Wildman goes international!

Posted by Coondog on 19 March 2012

Tags: Programmes

HKIS students - Into the Wild

We've not long been back from running our first week long Into the Wild programme with good friends and fellow adventure education providers, Little Brown Kiwi. Their target market are the large number of international schools who provide an overseas experience for students as part of their curriculum programme - and LBK run one of the best experiences in the country (and market NZ incredibly well). So in early March, 20 students from Hong Kong International School arrived in NZ to participate in a week-long programme Wildman helped develop and guide. Led by Henry (8-Shot) and myself, these 16-18 year old kids had a pretty amazing New Zealand wilderness adventure, and to their credit, did extremely well in some rather trying situations...

Preparing for day 3 on the Wanganui

Here's a snap-shot of the week:

• Two day Wildman programme involving navigation, bushcraft, shooting, game harvest & butchery, bivvying, campfires and more! (We were caught in a massive weather bomb that hit the country and had to modify the programme a little - so no rafting or abseiling into the river)
• Three days canoeing the Wanganui River. Awesome experience, with plenty of capsizes and fun times - the last day though was brutal! Battling a gale force head wind took an easy 4 hour paddle to a gnarly 7 hours!
• A couple of days in the Tongariro NP. We were supporsed to do the Tongariro Crossing, but 80km winds forced us to change plans and head to Tama Lakes - which is almost as good!
• Taupo to shop and relax in hot pools before the kids flew out of Auckland and back to Hong Kong.

All in all, we had a great week with them and look forward to our next one later in the year. It also was a good reminder of how New Zealand's weather conditions can be pretty full-on at times, and can change real quick. One of our biggest challenges was getting the kids out of their cotton t-shirts and into more appropriate gear!

Classic HKIS Quotes:

Why are there filing cabinets in the paddock?

- Xenia, on observing beehives on the farm...

I feel so guilty, but it tastes sooo good!

- Miriam, our resident vegetarian who, after cutting her own venison steak off a hindquarter and cooking it, then went on to eat it! (We've rescued one back from the dark side!)

Pukana in National Park

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