The Waller family is 3 generations at Finlay Park.
GENERATION 1
Barry Waller – 1958 – 1963 Easter camps with Manurewa Baptist
Mrs Gail Waller – Helping out in the camp kitchen various camps Finlay Park holiday camps 1983 – 1991
GENERATION 2
Javan Waller – 1983 – 1989 BYM Easter camps with Cambridge Baptist. Finlay Park holiday camps
Anton Waller – 1985 – 1991 BYM Easter camps with Cambridge Baptist. Finlay Park holiday camps. Ecamp Security 2019 – present
Mrs Julie Waller – 1987 – 1991 Apostolic churches youth Camps. BYM Ecamp Security 2019 – present
GENERATION 3
Jessica Waller – 2009 – Intermediate school camp. BYM Ecamp Security 2019 – present
Caleb Waller – Now Waller-Hills – 2001 – Finlay Park holiday camps. BYM Ecamp Security 2019 – present
Mrs Danielle Waller-Hills- BYM Ecamp Security 2019 – present
The Waller story starts somewhere in the late 50’s Early 60’s when Dad from Manurewa in Auckland went to CYC Ngaruawahia on a holiday camp, Dad met friends and decided to meet up again at Finlay Park for Easter camp. When quizzed on why Finlay Park Dad responded – because that’s what Baptist kids did at Easter – we all went to Finlay Park.
Somewhere in the Early 1980’s family moved to Cambridge and Finlay Park became the camp of choice with the knowledge that Dad had attended and that he knew Rodney and Betty.
My older brother attended camps, soon after I became old enough to also attend camps. I think that I only attended one camp with Rodney and Betty before this young couple arrived at the park. He was young and energetic and planned to only be at the camp for a couple of years; his wife was obviously the boss and worked super hard but was kept busy with a very young baby girl.
Being young and impressionable some of us would follow Ian around like the legend that he told us he was! Ian let us have fun and challenged us beyond our comfort zones.
We were Cambridge locals, some of our youth group even rented a home off the amazing Dawn Finlay. We knew the stories of Arthur and Dawn’s battle to tame the park, the Pebble in the puddle as Dawn described it in her book. Many from our youth group would spend far too much time hanging around at the park – the place was exciting and challenging. We helped to make tyre steps – we used our cars as a roller to make a jetty for the barge – we helped with the build of the first water slide into the lake made from and old conveyor before the current fibreglass slide. We learnt to drive on the field at Finlay Park – the park had a buggy made from random car parts – we towed tyres and a magic carpet behind it. You held on tight especially when the driver decided to take you off the grass onto the gravel driveway just to get you off. We heralded the arrival of the first go karts to Finlay Park then watched Ian overtake us all as his arm went suspiciously back to remove the speed governor. We had a small train to take the kids for rides around the park – Little toot. Finlay Park had the smallest little boat – The Yellow submarine – you hit a small wave and it rapidly became submerged at full speed.
We ended up transitioning from campers to leaders and we developed lifelong friendships.
So, what was so unique about Finlay Park? – we had our limits pushed. Every night when your head hit the pillow or just the mattress and you slept well – even with random noises and random smells coming from your fellow campers. Just as your head hit the pillow and your eyes shut – just before the deep REM sleep kicked in you would hear that Oh so special Bull frogs and Butterflies Barry McGuire: Good morning song getting blasted from the multiple speakers around the park with the trumpet call enticing you to leap from your bed and go for a run to the top of Finlay Road…- or Risk having Ian and co collect you in your sleeping bag and launch you out of it into the pool whilst you tried to hold onto your pyjama pants to uphold your dignity.
If we break down Finlay Park into skills taught and or learnt, we find some fundamentals of leadership training and good life skills exist:
1. Time keeping: Getting up late has consequences.
2. Being late for meals or activities could mean that you may miss out, if lunch is served at 12.00 and you arrive at 12.15 – it will all be gone!
3. It is Ok to do dishes – the kitchen sink full of bubbles is not as scary as it looks.
4. Leadership: Your leaders will ensure you are not late, a good leader will leave the 99 in search of the 1 (Reckless love – Cory Asbury) a good leader at Finlay Park will put the needs of the team ahead of themselves.
5. A good leader prepares the team to be ready for the next challenge ahead of time.
6. Good leaders care about all teams equally as much as their own team.
7. Good leaders not only lead but follow – good leaders work in teams with other good leaders knowing that if one is leading then one needs to be following to ensure no one is left behind.
8. We learn that effort releases reward. To see the glow worms, it is best to kayak because they are quiet, it takes effort to paddle upstream – but the rewards are fantastic.
9. In the stillness – in the quiet your voice can be heard. As Security at Finlay Park the best advantage is at night is the stillness of the park. When we stop and listen, we can hear words spoken – even if they are very far away.
10. Solitude: Finlay Park is a place of rest and solitude; it has an amazing chapel looking north on lake Karapiro toward Piarere, the chapel that has been set apart to relax and find our peace. The night sky has more stars than you will see from any urban home. As life gets busy, we need to learn how to find that same peace.
11. We learn history – we learn that the generations that went before us made Finlay Park especially for us.
12. We learn to work as a team if one falls – we all fall. When kids line up on the Banana boat it only takes one to lean the wrong way going around a corner to tip the rest into the water.
13. We learn what bins are for! If you drop that K bar wrapper someone will have to pick it up.
14. We learn to look after our things! Our clothes, our toothbrushes. If we don’t look after what we bring to the camp- things get lost, fortunately at Finlay Park things also get found. If anyone has experienced losing underwear it is not a great – especially when found with your name emblazoned across them and handed back at the last camp meeting with 200 or 1000 of your closest friends.
15. We learn that wet socks smell, they need to be hung on a fence to dry.
16. Most importantly we learn that Mum is not at camp so cannot tidy up after us, wipe our nose, to put that plaster on, to pull that prickle or to defend us when we make poor choices. We learn that rules exist for a reason and that in fact the world does not revolve around us, nice people exist – good leaders exist – great places exist and we learn that Finlay Park is in fact “Life Changing Every time!”
So eventually you grow up – you get married – have a couple of kids and you start to reminisce about the good old days. Your kids become old enough to attend Finlay Park and what normal parent does not need the kids out of the house for school holidays. The kids go to camp and end up in cabins with your old Finlay Park friends’ kids, so now we have cabins full of 2nd and 3rd generation campers and they become friends. As parents we trust that the park to provide the fun that we had and to change our kid’s lives – every time.
You keep getting older and you find you have work colleagues that need somewhere for their kids to go for the school holidays. So, you make the introduction to Finlay Park – show videos – maybe even take them for a tour. These people are possibly from non-Christian homes, yet they send the kids to an openly Christian camp. Some of the kids become regular campers – then those kids request to the parents that they want to go to the local Christian school and the parents become accepting of the word Christian. The Christian school has very good teachers that care about the students and the school gets very good academic results. The word Christian no longer feels so foreign and suddenly your little bit of advice has started a new generation of change.
A few years pass and you get asked for help with Security at Easter for BYM ECAMP, you get asked to help because you have such fantastic security skills or because you know every hiding place in every inch of the park, especially at night? Getting asked to help Finlay Park is a no brainer for anyone ex Finlay Park – of course you give all that you can. So, we are back – this time with adult children and a soon to be daughter in law. 2019 camp is fantastic, then Covid hits just a few weeks before Ecamp 2020. In 2021 we come back with a boosted security team and a Covid free NZ, this time we are back with cousins and their children. Our team and family look forward to Ecamp 2022, As for the next generation, for us generation 4…. Will Finlay park be ready?