Outward Bound Adventures

My name is Caio Day and I was one of four people chosen from our school to go and complete a 21 day Mind Body and Soul course down at Outward Bound. I am very grateful for this opportunity and I would like to share my experience with you.

The course began on the 7th of April down at Picton. Everyone had loaded their bags onto a truck and had to sort ourselves out by alphabetical order. We then boarded a ferry which took us down to this little place called Anakiwa. This is where I would spend the next 21 days and call my “home”. I was grouped with 11 other strangers from all over the country in a “watch”. A watch is the group of people you spend almost all of your time with and our group was named after Kupe, a polynesian explorer who is said to be the first person to discover New Zealand.

At Outward Bound, they like to keep everything a secret and spring upon us when we're going to do a scheme. A scheme is like a big activity that your watch does together, ranging from 1 day to 4 days at a time. Some schemes we did were 4 days sailing, 3 day tramp which included going up Mount Royal (1360m tall), a 2 day solo where we get to spend some personal time with ourselves and reflect on our course and a day kayaking down Rai river. These schemes push you to your limits and make you the best version of yourself. One thing I learnt was that no matter how hard the task is, the end result is always worth it.

One highlight was making it to the top of Mount Royal. The previous day we had spent navigating on our own up as far as we could up a very steep mountain and we were all tired, from the walk and getting a bad sleep as we slept in a cloud. But when we made it to the top, everyone's mood had increased and smiles appeared on everyone's face. The view from the top was the most beautiful view that i’ve ever seen. There was no tree line so we could see 360 degrees around us. Another watch had made it to the top at the same time as us so it was nice to see other people, nothing against my watch though. All of us had wished we could stay for longer up the top, partly because we were tired but also because of how cool it was. We took our photos and left after spending awhile at the top.

Another highlight was the whole sailing trip. We had spent the first 2 days figuring out how to operate a cutter so that we could be incharge of it for the next 2 days. Unfortunately on the third day, horrible weather had dawned upon us. With 50+ knots of wind (around 90km), our cutter would not have survived and we would have capsized completely. Fortunately our wonderful instructors allowed us to pull into Outward Bounds satellite base, Te Kainga. They use this as a safe spot if needed when weather gets really bad while sailing. Thankfully, instead of leaving us wondering what’s next, our instructors tell us we’re staying the night here. At Outward Bound, they like to keep us on our toes and share barely any information with us, leaving us wondering what's next, to expect the unexpected. The next morning, we grabbed the biggest pot we could find and emptied our entire baked beans supply (around 15 cans) into it and enjoyed that for breakfast and used a real kitchen.

My favourite scheme was definitely the kayaking trip. As I had never been kayaking before, this was a scary experience for me, and to be put into a white water river made it more challenging. But after doing my first drop and nearly capsizing but fixing it, I felt overjoyed and very excited to continue onwards. I made sure to do every drop and sometimes I would go off course and say it was an accident on (sometimes it wasn’t). I may or may not have capsized at one point and bashed my nose on the side of the kayak, but I was still having loads of fun zooming down the river. I realised that I needed to give everything a try and not hold myself back because it’s something I’d feel uncomfortable on. The whole point of this course was to push me out of my comfort zone.

I think my least favourite moment of Outward Bound was having to clean out the buckets after our solos. Unfortunately, I was caught talking to a group of members from my watch after our solo had finished, at least we thought it had finished. Turns out we had to get out of the woods in silence too so 4 of us had to clean out the watches buckets which was very unfortunate and something I wouldn’t wish upon anyone. I won’t go into detail but I’m sure you can figure out what was in those buckets.

Overall, OB was a life changing experience just like it’s marketed as. I’ve made lifelong friends on this course with people from all over the country. I’ve tried every activity that was up for offer and made sure to give it my all. Whether it was coasteering or running a half marathon, I never gave up and pushed myself to go harder.

“Plus est en vous”

Which means “there is more in you”, and Outward Bound has made me  and thousands of others recognize that. I recommend this to everyone, no matter what age or fitness level, there is a course for you that will push you as a person mentally and physically. 

by Caio Day