced off to find the right pier and catch the next ferry.

At Devonport they had to find an orange box with the next clue. An envelope which contained van keys and directions to find the KDEC vans parked nearby. The envelopes on the van wheels had instructions that said to follow a busy road 96 km north.

As the teams left Auckland both students and staff were wondering where this “Amazing Race” would take them. Kaiwaka, for the next clue.

By carefully following all the directions, the two teams arrived at Moirs Point Christian Camp in Mangawhai Heads 4 ½ hours after leaving the Common Room. The fun was just beginning.

Tony and Nicki were already there and had a barbeque ready for when the students and staff arrived. Fortified on homemade hamburgers and salad, the students were keen to see who could make the biggest splash coming off the 75m water slide.  

To wind down they had games in the hall and a chance to catch up with each other.

The next morning everyone was eager to try other activities.

The flying fox:

The water slide (again):

The confidence course:

 Kayaks:                                                 

Pedal boats:

In the evening we had a campfire. We all shared how we felt over the last two days. All of the comments were very positive and everyone was looking forward to having a good year.

It was hard to leave Moirs Point. One of the students gave a thank you speech to the camp manager and all of them hugged her as they appreciated their time there.

The students worked hard to figure out and follow the clues to their mystery location. They played hard at the camp’s facilities.  When they started out some of the students knew each other, some were new.  Some were leaders, some were followers.  Some were confident and some were happier out of the limelight.  When they came back they were a tight-knit unit who had formed new opinions and relationships based on being able to rely on each other during an adventure.

The consensus: Amazing!