The ladies' first team packed their bags, boots and a bunch of other stuff for a two-day stay at Camp Adair in Hunua over the weekend of March 17-18.
With the season fast approaching, the ladies (thanks Nic Fric!) decided a trip away would be a good chance to get to know each other, get muddy, have a few laughs and...play a bit of football too.
So early Saturday morning, the team gathered at the clubrooms and made their way to Camp Adair nestled in the Hunua Ranges just 30 minutes from the bustling metropolis of Pukekohe.
After dumping their gear in their cabins, the team had their first activity of the weekend, an instructor-led test on the camp's Confidence Course which includes ropes, heights, fences and, I'm told in Zippy's case, a whole heap of mud.
The coach arrived late and when the team were pressed for comment on exactly what happened, responses were short and vague but the smiles were wide - knowing this team, that means something memorable (and/or highly embarrassing) went on but nobody will ever know what.
What happens on the Confidence Course stays on the Confidence Course. Fair enough too.
After lunch, which Kelsey and Nikki could only enviously watch the team eat as both Pukekohe High Schoolers were in the middle of the 40-Hour Famine, the side got down to football practice.
The hour-long run around in the humid weather was a good blow out and the ladies had certainly earned their rest during the mid-afternoon before another one-hour practise session on the Camp Adair soccer field.
Two hours of football, 90 minutes of climbing over walls, swinging on ropes and crawling through mud would make anyone tired but this lot still had time for one more activity before dinner...
MUDSLIDE!!!!!
After a quick tweak of the equipment from Sonja and company, the grubby 20-metre slide jumped into life and led by Doddy, the ladies spent almost an hour careening from the top of the rise to the muddy water hole at the bottom with varying rates of success.
The quickest on the slippery slope were Whippet, Ally, Kelsey and Nicole K while a couple of eager souls gave their all but couldn't match the speed of their younger team mates.
Biggest Splash honours went to the skipper while Whippet took home the Best Faceplant Award.
A quick shower and then in for dinner of burgers and wedges laid on by the camp staff. Ally was thoughtful in setting out Kelsey and Nikki's Barley Sugars along with plate and knife/fork.
After dinner, the skipper did what she does so well in organising the evening's activities of:
- hum a song you know
- where were you born?
- when were you born?
- Doddy's Brain Teaser Quiz (won in highly suspect fashion by Kelsey, Emma and Zippy)
- Doddy's Wilderness Survival Quest (which, if the team were forced to do in real life, would see everyone dead inside five minutes)
The squad shuffled off to bed after that and awoke, after a couple of false starts (due to the forgotten daylight-saving changeover), for breakfast before Nic Fricker joined her team mates in the second activity of the weekend - raft building.
From ropes, four barrels and some bamboo poles, the squad had to build a raft to get them down the creek and back to camp.
After much talk and head scratching they trialled their first effort in the shallows and (a fairly shaky) five seconds later they decided to secure it before giving it another go. The first trip down the river ended in shrieks, squeals, laughs and soaked clothes as the team were dumped seven metres downstream.
Take two was much better and they set off on a more solid-looking raft and things looked good until the skipper lost her balance at the back of the floating doom machine.
As Doddy lept into the water, Tania was vaulted off the other side and the chain reaction that followed ended with Nic getting up-ended at the front of the raft before splashing almost head first into the drink.
Classic. Early frontrunner for Highlight of the Season that will take some beating.
Another football session, this time in the rain, finished things off nicely and after a quick clean-up, the tired group made their way back to town closer, smarter, wetter and muddier for their weekend's work.
Apologies must go to parents and flat mates of players returning with horrendously muddy gear, that in some cases looked unsalvageable. It was for a good cause though!
Bring on the season.
Thanks to the staff at Camp Adair for putting on such a great weekend in terrific facilities.
Click here for a look at the weekend in pictures.