From strength to strength

Last year was the busiest year yet for The Salvation Army Blue Mountain Adventure Centre, and the centre is looking forward to expanding again as it celebrates a milestone. This year, the centre is marking 25 years since it opened.

Blue Mountain Adventure Centre (BMAC) staff are on a mission, Manager Melissa Crook says. A mission to use the outdoors to help people discover and live out their God-given potential.

‘We’re not about taking people out there to have fun; we’re about taking them out there to open up their minds to other things. We’re here to use fun and adventure as a tool to resource the person’s development and impact them. We want to push people and to have them experience real feelings: this is hard; this is exciting; this is going to take me just putting one foot in front of the other and I’m going to be okay,’ Mel says.

It’s a method that seems to be working. About 1500 people visited the centre in 2014, ranging from school groups, churches, youth centres, people on addiction recovery and stopping violence programmes, and people attending leadership development courses. It was the highest number of people who had come on courses at the centre since it opened in 1989.

The centre is based at the edge of the Tongariro National Park, where the terrain covers everything from rivers, to mountains and caves. Activities run by BMAC include a high ropes course, kayaking, white water rafting, mountain biking, mountaineering, rock climbing, caving and gorging. There are seven full-time staff, along with one intern, and groups visiting Blue Mountain can range from a minimum of nine up to 80 people.

Each group works with BMAC staff, suggesting what activities they’d like to do and goals they’d like to achieve while at the centre. The staff then produce an experience tailored to each group, their levels of ability and what activities are available at the time of their visit. (Some activities, such as gorging, are only available at certain times of year.) Camps vary from those who stay in the centre cabins or spend one night out in the park, to a 14-day wilderness experience living out in tents, tramping and taking part in other activities.

Building trust and relationships

Last year saw a mix of new visitors and long-standing groups who return every year, Mel says.

Two of the more memorable programmes of 2014 were the visits of students from Elim Christian College in Auckland.

The college has been sending its students to BMAC since 2009, a year after six students and a staff member from the school died in a flash flood, while gorging the Mangatepopo Gorge in the park. BMAC now organises two programmes for the school every year, a camp for senior leaders and camp for about 40 students from Year 10. The school came to them to help recover, Mel says, and they’ve worked together every year since, building a special relationship.

‘It’s a group we’ve been able to have a significant impact on. We’ve built trust and a relationship with them, working through this tragedy.’

Another highlight, for Mel, was leading activities for a camp run by the Taumaranui Police, helping couples with violence prevention. The camps are run at a neighbouring property, but during each camp, they visit BMAC for an afternoon of adventure-based learning.

‘The impact that has on them from such a short time is a big thing. It [the camp] is getting bigger and gaining momentum, and we’re working with the locals, which is pretty cool.’

Adventure as a tool

The Taumaranui Police’s violence prevention camps are a good example of how BMAC likes to operate: connecting with a community group and working to change lives, Mel says.

Adventure-based learning in the outdoors is one of the best tools around for helping people understand themselves and grow in a short space of time, because you can simulate life’s challenges in ways you can’t in other places, she says.

‘It’s one of the best ways to discover more about yourself and more about God,’ she says. ‘I have seen it have significant impact in a short space of time. We can put someone up a pole and they can feel the shaking and the fear of not wanting to be there, and they can understand how they deal with challenges in their life. But it’s safe —or safer.’

Each visitor walks away having achieved something, and Mel says some visitors, or their parents, write back, detailing the impact on their lives. Some of the biggest changes can be seen in people who were the most challenging when they arrived. One mother recently wrote to say her daughter had returned home excitedly talking about her experience at the camp despite feeling very unconfident before heading there. She wrote, ‘[My daughter] was not wanting to go to camp and I am so grateful that your leadership and personality has rewarded her courage to go and given her an amazing experience over the five days.’

For people of all ages

Time people spend at BMAC is only one aspect of bringing change to their lives, which is why, Mel says, the centre aims to work with organisations and be part of a wider effort to impact people. For this reason, the centre prefers working with social services, schools and groups in ministry, rather than corporate groups.

Often, people have the impression that the centre is there for young people, but Mel says they have had people up to the age of 79 taking part in activities and they would like to see more senior groups using the centre. She’d also love to see Salvation Army corps and ministries using the centre more.

Lieutenant Missy Ditchburn visited BMAC last year and in 2013 while based at Hutt City Corps. She describes her visits as life-changing experiences. ‘There is something very special about having the space to focus solely on yourself and others,’ Missy says. ‘To spend time learning about who you are, how much you are really capable of, and how important other people matter to making you the best person you can be. I’d go back every year.’

The number of visitors each year has been growing steadily and they will eventually reach peak capacity. But they are not there yet, and Mel says they are hoping the numbers will keep growing.

2015 developments

Along with growing visitor numbers, 2014 was a year of new building at the centre. Its old barn was replaced with a new building, housing a fresh play area, equipment store, drying room and offices, which will be opened this year. A new climbing wall is also planned for the building and will hopefully be installed next week. The centre is also renovating the Koa Lodge, one of its two accommodation buildings. This project has mostly been funded by a generous sponsor, Mel says.

2015 is looking like being an exciting year, and staff are particularly looking forward to organising adventure experiences for young people on the new Aspire Kiwi Youth Development Programme. BMAC will be organising an adventure experience for up to 500 Kiwi young people aged 11 to 16, some of whom will have no outdoor experience.

Because the programme is taking place around the country, some adventure programmes will have to be run in the South Island, by a company called Aspects, which BMAC works with. The majority of Aspire youth will still visit BMAC for their adventure experience, though, keeping its staff very busy.

‘It’s a challenge, but I like a challenge,’ Mel says. ‘It’s great, because it’s part of that total package: sending them back to be part of a larger programme. There’s real potential for impact and change.’

Some BMAC staff have also entered as a team in the GODZone adventure this year. The annual South Island based event will see the team cycling, tramping, canoeing and mountaineering through a secret 500 km course near Wanaka from 28 February to 7 March. Previous race courses have run from Kaikoura to Milford Sound.  

Taking part in the race is about practicing the messages they teach at BMAC about pushing your body to the limit and discovering more about yourself, your ability and about God, Mel says. While the race week would be tough, it would also be exciting. ‘You’d have to be mad to do it, but equally I think you’d have to be mad not to do it!

‘It’s being extremely hard, pushing yourself to your limits to being out there in some beautiful scenery not many people get to see. It’s getting to the finish line with a bunch of people you have been through a significant challenge with, looking back and saying, ‘I’m not doing that again’, but you can’t wait to do it again.’

The BMAC buzz

Daniel Warner, always known as ‘Billy’, is BMAC’s longest serving staff member, having been an instructor there for nine years. With a background in outdoor adventure work, Billy first worked at BMAC for a few months in 1999. ‘I remember working here just getting a real buzz out of the students achieving their goals, pushing themselves, jumping off the leap of faith and just giving them a great experience.

I felt like God said to me, “This is a place you could work at, but it’s not the time yet.” ’

Billy went on to work as a builder overseas, before returning to New Zealand in 2006. When he got back, he heard about an opening at Blue Mountain and was advised to apply. ‘I definitely felt like it was the right place to be at the right time. And I’ve been here ever since.’

Billy is a particular fan of white water rafting and caving. He says the pleasure he gets from being an instructor at BMAC comes from seeing people challenged and achieving things they thought they couldn’t do—seeing the pleasure and confidence they got from squeezing through the tight, claustrophobic caves or taking on the river rapids.

Dan Little was working as a plumber and looking to get back to working with people when he was shoulder tapped and asked to consider applying for a job at Blue Mountain. Dan had previously worked at BMAC while working for Auckland-based Christian outdoor adventure company Adventure Specialties Trust, which supplies staff on contracts to outdoor adventure centres needing extra staff.

A keen mountain biker, Dan says he enjoys taking people out on the trails at the centre, which have been introduced in the past two years. Mountain biking was rapidly growing in popularity around the country and was often popular with young people who visit Blue Mountain.

The chance to make a difference in a person’s life and the challenge of working out what will help them learn the best is what he enjoys most about his job, says Dan.

‘It’s often the hardest ones, the ones that don’t want to do something, when you get them to, they’re the ones that get the most out it. Seeing how they can take that from there into other areas of their lives. You see the lights come on and the excitement from them —that keeps me doing it.’

Begin an Adventure Today!

Scale new heights, thunder through rapids or simply stand in awe of Tongariro’s majestic beauty ... but the real adventure for everyone who attends The Salvation Army Blue Mountain Adventure Centre is discovering what they can achieve.  Go to www.bluemountainadventure.org.nz to book your Blue Mountain Adventure Centre adventure.

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by Robin Raymond (c) 'War Cry' magazine, 7 March 2015, pp5-7.
You can read 'War Cry' at your nearest Salvation Army church or centre, or subscribe through Salvationist Resources.