SPORTS NEWS - Columba College

Year 9 Ski Camp
This year’s Year 9 Ski Camp was held a little earlier than usual, which is just as well as, until this
week’s late fall, the snow was thinning fast and we had Spring conditions for most of the week,
meaning reasonably firm in the morning and pumpkin-soupish by the afternoon. With 83 students, six
teachers and seven parents, it was one of our biggest groups to date. We set off on Monday, 20 th
August, and managed to get to Coronet Peak in time to get everyone fitted and issued with their skis
or snowboards and boots, before settling into the Otago, Vincent and Southland Ski Club Lodges,
which were to be our home for the week. Lessons began at 9.00 a.m. each morning and lasted for 1½
hours and it was great to see the progress that the girls made over the week, with all able to use the
chairlifts and ski down various slopes by the end of the four days. Fortunately we didn’t have too
many trips to the medical centre and only needed to travel down the mountain twice to have students
x-rayed at the Lakes District Hospital, with one broken arm needing to be set and plastered. The
weather was kind to us and we managed to ski right through until 3.00 p.m. on Friday, 24 th September.
After a quick stop for fish and chips in the park in Alexandra, we arrived back at school very close to
the scheduled 8.30 p.m. with a tired but happy group of girls.
This was the second year that we had two Year 9 students from Turakina Maori Girls’ College in
Marton join our Ski Camp. We were very happy to have Kohu Thomas and Sativa Mataia with us for
the week. They fitted in beautifully with our girls who, in turn, learnt a lot about their school in the
lower North Island.
I would especially like to thank the parents who gave up their time to help with the camp: Mrs Anne
Parker, Mr Callum Reid, Mr Craig Foley, Mr Graeme Thompson, Mr Edward Fields, Prof. Anthony
Ritchie and Mr Evan Baddock, who has helped with many school camps and also made a DVD of
each for the girls to keep as a memento. Also, many thanks to the teachers who helped and who also
skied or snowboarded with the girls – Mrs Anstey, Ms Boek, Miss Wright, Mrs Skerten, Mr Stevenson
and Mr Williams. I would also like to add that this was a particularly pleasant group of girls to take
away and it was lovely to see them all supporting and encouraging one another, both on the slopes
and back in the huts.
I’ll finish with the words of Emily Ward: “My friendships grew a long way throughout this camp, and I
cannot thank Columba enough for having such an awesome camp! I wish I could go back �.”
Jenness Riethmaier
Year 9 Dean and Teacher in charge of Ski Camp