Story: Camping

This photograph shows dinnertime at a Sunday school camp at the Ross Creek Reservoir, near Dunedin, in early 1909. The Otago Witnessreported that 'Over a month has been spent there, the health and vigour of the boys testifying to its beneficial effects.' Sunday school camps were usually run by church volunteers for the children of parishioners, and combined religious instruction with outdoor activity. They often gave children their first experience of camping, and were a forerunner to organised school camps.