A group of Parents, Leaders, Venturers and friends helping fund raise at the Lions Hurricane match on Tuesday night.

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To see a clip of some of the patrons visiting our bar. Bar Patrons

Our cubs, and their cooking efforts, rose to the occasion on Monday night.  With “air” the theme of the term, we looked at the different ways that air can be powerful – from tornados to bombe Alaska, where air beaten with eggs (and a fair bit of sugar!) makes a toasty blanket for icecream scoops in a hot oven.

A slow to heat oven and only two electric beaters meant that proceedings went a bit slower than intended, but most scouts had an opportunity to leanr how to separate eggs, to make a meringue mix, to apply it to a mini-icecream bombe, and then enjoy the proceeds.   Here is the recipe if you would like to try it at home.   We’ll arrange for a repeat, perhaps next term, and would welcome a couple of parent helpers who could bring their hand held electric egg beater from home.     And let us know if anyone has a great recipe for egg yolks!

BOMBE ALASKA (mini Bombes)

Ingredients (to serve six)

Directions

1. Place biscuits on a small oven tray. Place a teaspoonful of jam on the centre of each biscuit. Roll six equal-sized scoops of ice cream and place one on each biscuit. Transfer to the freezer for at least one hour to harden, or until ready to serve.
2. Heat oven to 200°C then, just before they’re needed, place egg whites in a clean bowl and whisk until soft peaks form. Continue beating while adding caster sugar, one tablespoonful at a time. Beat for a few minutes more, until meringue is stiff and glossy.
3. Remove icecream-topped biscuits from the freezer. Spread meringue mixture over icecream to completely cover, then make peaks of mixture if desired.
4. Bake immediately for three to four minutes, or until meringue peaks turn brown. Remove from the oven and serve immediately, before icecream melts.

The key to this dessert is keeping the cake and the ice cream as cold as possible before coating and baking.     Chocolate icecream (or other flavours) can be substituted for the vanilla.   You can use small rounds of cake or sponge instead of the biscuits;  however, the firm biscuit base makes the mini Bombes easier to handle for younger chefs.

11 Cubs and 8 Scouts placed themselves in the hands of 6 Venturers for a weekend of exciting activities.  We were gently sprinkled with rain, smears of mud and a rainbow, before being baked by a roasting fire and finally frozen overnight by a frost!?

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A slippery trip through the obstacle course (raising adrenaline levels for some) was followed by some pioneering using basic lashing techniques – which also seemed to be pretty challenging for some youth!  During the afternoon another series of activities were undertaken, one involved being lead through a course blindfolded.

Dinner was cooked in foil packets placed on the hot embers of fires lit by each of the three patrols.   Later in the evening we joined with neighbouring Guides at The Kauri Circle for a series of skits around a camp fire.

Congratulations to Rebecca for looking after her (raw) egg until the end of the camp!

Many thanks to the Venturers for putting on such a well organised event and to Dad’s Matt an Mark for helping support our youth.

YIS

John aka “The Paparazzi” (Seb!?)

Nineteen of us arrived at Taumaranui after a long drive (thanks to David’s Mum for hosting fish & chips enroute!) and set about packing our gear into 40l plastic barrels.  These were in turn carefully labeled with what turned out to be a whiteboard marker – duh!

Four kayaks, one double kayak and six two-person canoes (which were loaded with the barrels full of our gear) set off with eleven youth and eight (variously) skilled adults.  For two especially selected canoe crews, a full immersion experience was awaiting!  Harry – accept some responsibility – it’s not always entirely Dad’s fault!?

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We passed by numerous feral goats, deep gorges and sheer papa cliffs.  Ponga (tree ferns) were plentiful.

It was with some relief we made it to the hut before dusk.  A real bonus was seeing Pekapeka (rare long tailed native bats) at dusk (and dawn) from the hut’s large deck.  For those brave enough to walk to the long drop without their torches on, there were glowworms to be seen.

Inside the very toasty hut, freshly popped popcorn was followed by tasty dehy food, magically prepared by Joss and Sylvie. Yes, the youth had a pretty easy trip on the food front!?

The next morning I/we promptly tipped out (again!?).  On reflection falling out was actually quite a humbling and salutary experience.  It was the teamwork of the group working together which got us out of the tiring current and back in our canoe.  A stronger bond was formed between group members (and we changed our technique) which did the trick for the rest of the trip – thankfully!

A moody and primal mist accompanied by light rain descended on us before we headed off on foot to visit the ‘abandoned’ 1930’s Bridge to Nowhere.  Back on the river we soon came upon a dead bloated floating goat (which was a highlight for some youth?) and a change from seeing Mallard Ducks, Black Shags, Greylag Geese and occasional Whio Whio.

Arriving at Tieke Kainga Marae, a Powhiri (welcome) added a valuable cultural dimension to the trip.  Later in the evening, Nick, our only Cub, celebrated his birthday, blowing out 8 candles on a slightly tumbled chocolate cake.  Daniel and Mathieu’s Mum, Sylvie also celebrated her special day!

Torrential rain overnight flooded the beach we had landed on the previous afternoon with what resembled chocolate milk.  The numerous waterfalls cascading into the river had a renewed vigour and on a particularly gnarly rapid, David joined me in the exclusive double ‘out-of-canoe experience’ club.

Ironically, higher water levels meant the final (and supposedly worst) rapid was easily navigated.  Nick and Joss were so relieved!

Special thanks parent helpers Joss, Sylvie and Mark!

YIS, John (aka ZigZag)

Check out the cover article in the Tattler!

We’ve had a long association with the Brooklyn Community ANZAC service, so its great to get the recognition for that ?!

Click to access Brooklyn-Tattler-May-2017.pdf

(Thank you Anneleah and Kay)