For over 50 years the year ten, or fourth form students, from a Queenstown high school have been going on a very special camp. The Wakatipu High School Branches camp began in 1967 and takes students up into the hills above Queenstown on Branches Station. The students live under canvas, prepare their own food and if the weather holds they tramp up for a night at Lochnagar!
The camp has grown a bit, the first one had fifteen students and this year the teachers are planning for two hundred and seventy. Ken McIntryre is a PE and outdoor education teacher at Wakatipu High School and has been running the camp for the last twenty years. He's better known on the camp and at school as 'Mr Mac'. You can find the book Long Drops and Hard Knocks by Sue Fea here.