On Friday, October 18th, Ruby, Ophelia, Samantha and I started our four day tramp along the Central Otago Rail Trail. For Ruby and myself this was our final tramp to gain our Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award. It was Samantha’s practice Gold tramp, and Ophelia’s qualifying for her silver award! We started our tramp in Wedderburn on Friday and walked 12km through to Oturehua. On day two we then tramped from Oturehua to Lauder which was 22.5km and our longest day; a highlight from this day was passing through two tunnels. By day three we had some impressive blisters and very sore legs and feet; however, we kept going and walked 19km from Lauder to Chatto Creek, and then finally on day four we completed the tramp by walking the last 17km from Chatto Creek to Alexandra. Over the course of these four days we couldn’t have asked for better weather. We had beautiful sunny days with minimal wind which helped make the journey more enjoyable. This tramp sounded easy in the beginning but quickly proved otherwise; the challenges of doing this walk was not things like elevation and being in the bush, it was more of a mental challenge as we were walking long flat straights, with only each other to entertain ourselves and take our minds off our weary bodies. Although by the end of these four days we were in a lot of pain, we all managed to have a good time, we made the best out of our situation and kept a positive mindset, we thrived in each others company and made many memories. A huge thank-you goes out to Mr and Mrs Ryan for making this tramp happen, we truly couldn’t have done it without you both - we appreciate all the time you have given up out of your personal lives to spend time tramping with us. We hope you have enjoyed it as much as we have!! I would also like to thank Mr Ryan for supporting us all through the Duke of Edinburgh Award programme; he has been with us the whole way through and we appreciate the time commitment he has put towards it for us and continues to do so for younger students.
Eve McKenzie
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