Waikuku Marshmallow Challenge

   THE MARSHMALLOW CHALLENGE

By Florence

Zoe, Katie, Brianna, Charlotte, Ela and I were sitting peacefully at the table in the warmth of Waikuku lodge, playing a highly entertaining game of Spoons (a card game I introduced to our class) .

So there we were sniggering as Charlotte continued to play, still not aware of the fact that all the spoons had been taken. “ WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS, MY FRIEND” we sang, pretending to merely have an earworm, although it was really just a code for “We’ve got all the spoo-oons, we’ve got all the spoo-oons” . After about half a minute later Charlotte finally looked up and realized that she had lost, and we all cracked up. Mr. Eames strode in.

“What are you playing?”

We all grinned ,delighted at the idea of involving a teacher in the game. We should have known that Mr. Eames would have his own wacky way of doing things.

Once the rules had been explained, Mr Eames dug out an enormous pack of marshmallows. He placed one on each spoon.

“ Instead of just picking up a spoon when you have four cards, you must keep the marshmallow balanced on the spoon and lift it into your mouth. If you drop the marshmallow on the floor, you have to pick it up and EAT it.” He grinned his characteristic cheeky grin.

This proved to be much harder than it had initially sounded, since everyone else was trying to knock your marshmallow off your spoon. But somehow we managed it, and before we knew it, we were being dragged into building-a-rocket-out-of-marshmallows-and-skewers-and-a-plastic-spoon contests, eat-the-marshmallows-off-the-skewer-then-unwrap-a-fruit- burst-with-your-teeth tests, and finally an egg-and-spoon race along the nightline route, except with a marshmallow. This one turned out to be particularly torturous, as the route is the most bumpy and  bush covered you have ever walked on, which consequently meant that marshmallows were constantly dropping on to the forest floor. The problem: No touching the marshmallows on the spoons. This rule resulted in rather a lot of cheating when Mr Eames’s back was turned!

In the end, we made it through, exhausted, twig-scratched, and muddy, and all received the ULTIMATE prize; our own dirty, partially eaten marshmallow, AND the plastic spoon we used. Gosh, what lucky ducks we were. :) That had to be my favourite day of camp though.

                                         ~ Florence