Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Loving Outdoor Education

I just finished my first camp as the transitionary manager of Arthurs Pass Outdoor Education Centre. It was awesome to get to know the kids, parent and teacher of Cheviot Area School's Year 6 class, what an awesome bunch.

After landing on Saturday from China I started work on Monday, it has been a good challenge running the outdoor activities; tramping, river crossing, orienteering, etc, cleaning up and organising the centre and trying to zone into the "education" part of the role, teaching kids about the Arthurs Pass area and generally about nature. Luckily one of the ex-managers Hamish Reid came out with us for half a day and got the kids looking at sundews on the peatbog with magnifying lenses and listening to his stories about the Mt Cook Lily which are in full bloom. a highlight today was the sensory trail, where kids are blindfolded and challenged to follow a rope around a track with only their other senses to guide them. I hadn't seen this done before and have to say for an outdoor educators perspective it was a hugely effective challenge and the kids got a real sense of achievement out of it.

All in all a real privilege to be able to come here, stay with my parents, and undertake this work. I hope to contribute as much as I can to the centre as a way of honouring the memory of my friend, and the former manager of the centre, Noel who tragically passed away at Labour Weekend in a mountaineering accident on Mt Philistine.

2 comments:

Ruahines said...

Kia ora Jamie,
Found your blog through Bob's place. A real wealth of stuff here as well, look forward to having a leisurely look around. What an awesome job! That is so cool. We need to get children invoilved in the outdoors and it is so hard to do. Glad you are there.
Cheers,
Robb

Unknown said...

Hey Robb,

Yeah its a great job, both here and in general. Unfortunately I can't do it permanently as my partner needs to work in a city as she is a doctor.

I have had a quick flick through your blog as well and look forward to getting back there when I have some more time to relax, it struck me as quite a soothing place on the internet, along with Pohangina Petes blog as well...and theres not too many of those sort of places around!!!