DUKE OF EDINBURGH The silver Duke of Edinburgh Hillary Award group went on a fabulous trip to Camp Kaitawa. This was a practice trip for our qualifying trip next year. The adventure’s main goal was to develop our kayaking skills, and we did exactly that! Our next trip is kayaking in the beautiful Marlborough Sounds. So, familiarising ourselves with the kayaks was very important. We spent a whole day out on the pristine waters of Lake Wherowhero. We learnt kayaking signals, what to do if something goes wrong and overall confidence on the water. However, the trip wasn’t all kayaking, our group of 12 developed into a strong team. Through multiple confidence course activities, we learnt to not only back ourselves but each other. We also bonded over endless games of the card game mafia. It was our go-to game. We learnt so much about each other’s personalities from such a simple game. We started as a group of 12 kids who hardly knew each other and ended as a tight-knit bunch. It was all thanks to Mrs Van Rijk and Mr Weber’s hard work. Mrs Van Rijk taught us so much and Mr Weber cooked us delicious meals to keep us going. It was by far my favourite trip! -Esta Chaplin
The second part of the Duke of Edinburgh Hillary Award is the long and sometimes gruelling task of committing to a sport, a skill and volunteer work for 26 hours each, with one hour per week counted towards your award. For me personally, I have joined many new groups and activities to fulfil that requirement, and it has taken me down so many paths that I most likely wouldn’t have even thought of without Duke of Ed. For my Sport, I will do a couple of hours of canoe polo each week, either practising or competing. I do an hour and a half of choir each Thursday morning to fill my Skill, and I help to care for the kids at KAS CARE for one-hour after school each week for my Service. All of this has forced me to widen and diversify the activities that I do and allowed me to see more of the wonderful opportunities available in Hawke’s Bay. It has also made me become a more motivated and dedicated person, having to make sure that I show up to each practice, meeting and performance to make sure I can finish my award. I think the skills I’ve learnt from this award have been helpful in other activities that I’m doing outside of Duke of Ed. I find that now I’m more organized and dedicated to my work, and I will forever be grateful for those skills that this award has taught me, and I think that one day all this hard work will pay off and be worth it. - Jack Arcus
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