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! 

Our Swimming night organised by Willow Patrol had the unexpected bonus of ‘real’ life raft being set off – which was a great way to end a successful evening of badge sign-offs. A cylinder full of carbon dioxide inflated the raft in less than 30 seconds. The emergency food (if you can call it that!?) was tried out too. Special thanks to Survitec for providing the raft and survival supplies for our Scouts.

At Scouts tonight we split into two groups – one going to the NZTA Wellington Transport Operation Centre and the other to the Botanical Gardens.

Scouts learnt about the management of traffic through the use of cameras on the State Highway network and were ‘impressed’ by some of the video footage showing near misses, a late night cyclist getting his jersey caught in his front wheel (resulting in a ‘forward roll’) and quite a few unexplained crashes.

The Botanical gardens provided the opportunity to find locations from basic map coordinates, identify plants and birds and consider the environmental care code.

Investing our new PL’s & APL’s to start the New Year and our new scouts working on their Scout Badge.