Young Whanganui lifeguards tackle challenges day and night at Motutapu Island camp

A team of seven young Whanganui lifeguards went to a youth development camp on Mototapu Island. From left to right: Ethan Bishop, Angus Perkins, Alex Petherick, Greta Cox, Addison O'Leary, Gracie Hayward and Pippa Buchanan.

A seven-strong contingent of Whanganui surf lifeguards sharpened their teamwork skills and completed challenges throughout the day and night as part of a youth development camp on Motutapu Island.

The seven represented Whanganui Surf Lifeguard Services among the 48 total people at the camp, spending three days on the small island off the east coast of Auckland.

Three of those seven lifeguards were Greta Cox, Pippa Buchanan and Ethan Bishop.

Cox said over the three days they took part in a series of exercises to grow their teamwork and leadership skills.

“We had four different activities each day, which included high ropes, archery, kayaking, snorkelling, survivor, flying kiwi, duckpond and confidence course,” Cox said.

The most memorable of these challenges happened on the final day.

Campers were woken at midnight and told to run around a court multiple times before being sent back to sleep.

This sleep was interrupted again at 2am when they had to do 100 star jumps in unison.

“So if we weren’t in time then we’d have to start again,” Cox said.

They were then woken one final time at 4am to do The Motutapu Challenge.

“It’s a team-building challenge where we had to dig a tunnel under a kayak on the beach and then we had to walk down a stream with 12 of us holding a piece of wood.”

After which Cox said they didn’t get back to sleep until they returned to Whanganui in the evening.

They also had their phones taken off of them throughout the camp, which Buchanan said was tough.

“I found that kind of challenging because I’ve always had my phone on me, but I found it good to be more social,” she said.

Cox agreed the camp helped them in the social aspect of lifesaving which was usually difficult for Whanganui, as it was sandwiched between two larger clubs.

“When we went to the Youth Development Camp they were like, ‘Where’s Whanganui?’ and we were like ‘Between Wellington and New Plymouth,’” she said.

Given the relatively small size of the Whanganui club, she said it was a big achievement for the club to get seven people to the camp, as the application process for it was very stringent.

The camp is open only to qualified New Zealand surf lifeguards aged between 15 and 17. To take part lifeguards had to apply to go to the camp, be selected from the application and then be endorsed to attend by the club.

Bishop said the application form involved more than just entering details such as name and age.

“It went on to ask us why we wanted to go on to the camp, what we wanted to achieve from the camp and asked us what our goals were going to be from that camp,” he said.

The increase in Whanganui attendance at the camp meant good things for the lifesaving service growing, according to Cox.

“The junior surf programme has gotten a lot bigger in the past couple [of] years because it used to be nothing,” she said.

Now they were back from the camp, they were all prepared to hit the beach patrols this coming summer.

Cox also hoped to gather a group to compete in surf sport.

“I don’t want to be the only one from the club because I went to a carnival this year by myself and it was quite boring ... so I want to try and get some others into it.”

Finn Williams is a multimedia journalist for the Whanganui Chronicle. He joined the Chronicle in early 2022 and regularly covers stories about business, events and emergencies. He also enjoys writing opinion columns on whatever interests him.