sewell peak experience

Yesterday all of the year teens at Greymouth high school went on a big walk up Sewell Peak. Sewell Peak is about 3.5 kms to get to the top and then another 3.5 down. It took us all day from 9.15am to 3.05pm; we only just got back in time for the buses. We started by getting in the vans and driving out to Taylorvile and driving about 100m into the road up and found a good parking spot to park all of the vans (about 10). On that 100m of road my van driver tried to avoid a pot hole and almost ended up in the ditch. We then grouped up for a photo then started the treacherous walk up. Quite a few people started feeling sore and tired early on and a lot of people slowed down to help them get to the top which was great cooperation and motivation for those less able few. There were only a couple injuries including sprained ankles and previously injured hips playing up. Anyway there were quite a few breaks to let everyone group up again so we don't get a massively spread out line of students. there was a big break about half way up and we waiting around there for over 30 minutes! After then we didn't have any more stops and people started to run for some dumb reason, that's when I started to relax and not race to the top, enjoy the view and stuff. Slowly but steadily I eventually reached the top, took a few nice pictures, had some food to eat and then proceeded to head down to encourage others. At the top Tony, Greymouths Mayor was waiting with lots of water, sandwiches and ice creams, after we all had something to eat and take in the view then tony had a speech, so did Andy (ghs' principle) then we all got together for a few more pictures. Soon after we began to head down again. You would be surprised about how many people ran back down (crazy people) most of them regretted it when they got to the bottom and had to wait for another hour and a half. the trip down was painful, after having a nice hour long break our legs were aching so much and exercising them was the worst thing we could have done. the angle of our legs when walking down was almost 50 degrees so our ankles hurt afterwards too. About half way down I started to job for a bit and that was the amazing break that I needed. When we got to the bottom then we just sat down net to the vans and listened to music and ate the last of our foods. Afterwards we began to make connection between the walk and NCEA next year. It looked intimidating and you want to just give up but we all kept going and reached the top. Next year i am confident in my ability to achieve NCEA level 1 because i will be in MSA and that will give me level 2 credits for doing stuff like going on tramps and going camping. as well  as doing trades academy (hopefully i get in) and that's all on top of the normal choice classes. Next year i will be willing to concentrate and do my work even more than i do now.