Tramping with Project K

Today Dennis and I met up with the 12 Project K participants from St Bernard's College in Lower Hutt to do a tramp around the Wellington hills. We started from Days Bay, near Eastbourne, and walked up the Main Ridge Track to the Wainuiomata Lookout. From there were headed over to the firebreak roads, then on to Hayward's Reserve and finished up at the Hutt Valley Tramping Club.

We really enjoyed seeing the programme up close. The boys were on their second day of the programme and all did really well, keeping up a good pace and achieving their goal of 'finishing the tramp with a positive attitude'. We're very jealous of their upcoming 3 week outdoor wilderness camp filled with tramping, abseiling, rafting, climbing and ropes courses.

It was great to get a better understanding of how Project K works. The 14 month programme costs around $4000 per participant, none of which is funded by the student. For these boys, they will have their community challenge in January and will then be paired up with a mentor who they will meet one-on-one with for a year, focusing on goal setting, confidence building and leadership.

This is a very worthwhile programme. After one day we could see the enthusiasm of the participants, and how dedicated and well organised the facilitators were. There are still plenty of shoes to be added to our donation shoe pile, so don't be shy about showing your support.

Alice and Dennis

Photos:
The tramping group at Wainuiomata Lookout with a view over Wellington Harbour
Debriefing at the end of the day at the Hutt Valley Tramping Club