By Sophie

From before I even started High School I had been told by various different people about the Hillary Challenge event run by OPC, In effect how amazing it was and that I would really enjoy it. So when our Cashmere High School team qualified for the national final in September last year I was really excited about the opportunity that we were going to get this year.

After months of preparation and fundraising, it was great to be travelling to Tongaririo to take part in the Hillary Challenge. The Final was held between the 12th and 17th of May and based around the OPC campus. The week consisted of two days of 12 one hour problem solving team challenges that included first aid, memory problems, making structures, water activities and high ropes. The third and fourth days consisted of a tramp/rogaine somewhere in the national park. The final day was a multisport race, which was a mixture of running, mountain biking, and kayaking. This year there was also a gorge section.

I found the week both mentally, emotionally, and physically challenging at different times, but my favourite bits had to be the multisport race on the last day. I really enjoyed the rest of the week as well though! our team did extremely well we learnt a lot, gained knowledge and new experiences  which I know will be invaluable for our futures. In the end our team came ninth which is really good considering the challenges our team had faced leading up to and during the competition and that cashmere had never been to Hillary before so had little idea of what we were going to face. We had our tough times as a team but we did it. Well done guys!

A big thank you to OPC and especially  Darren Ashmore for a fantastic week. It was really awesome!  Also, a massive thank you to all the parents and other team members involved for making sure we got to Tongariro.

The Team!

Our first 1hr challenge on day 1 (Ed in action). This challenge was basically a memory match the pairs game but you weren’t allowed to touch the ground inside the secondary box.

Our second challenge was building bridges. If you touched the water you had to start again!

Moving the water challenge the aim here was to get as much water as possible through an obstacle course ( this was the easiest section of the course).

One of the high ropes challenges where we had to collect objects to create the tallest tower without touching the ground.

A time trial rafting challenge!

Ed feeling the pain after a challenge. He has a nice wetsuit don’t you think?

This is the map for the day 3 and 4 rogaine. Where would you have gone?
We went 80,67,86,55,105,65,52,108, camped somewhere on the stream going towards 62, 62,23,58,21,25,24,89, tried to get to 60 but the bush was too thick,22,23,88,54,26 and finish. Not the optimum route but the best route for our team.

Me at the front as we set off on the rogaine.

The team just after we finished the multisport race day !

Here is a video that Ed made of our Hillary adventure. shot Ed!