ignite23 Days 10-11

Falling back asleep after you turn your alarm off is never a good idea- but that's exactly what I did this morning, only re-waking just before 8am, leaving me to rush to get breakfast and run over to the muster point in order to check in to my activity by 8:15am.

Bad weather on the other hand, meant that all 3 walks that morning would combine to simplify things, so I had 45 minutes to wait for the final walk group to show up. All in all, of the 3 walks, only 4 leaders and 7 venturers showed up, so we loaded into one van and headed off for our walk to Rakaia Gorge.

Wet weather persisting meant that not only was it still spitting, but the grass and bush surrounding the track was also soaking wet - so damp clothes for all of us. An hours walking later, and we reached the coal mine (not very interesting, just a fenced off entrance though we think we saw a piece of coal), before carrying on to reach the top of a hill (through a paddock of knee high wet grass sadly) and the lookouts 

over the gorge.

While on a sunny day, they would have provided excellent views, the bad weather meant that we couldn't see far, and the sky was grey, so we continued onwards down the path. Eventually arriving at a turn off to the boat ramp, we headed down and ended up on the bank of the Rakaia River - so took the opportunity to skip stones of course (with varying levels of skill amongst our group). Then back off to the minivan, another hours plus walk to get there though, and back to camp for lunch.

Lunch followed by a nice warm shower for me when we got back to camp, before I headed into the dining pavilion to chill out for a bit. Later on, I headed over with James to see if we could do an escape room, so teamed up with two others who were waiting and started the escape room.

The one we chose to do was called Money Heist, where we had to unlock numerous safes and gather all the money before some robbers came back to find their loot. And while we did not break any records, we managed to find all the money (with a little help though) under the one hour time limit.

Following on from dinner saw us come to the closing ceremony, so we all gathered around the main stage to listen to a speaker talking about his life experience as a paralympian, watch a video of various activities at Venture, and finish off the Venture.

Then time for the last party of Venture (though I did disappear from it a few times to help out on a kidnapping for another patrols mascot Gorizza). Lots of glowsticks there, so I spent some time making a long glowstick necklace and other apparel. I ended up staying up until 1:30am partying that night, before heading to bed.

Early breakfast meant that I had lots of time to wander the site and chat to people I knew while I waited for my tent to dry. Once dry, I packed up my gear and tent, and headed back to farewell people as they left. The Rover cafe were selling remaining food at a discount, so I headed over there for a drink and bag of chips (and back again another 3 times later on!). Elsewhere, hot chips for free at another area, so I grabbed some of those while I waited for my parents to pick me up.

Now that the event has come to an end, I guess it's time to reflect on it, so here goes - What a blast!, 11 days (if we include the pack up day) of fun filled adventures, lots of new friends from both NZ and Australia. I enjoyed all the activities I did (hot air ballooning especially), though thinking back now I should have done more for some of the onsite days, but who doesn't like a lazy day every now and then. Many fun filled moments with my unit on phase 1, and just around the site and doing activities on phase 2. 890 photos (a lot of blurry ones though) taken by me, and 30 minutes+ of videos to remember Venture by. And a lot of fun filled memories to remember it all too now!

ignite23 Days 8-9

After waking up late at 7am, I headed over to have breakfast, while taking the time to think over my choices for the day. I had nothing planned, but having been able to jump on an activity the previous day, I had high hopes of being able to jump on an activity.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to jump on an activity, so decided to head out to Mayfield to have a look around and shop for a bit (the town was part of our site, meaning we were able to visit it without scanning out anytime between 7am and 7pm).

While Mayfield does not boast many stores, the few that it does have are well worth the visit - especially the Mayfield Op Shop. I headed over to it while I had the chance, and spent (more like wasted) a lot of time looking around.

Boasting many treasures from crockery, to furniture, to clothes, books, glassware and a whole lot more. I spent some time looking at various knickknacks, before spending some time browsing in the clothes section for anything that I could use for the costume themes coming up (I didn't buy anything though, but I saw a lot of people who did). I did end up with a few books (just something to read while chilling out), before heading back to camp for lunch - with a stop at the cafe for an ice cream.

Lunch was basic, just a roll and a piece of slice and fruit, while I started reading the first of the two books I bought. Taking a break from reading, I headed back out to the Mayfield Op Shop to keep exploring the outside section. It keeps on going and going, with not only the inside store but also a large exterior section with treasures in. Nothing eye catching for me this time round, so headed back to camp for dinner.

A few firefighters were doing a demonstration while we were all lined up, so we got to see what happens when we add water to an oil fire, and what can happen with overloaded plugs, while waiting for the dinner to be ready.

Talking with Brett (one of the West Coast Wonders leaders) led me to jumping on a spare spot on a night walk activity to Peel Forest. 

Only a 30-45 minute drive away from Mayfield and situated in an area with little to no cell coverage, Peel Forest was an old logging area, with remnants of logging still visible on the walk. We parked in the high carpark, walking down to the track, and completing a loop walk through some bush and some fields, before ending up in the Peel Forest Campsite before having to walk back up the hill to the carpark.

Heading back to camp, I scanned back in before heading over to the disco - a DJ playing music that night. I took a few photos of the disco, spent some time partying to the music, before heading to bed well after midnight like usual!

7:30am wakeup the next morning, with no plans for the day, I headed over to breakfast, before grabbing my book, and sitting in the dining marquee while I read. I ended up checking out the pool later on in the morning. 

Simple lunch again, before I headed over to the programme office to book onto an activity for the next day - Take a Hike, a good 3 hour hike. Out in Mayfield again to look back in the Op Shop, before back to camp and spending some time talking to Tim, before I got a phone call from my parents asking if I wanted to catch up while they were out and about in the area.

Meeting up at the local cafe meant I scored a free meal, while I got to show them some pictures and talk to them about my days so far. No chance for a look around the Op Shop before they closed, but we did get to have a walk around town, before it started bucketing down with rain while my raincoat and jacket were in my tent. I ended up huddling under a tree till the rain lightened a bit, before racing off to my tent to grab my jacket, and line up for dinner.

That night the act was a hypnotist, so I headed over to watch him - rather entertaining to see all the funny stuff he made the hypnotized people do. No recording was allowed, though many of us did manage to take videos of some acts before a staff member told us no recording. I headed past the dining marquee once the show was over, stopping in to see the silent disco which was going on - lots and lots of glowsticks used at it, before off to bed for me at midnight.

ignite23 Days 6-7

Early wakeup at 6am, followed by an early breakfast gave me time to take a few photos of the surrounding town, before packing my bag and bringing it out of my tent while I left it to dry. After spending a good hour and a half waiting for my tent to dry (and watching others put theirs away while still wet), I packed up my tent, threw my gear in the back of the minivan, gathered around for a ceremony and to take photos of the West Coast Wanderers and Unit 2004, we loaded up and headed off on our way at 10:30am.

Heading straight at the turnoff to Moana (instead of left like we should have) meant a few minivans started following us before realizing and turning around. Stopping in Greymouth for Patch to pick up batteries and us to buy snacks, we quickly doubled back towards the turnoff and on the way again we were.

No photostops along the way, but I did take a few from the moving minivan before we rolled on in to Arthur's Pass around 12:30pm for a lunch stop. Long queue at the cafe, so only out to take a few photos of a nearby kea, throw out some rubbish and eat some food before jumping back into the van.

One more toilet stop before Mayfield saw Olympia get distracted and us all heading off to the playground for a quick play to stretch our legs, before Patch entertained us with some donuts in the parking lot. Meeting up with the other minivans at a petrol station in Methven gave us another stop for snacks and a chance to refill, before traveling again in convoy towards the Venture site in Mayfield.

Only arriving a good hour and a half late, we took our gear to our campsite and started work on setting up tents, before I caught up with Tim, headed to the programme office and then over to dinner. Early dinner for us, being from 5:30pm to 7:30pm, before heading off to a quick preflight meeting for my Hot Air Ballooning on the 4th.

Despite trying to make it an early night, I ended up heading to bed around 11pm (chatting away with others), with Laurence promising me a 4:20am wakeup call (spoiler - it never happened!). All ready for my hot air ballooning in the morning!

Waking up to panic isn't nice, especially when it's at 4:20am, but that's exactly what happened when my ID card wasn't where I left it (needed it to get onto my trip), but luckily, I found my ID card under my sleeping bag (waking up both James and Patch in the process). Crisis averted, I headed to the toilet and over to the breakfast tent. Nothing had been opened up yet (others waiting though), though someone soon came and opened it, giving us access to the breakfast tent.

After a quick breakfast, I headed over to the muster point, and waited for all the others to show up. By 5am, we had all but one there, so someone else took their place, and headed off to find minivans (a whole new issue when only one set of keys opened a van), and off to Methven to meet up with the Hot Air Balloon company.

A 30 minute drive from Methven in a bus saw us in a paddock in the middle of nowhere, with us helping to unroll and setup the hot air balloon, before we split into two groups (one having to stay close by and jump in first, the other able to wander back and take photos). Being in the 2nd group, I took some photos of the balloon being setup, and taking off, before we jumped back on the bus and headed off following the balloon.

Finding multiple locked gates slowed us down, but eventually we found an open gate and made our way to where the hot air balloon had landed (through some random farmers paddock), and began the transition of the two groups. I jumped in one corner, along with two others and when all 12 of us were in, we took off and quickly began rising.

Reaching a maximum height of well over 6,000 feet, we were able to enjoy stunning views of the Southern Alps, Mt Cook, and the land below. With a total travel time of around 45 minutes, we ended up doing a figure 8 pattern before landing in a paddock around 300 meters away from where we took off (and just short of the pig farm, thank goodness). The farmer who lived next door came to say hello with his wife (and ended up scoring himself a free bottle of champagne).

While the first group made their way towards us, we dismantled the hot air balloon, and started packing it up, and once the bus and trailer arrived, packed it all up. A nice glass of orange juice and a muffin followed our flight, before we started heading back to Methven, where I bought a Hot Air Balloon pin for $5, and finally back to Mayfield by 11am.

After lunch, I headed over to the muster point to see if I could jump onto the trip to Ashburton, but seeing the queue for spare seats, I jumped on another trip (Holy Walkamolies) with James and Aiden (WCW member).

Following a 30 minute drive, we made it to the car park and began our walk, with us splitting into two groups after the 2nd turn off, with one group doing the loop and the other heading back to the van to see if they could swim anywhere. I headed off with Aiden, Adam and Gordon (the latter two both did Coast to Coast) to continue the walk, and after a steep climb, we arrived at the Blackburn Coalmine (which was a disaster as a coalmine).

A short 15 minute stop up the top of the hill was well worth it, as we began down the 2nd path to loop back up, with the route ending up being half visible at the best of times and very steep too. Making it the bottom was a relief before connecting back onto the path and finishing the loop, then we followed the arrow the other group left on the ground back to the carpark. We encountered the other group as they made their way back to the van, so off we headed back through Mt Somers.

Back to camp for dinner, before heading over to the main stage to hear some announcements before the music began. I spent some time listening to the music, before heading off to my tent for a bit, but returned to the stage to listen and dance to the music before it stopped at around midnight. Then teeth, toilet, water and off to bed, with nothing planned for the day ahead.

ignite23 Day 4-5

Following the long awaited 7 hours of sleep (what a luxury!), I rose, and headed over to the hall for breakfast and to pack my lunch, ready for the day ahead. Meeting at the minivans at 10:30am, we set off in our units for the main destination of the day - Lake Brunner.

Just after an hours driving, we finally arrived at our stop for the day - Moana and Lake Brunner. Combining a warm summer's day and New Years day meant that the lake was busy, but after managing to find a park, we met up with the other units and headed over the swing bridge (15 max limit, though I'm sure we went way over that at points) to stake our claim to a secluded section of pristine waterfront.
 

Grabbing my towel out, I began to sunbathe while waiting for other groups to arrive and for people to start going in the water. While waiting, the sun ended up looking like it had rings around it - I tried to snap a picture but failed.

Eventually changing into my swimming gear, I headed back down to the beach and went in to the water - albeit only half deep if I could, to avoid getting my neck brace wet. Continuing to stand around in the water, I eventually got out when Laurence called out that he needed volunteers to help bring some kayaks he hired around from the boat ramp.

Throwing my hand up, I headed around (wearing no shoes on a gravel path hurts) and helped carry the kayaks (4 doubles, with gear), down to the water, where I joined up with Benji (7 of us to paddle around, so 1 person going single) and lead to way out past the wharf and around the rocks to the far side of the river where we had set up our gear.


Back to sunbathing afterwards for me, till we finally started getting ready to go at around 3pm. Some of the girls in my unit wanted to go to the town or out shopping on the way back, but instead we just headed back to camp, arriving at 4pm (a move Patch later agreed was silly, seeing as how there were no activities on at camp till dinner).

Dinner followed by a quick dessert once we were all back meant that we had time to relax, before Laurence gathered up a group of people and led them down to a small creek to go eel hunting - with the tools of the trade being a piece of fishing rope, tied to an old sock with a piece of meat and a stone in.

Despite two eeling sessions that must have lasted a good hour plus in total, I never managed to catch an eel, though came close on several occasions, with them either not wanting to bite into the sock, or escaping before the rock I threw at them hit.

Admitting defeat, I headed back to camp, and turned in for the night, with a 6am wakeup the following day - reasoning, a 3-4 hour hike the following day.
 
6am came faster than I would have liked, but up I rose and started getting ready for the hike. Plenty of time to organize myself, grab breakfast, and pack lunch left me waiting outside the minivans at 8am, following Laurence's van out the campsite and onto the road, for the hour long drive to the beginning of the hike.

Stretching 6km long one-way, the Fox River tramp to the Ballroom overhang is an easy trail for the most part (until you get the stony riverbank and river crossings that is), though encountering a few muddy patches and rocks to clamber around is a common occurrence. I jumped on with the fast group, wanting to get the walk done and dusted before lunch (obviously).

 

Plunging into the river at the first river crossing, I quickly took the lead of those doing it and retained that lead for the remainder of the journey, only slowing slightly for the stony riverbank, and the 8 or 9 more river crossings left to go (I pity those who thought they could keep their shoes dry by taking them off and on again after each crossing).
 

Being the first to the ballroom overhang meant I was able to capture stunning views of not only the overhang, but also the landscape surrounding it. After a looong lunch (try a good hour and a half) while waiting for slower groups to turn up, I set off again heading out, walking with Laurence for the river, before catching up to Patch and sticking with him for the rest of the walk.
 

Having my watch run out of power was sad, but at least it managed to capture the majority of my walk, though it meant I wouldn't get anymore steps that day. Jumping in one of the first 4 vans, I headed off to the kayaking place ready for a kayak trip upstream and back.
 
Taking roughly 30 to 45 minutes, we kayaked upriver sticking to the left of the river, having to get out and carry our kayaks through at one point, before paddling around some rocks, and turning around a giant boulder and heading back downstream. After finishing the kayak trip, I took the time to dry off what I could, though I still had soaking wet socks and shoes.
 
While the 2nd group did their kayak trip, I joined up with some others and walked the kilometer-ish up the hill into Punakaiki. As we were walking in, I did catch sight of a crazy driver (James) in a van, without the boot closed so gestured to him till someone closed it. Stopping at the cafe/restaurant, I ordered a bowl of fries, and sat outside to enjoy it, before heading over to look at the Punakaiki rocks.

On the way in, I was told that we had to be back at the minivans by 6pm, so less than 3 minutes away when we were over a kilometer away. Making it back after 6pm, we organized ourselves back into our units, and headed off, with the chance to stop at the Punakaiki rocks on the way (so no need for me to have walked all the way there, grrr).
 
After a few pictures of the Punakaiki rocks, we headed back on the road, headed for Hokitika and the Warehouse. After a quick stop in at the Warehouse to top up on essentials - lollies of course, we made a quick stop in at McDonald's (making sure to tease the two people who work at a McDonald's and trying to get them to help out when it was slow), before beginning the 30 minute drive back to Ahaura.
 

Making it back after dinner had started, we ate quickly before the leaders started transforming the hall into a disco room - ready for the party that night. After watching both Patch and Wayne (another leader) get their hair dyed in some form, I headed over the disco party and spent some time enjoying the music and atmosphere while there. Heading off to bed around midnight, with the wakeup at 6am the next morning - not for any activity but to pack up, as we're traveling onwards to Phase 2 the next day!

ignite23 Days 1-3

After waking up early (6:30am, the horror!), I had breakfast, finished packing my bags, and headed out to the car with my parents for the hour and a half drive into Christchurch (from Okains Bay). 

Waiting to leave Riccarton Racecourse

After a stop at Couplands for morning tea, we headed over to Riccarton Racecourse for me to sign in for the Venture (ignite23). Completing the sign-in, we headed out to the expedition zone, where I put my bags with the rest of the people on the expedition, before my parents headed back out on their way. 

All of the Venturers gathered at 12pm at the Grand Stand to attend the Opening Ceremony, before heading to stand in our expedition groups and being introduced to the expedition leader (Laurence), our Unit Leaders and the rest of our Unit's. I was placed in Unit 2004, with Patch (Andrew) as my Unit Leader.

After waiting around for several hours, we headed off on our expedition - driving over to the West Coast, with petrol stops and a stop at Cave Stream Cave for caving. One of the enjoyable parts of the driving was when Laurence's van pulled over to wait for others to catch up, but instead of waiting with him, we shot past and kept on driving till Cave Stream, being the first van to arrive and get ready to begin the caving!

Traversing a steep rocky path down to the cave outlet (entrance of the cave), we followed Laurence into the cave and began the trek upriver through the cave. While there were some hard bits (including having to climb up through several powerful rapids, and bend down to get under a big rock), we eventually made it to the cave inlet (exit of the cave) - not before a ladder climb and ledge crawl though! Overall, a very rewarding activity before the driving began again.

By the time we arrived at the campsite, we were a good 3 hours behind schedule, and had to setup tents in the dark before heading across the road to the community hall for dinner (spaghetti bollenaise with a salad). After the caving and a good 4+ hours of driving, we were all tired and headed to bed.

Waking up in the morning with a refreshing 6 and a half hours of sleep (Yay!), I headed over to the hall for breakfast (just cereal with fruit salad), I packed my lunch and met up with my unit at the minivan at 8am. 

Then on the road again - first stop Hokitika, for the kiwi sanctuary and exploring Hokitika. My unit was among the 4 chosen to go inside the kiwi sanctuary first, so we followed Laurence and headed in. My two favourite activites from the kiwi sanctuary were surprising not kiwis, but the interactive kids area (fishing for lobsters in a pond, I caught lobsters 3 times!), and the eel feeding, which I got to feed a few pieces of meat to the eels. After looking at the kiwi (soooooo cute running around!), I had a quick look around Hokitika before meeting back at the Van's.

Following on from the stop in Hokitika, we headed to the Treetop Walk. Amazing scenery there of the trees, and being able to hear the birds, but when there are so many Venturers doing it all at once, the bridges do start to wobble a bit! It featured a tower which I think is a good 20+ meters in the air.

Moving on to the road again for a drive down to Franz Josef to see the glaciers, we stopped in the township to let out the people doing the scenic flight, before continuing on up to the glacier. Walking up to the main lookout, the view of the glacier was hidden by clouds, but by the time the James (another Unit Leader) and I headed up the other path towards the Pinnacle Rock lookout, the clouds had begun to clear and after a 15 minute wait, we were able to take spectacular views of the glacier.

We split into two groups at the bottom of the glacier, those who wanted to go to Hari Hari hot pools and those who wanted to go back to camp. Most of my unit wanted to go, so we grabbed a few extra people who wanted to come, and set off with Patch driving. On the way, Patch showed off his amazing driving skills, heading over bumps with speed, and swerving the car to keep us on our toes!

The experience of the hot pools was weird, but enjoyable, with the hot pools simply being a section of the river which hot water flowed up from, and us having to build some walls to prevent cold water from coming in. On the way back, the van I came in filled up, so had to travel in another van, which luckily meant sitting in the front so getting good photos of the sky.

Followed by a late dinner at 10:30pm, before being told that we'd need to be up even earlier at 5:30am the following morning to keep on time for the next day, I headed off to bed.

Early morning wakeup by Laurence followed by breakfast meant that I was able to take some photos of the campsite and local area while the sun was still rising. We jumped in our minivan by 7am, and headed out towards Buller Gorge.

One of the thrills of the drive, was when we passed the van in front after they pulled into a petrol station to refuel - a smart move we didn't realize until later on when we got down to 17km of fuel left in the tank with the nearest petrol station a good 15km away.

Being the first group to get to Buller Gorge, meant that my unit (not me as still recovering from my accident 😭) were among the first to get to go on the jet boating. I waited up the top with the bags and took the chance to take some photos while they went on the jetboat, and met up with them again once they had finished.

After the jet boating, I had some food before my unit was called up to do the zipline. After being told that the impact at the end was not large, I decided to do the zipline, which ended up being lots of fun (even if only for around 15 seconds).

Patch headed off with another van (both running low on gas) to fill up, while I took the time to talk to James about some of the features of his camera (and take a few photos of it to try and get the hang of the focusing), and to chill out. Crossing back over the swing bridge a third time wasn't that fun, especially when it's wobbling around and you're having to pass someone.

We stopped in Reefton on the way back for a toilet break, though some people must have surely misheard, because it turned into a 20 minute stop so some people could get donuts, ice cream and have a gaze around town. As we were sitting back in the bus waiting for Patch to get back, Ben just started talking to a random person there who looked like Patch from behind, which we all found hilarious. 

Heading back at around 2pm, we made it back to camp around 4pm, to wait for Laurence to arrive and give us (first 4 units) directions to paintball. Paintball ended up being on a farm (owned by one of the men who had been doing meals for us), though I decided to sit it out (hard firing pellets, and who'd really want bruises anyway), but I'm sure I was good at moral support. One funny memory happened as we left, when Olympie decided that she wanted to race the van down a stretch of the road, only for Patch to gun it and shoot past her, leaving her to jump in the van behind us to catch back up.

Dinner was burgers that night (early too at 7pm), with ice cream and jelly for dessert, before chilling out for several hours while waiting for the 4wd group to arrive. As we were about to depart for the farm again (10ish), the 4wd group arrived, so Laurence gave them instructions and off we all went!

We made it to the farm just before they lit the bonfire (a well over 3 meter high and wide pile of dry wood), with the flames reaching a good 20 meters high when the fire was at its peak. All the venturers had formed a circle around the fire, but as it grew, we all stepped backwards and backwards out of the heat. I took the time to talk to James, Tim, and to take some photos of the bonfire.

Starting at 11pm (the man incharge thought it would take an hour to get through them all), they started firing the fireworks at a reasonable rate, though ran out at around 11:35pm. I did try to capture some photos of the fireworks, and ended up taking what must have been 100+ photos, with only the odd few capturing anything good.

After taking the time to edit some photos and talk to James about photos, it came time for the big moment, the final minute of 2022. Gathering around in a circle around the fire, we counted down the last 10 seconds as a group, before celebrating for a bit, before Laurence started to send us back to the minivans. Off to bed once we got back, with the promise of a longer night's sleep (a good 7 hours for me!).