Superb, descriptive writing of our Rock Climbing adventure...By Nikita, Year 8!

When writing this recount, we were asked to focus on one thing: Starting our sentences in an interesting way, like using time connectives or more advanced openers that leads to more descriptive writing. 

How do you think I went?

William Pike Challenge; Rock Climbing Recount

At the age of 22, William Pike; a mountaineer climber, lost his leg on Mt Ruapehu due to a volcano erupting without warning. As a result he had trouble doing many things, and during that time he lost his confidence.

The William Pike Challenge is a program set up for year 7-9 kids that promotes love for the outdoors, and build qualities that will help them to succeed in whatever they may do.

To complete the William Pike Challenge you must do 20 hours of Community Service, 20 Hours of a chosen Hobby, and the minimum of 6 Outdoor Activities that your school organises, over the period of year.

Definitely a challenge!

My class has completed our 2nd outdoor activity, where we spent the whole Monday, the 20th of June, rock climbing at Cattlestop Crag, at the top of Mt Pleasant Rd in the Port Hills of Christchurch.

Arriving at the top of the hill, we were all exposed to the harsh cold wind, and very soon all of our jackets came out of our bags.  

After our instructors Josh and Steve introduced themselves, we made our way in a single file line down the very narrow, and difficult mountain path track, past the abseiling rock and to the spot where we would climb for the day.

Here we were sheltered from the wind, and Josh talked to us about some safety rules before we could start.

Soon we settled down, and after we got into our very uncomfortable harnesses, Steve chose 5 people to go all the way back to the abseiling rock (me… lol) to begin that activity.

The abseiling was definitely challenging for most people,  and really tested our courage and resilience to go all the way down.

These qualities are ones that you build whilst doing the William Pike Challenge, and will help us to face life with pride and ambition.

Anyway, abseiling is basically what you do when you come down from climbing up the rock, except this rock we didn’t climb up, but instead we were abseiling down over a vertical edge, not straight down like you would on the other ones.

I was the last to abseil, and the reality of going over a vertical edge which overlooks a massive slope down one of the Port hills in Christchurch, hit me when I realised that it was now my turn.

I definitely didn't want to show my concern! And the pressure was on because everyone was now at the bottom, but I managed to succeed and conquered the abseiling rock! At the end I was proud, another quality that was built up during that activity.

With much caution we made it back to the rock climbing walls where people were already going up.

It was great fun to watch and cheer them on, but it was more fun when it was your turn, and you had to scour the face of the rock to find hidden ledges and holes to use to pull yourself up with!

I made it my goal without realizing, to reach the top of all the faces that I started to climb; I managed to accomplish that goal, and successfully touched all the metal brackets where the top of the rope was attached to.

At the end of the day I felt satisfied, tired, and also extremely sore! All in all I am glad that I was able to learn and experience more of the qualities like courage, resilience, and pride during this William Pike Challenge Outdoor Activity!