Over the weekend Lucia ran a Patrol camp involvong 12 Scouts and 2 leaders, the weather was great and all the Scouts came back looking happily exhauted from all the fun activivties they did.

Kowhai organised a night out at Seaview Ice Skating, everyone had a great time.

Our Group Family Campfire was held at Princess Bay Beach on what turned out to be a pretty mild night for this time of year! Duane, our Campfire Chief, ensured we respected the protocols that make Scouting campfires unique. Bob & Denise excelled themselves with with their rendition of “There’s a hole in my bucket” and Ed (one of our two Venturers) was, well, his typical larger than life self! Once the campfire formalities were completed Anneleah, Joss, Catherine and Mark supplied us with bbq’d sausages (many thanks team!) and the youth toasted marshmallows on the remaining campfire embers.

The annual Group Family Camp was held at Battle Hill Farm Forest Park, near Paekakariki. Having already been postponed due to a cold Southerly we had virtually no wind and mild temperatures which made life much easier! Because daylight saving had finished, we had plenty of time to sit around the fire and cook potatoes. We got to use our flash new flagpole (thanks David), put up a tent or two, meet youth from the different sections and get to know their parents [= potential leaders!?]. Many thanks to Joss (cub leader), Sarah and Sam (?soon to be leaders?) for their amazing efforts and David for doing the shopping!

Special thanks to our Endevour Venturers: especially Edd for trying to organise Duncan, Emerson, Rebekah and Cormack to run some activities, and for showing that playing with a pocket knife can lead to the need to fill out an incident report!

A great time was had by all.

YiS John

After watching a video demonstrating the Plan – Do – Review process we ran a chariot building activity (generally 3 poles lashed together to carry 1 scout). A list (created by the scouts) of the materials they needed was precisely followed by the adults supporting the activity [first youth lesson – be precise in your gear list]. After letting them ’struggle’ the scouts had an opportunity to get extra resources, so they could complete the task – although getting out the door was an unexpected challenge [second youth lesson – check the details of what the task involves]. Much resourcefulness shown, although the quality of lashings was rather dubious!