my time in australia

My Trip to Jindabyne

The trip to Jindabyne with my Summer school, from 9^th to 11^th of January, was very tiring but I had a lot of fun. We stayed at the Jindabyne Sport and Recreation Centre for two nights and did many activities, which were very challenging for me.

We arrived by bus on Wednesday after a long bus drive of about three hours. I think most of the people, myself included, slept most of the time, because the bus started at 7.30 am at Lake Ginninderra College and picked up different students at three other stations, so we were all very tired. We stopped at Cooma for about 20 minutes to go to the toilet and eat some crisps or fruit.

At 11.00 am we arrived at the camp and got a small instruction on the rules of the camp. After that we were allowed to have a look in our rooms and unpack some things. The lunch we got at 12.15 was very nice. We got Fish and Chips, but also some salad and fruit. We returned to our rooms and changed for the first activities. We were divided into two groups. One group did a high ropes course and the other group, like me, went canoeing. Joy, Jennifer and I went together in one boat. We had a lot of fun, especially when three boys fell in the water and one of them lost his shoe. We drove back to the camp in a small bus and had some free time to take a shower and change the dirty clothes. When the other group was finished with their high ropes course we got dinner and played many funny games with Jen. So the first day was done and we were all very tired and felt asleep very quickly.

On the second day in Jindabyne we went to the top of Mount Kosciusko. We left at 9.00 am to go to Thredbo, so we needed to wake up early and have something for breakfast. When we arrived at Thredbo we went up the mountain on a chairlift for a few kilometres. At the beginning of the chairlift ride I was a bit scared but we had lots of fun and a beautiful view of the ground. We climbed up a bit more than 6 km to the top and went back down all the way to the Chairlift. We put on a lot sunscreen every hour, but nevertheless I got a bit sunburned in the face. The walk up was very exhausting but once we reached the top it was an overwhelming feeling. We ate some lunch and took some pictures. As I went to the edge and looked down in the valley I got a bit dizzy but you got a wonderful view. The way back wasn’t that tiring. I taught Pearl some German and we talked a lot about our home countries and the people in Australia. I taught Pearl the numbers from “one to ten” (eins, zwei, drei, vier, fünf, sechs, sieben, acht, neun und zehn) and “Hello. I’m Pearl” (Hallo. Ich bin Pearl). We want back to the Chairlift and back to Thredbo. Joy and I bought a Coca-Cola and went back to the bus. After our arrival in the camp Pearl and I wanted to be the first ones to take a shower so we ran into our room, grabbed our things, ran back to the bathroom and took a shower. After we had lunch we were able to choose an activity. Some went rock climbing and some played soccer or basketball, but we just sat outside, listened to some music and talked. We had some supper and soon fell asleep.

On the last day my group did the high ropes course and although I have done that a few times at home, I was still scared of the different tasks. However I did the second floor completely. Some of the other students stopped after they climbed up the ladder and some stopped after the first task. Joy, Mark, Trung and Wally helped me a few times to figure out how to go on but once I started the tasks were very easy. Just the task with the tyres on the rope was very difficult to manage for me and I had lots of problems. I was very proud when I was back on the ground. We had some very nice burgers with chicken for lunch which we ate fast and got back in the bus to drive home.

When we got back to back at Lake Ginninderra College I had to wait for my uncle to pick me up. I waited at the McCafé next to the College and had some time to think about the trip.

All in all they were some very exhausting days but I met lots of new nice people and gained many new experiences and I’m very proud of myself because I tried everything. I didn’t expected that but I really “had a go”.