Kaitaki - Interislander Ferry visit

This evening we were given a tour of the Kaitaki, one of the ferries that plies its trade across the Cook Strait.  The tour unfortunately had limited space so only the first 8 respondents were given the tour.

It's a lovely ferry, with recently replace furnishings and fittings due the high rate of wear and tear.  We were taken through several of the lounges, bars, cafes and even the atrium (I didn't know it had one!).  We were conducted through by the Engineering Manager for Interislander and on the tour we were also introduced to the Chief Engineer on the Ferry and also the Master (or Captain).  We got to look through the Galley, see all the life saving equipment and also got a first hand look at the bridge and an explanation of how it all works and how does what.

Getting a talk from the Chief Engineer

What the Chief Engineer saw :-)

Ciara in the Captains Chair

Onepoto Regatta

Weather wise the Regatta was a little bit backwards, but it still all worked out really well.

Saturday the weather was a little too windy to be considered good sailing weather for inshore dinghys.  So we adjusted the schedule and ran with the non-sailing events.  Rowing, iron-scout, kayaking and seamanship were all on the agenda and were all completed in reasonably good time.  We as Ngati Toa however did not fair that well and could definitely have done better.

Unfortunately I have no photographs of Saturday to include, but if anyone has any please feel free to pass any good ones on and I will post them.

Below are the results for the various events and attached are your seamanship marking sheets so you can see what areas you were good at and what may need some work.

Rowing	1st	2nd	3rd
Juniors	St James	Westshore	Britannia
Intermediate	Britannia	St James	NTSS
Seniors	St James	Britannia	NTSS
Open	Britannia	St James	NTSS

Kayaking	1st	2nd	3rd
Juniors	Britannia	NTSS	Westshore
Intermediate	Westshore	St James	Britannia
Seniors	Britannia	St James	NTSS

IronScout	1st	2nd	3rd
Juniors	Britannia	NTSS	Westshore
Intermediate	St James	Britannia	Westshore
Seniors	St James	NTSS	Britannia
Open	Britannia	St James	NTSS

Seamanship	1st	2nd	3rd
Junior/Int	St James	Britannia	NTSS
Seniors	NTSS	St James	Britannia

Saturday evening though was a lot of fun, with a shared dinner, games on the fields and plenty of socialising with people from troops they would not normally get to mingle with.

Sunday was a lot of fun, with fine weather for sailing. The breeze was mild and easy to manage and even our most junior sailors had not trouble with it whatsoever.

Kate and Jemma prepare to go out on the Safety Boat with Mike from Westshore

Kate, Alastair and Jemma

A close run down to the top mark.

Kate, Alastair and Jemma (again)

Adam and Seth making the most of the wind before the start

Ellen and Gabi out in the Intermediate Sunburst Race

Kate, Josh and Elizabeth

Ellen and Gabi coming in at the end of their race

Adam and Seth coming in from the same race

Open Cutter race - Kym, Chris and Rachel out for a win!

Gabi, Rosie and Lauree in the Junior Race

Hamish showing off his balancing skills with Connor as crew

Hamish and Connor again

Juniors racing - Gabi and Lauree (1796) and Hamish and Connor (1454)

Gabi and Lauree really enjoying themselves.

The other open cutter crew - Kate, Neil and Derrick

Kym, Chris and Rachel again

Getting some speed on the cutter

 

Good shot of Hamish bringing the boat in after the race

Ciara and Bronson working as a team

Gabi and Rosie (Lauree is behind the sail)

Swimming Night

So the last night of term 3 was, as usual, our swimming night.  We do this to prepare for the sailing season and ensure that all our scouts are at least capable of swimming across the length of a pool.  The scouts however always see this as a opportunity (and why shouldn't they) for more fun.  Once all the testing activities were over they had about 20 minutes in the recreational pool to let off some steam.

Below are a few pictures of the evenings revelry

2018 Term 3 Roundup and look ahead

Hi all, And welcome to our term 3 roundup.

Term 3 - 2018 - Round up

Term 3 was packed with a huge variety of activities, that at times actually became quite hard to manage for the leaders due to their diversity. The term was kicked off with a "Games Night" invitation from Tawa and Redmond troops.  Held at Tawa Rec, we had a great time with indoor hockey, dodge ball, and tricycle racing an a scale we are only able to dream of on our hall.  The evening ended with the largest game of table soccer we have ever played!  The leaders were universal losers at this game, scoring not a single goal. We had a couple of evenings of old favaourites - quiz night, mystery box cooking (impressive), and earthquake preparedness. The second half of the term kicked off with Kurt, doing his last formal scout evening with us by teaching his favourite subject - wilderness safety.  He gave us all a wonderful talk about the principles of wilderness safety and kept the scouts (and leaders) amused and left us better informed.  The following week we had a Fathers Day scouting event where parents and scouts could assemble and race Pinewood Racers.  The full detail of that evening is available on the blog : https://ngatitoaseascouts.blogspot.com/2018/08/scouts-parents-for-fathers-day.html Then we left the formality of den meetings behind for several weeks as we went first to "Gang Show - The Lost Tune".  The the following week, the watches each hosted a scout evening in a home, with the watch leaders stepping up and organising their own scout evenings.  I only attended one, but from what I have heard of the others, I think it was a huge success. The last evening was the usual pre-sailing season checks in Poririua pool.  All scouts are required to have achieved their swimming badge before we allow them to go sailing.  Fortunately, this is always pretty easy with the scouts we have.

Last term was also when we walked into Turere Lodge.  I won't re-hash this for you.  The blog post says most of it anyway:  https://ngatitoaseascouts.blogspot.com/2018/08/orongorongo-valley-to-turere-lodge-hike.html For the first time, since I can remember we conducted a raid on another scout troop.  It was a Monday night as thats when Titahi Bay Scouts meet and we went over to their den with the intention of challenging them to some scout type activities.  This went brilliantly and we look forward to them returning the favour sometime in the coming term.  The blog write up is here: https://ngatitoaseascouts.blogspot.com/2018/09/raid-on-titahi-bay-scouts.html

Group Camp 2018 - "An unexpected journey"

Group Camp was held on the last weekend of the term and was a great success and the leaders are still patting themselves on the back.  From the first camp fire where Gandalf introduced the theme to the last flag down aft the journey, everyone had loads of fun.  Look forward to a blog of the experience coming to our blog site here soon: https://ngatitoaseascouts.blogspot.com/ Lots of photographs and facebook posts are available here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Community/Ngati-Toa-Sea-Scout-Group-276228435894449/ The facebook albums also currently have approx 600 photos available to view here:  Saturday - https://www.facebook.com/pg/Ngati-Toa-Sea-Scout-Group-276228435894449/photos/?tab=album&album_id=963053190545300 Sunday - https://www.facebook.com/pg/Ngati-Toa-Sea-Scout-Group-276228435894449/photos/?tab=album&album_id=963089760541643

Individual Achievements

Sandford "Young Leaders" course Both Adam and Ellen have now achieved their Sandford awards.  The course is a full on two days of learning and doing on how to lead (and how to follow a leader). Adam did his at Brookfield in July, and due to the oversubscription of the course, Ellen had to complete hers at Camp Kilsby in Palmerston North in September. Chief Scout Progress Some of your seniors scouts completed Silver, Gold and Chief Scout Awards tasks by organising speakers, visits and doing service this term, with Ellen organised an outing to the Canons Creek Boxing Academy Ellen has been working with the Keas for the past three terms - Gold and Chief Scout requirements have now been met Adam organised a "Messengers of Peace" outing as part of a National Event Adam has worked with the Cubs in Term 3 and is keen to continue Alex has just completed his 8 weeks service Sol will be starting his service at Cubs in Term 4 Bronze Silver and Gold Awards Some of you scouts have completed Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards over the last term.  They are: Ellen has achieved her Silver Award Liam and Nathan have both achieved their Bronze Awards The Bronze award is a requirement to attend Jamboree and the leaders will make every attempt to help scouts achieve this, but you need to be aware and motivated to achieve it to. Chief Scout Awards At your group camp this year, we were privileged to witness the awarding of 3 x Chief Scout Awards to deserving scouts.  This is award is a pinnacle of achievement within a scouts career and is awarded to only 2% of scouts around the country.  It requires a great deal of self-motivation, organisation and drive to complete so it is definitely something to be proud of.  The recipients were: Alice Markwell, Katy Bell, and Holly Brown Well done to all of them.  All three of these girls have now moved on to Venturers, where we wish them luck and hope they continue their journey towards their Queen Scout Award.

Term 4 - Programme

A fairly simple programme for next term.  Start time for the first two Thursday nights will be as per normal 7pm.  From November onwards, start time will be 6:30pm to give us more time to prepare the boats for the water and retrieve them afterwards.   Bold meetings are Thursdays Italic meetings are Sundays 14/10/2018    Sailing/Rowing Practice 18/10/2018    Rigging 21/10/2018    Sailing/Rowing Practice 25/10/2018    Seamanship and Boatman 01/11/2018    Sailing/Rowing Practice 04/11/2018    Sailing/Rowing Practice 08/11/2018    Sailing/Rowing Practice 15/11/2018    Sailing/Rowing Practice 18/11/2018    Sailing/Rowing Practice 22/11/2018    Sailing/Rowing Practice 29/11/2018    Sailing/Rowing Practice 02/12/2018    Sailing/Rowing Practice 06/12/2018    Sailing/Rowing Practice 13/12/2018    Sailing/Rowing Practice Alternative evening plans will be available when Thursday evening is not great for a water activity.  Please ensure that all boat gear is available every Thursday and Sunday. These may include: A quiz night based on the sailing handbook you will receive on the first night back (TIP: this will be based on the quiz that was presented at National Regatta 2017) Bronze badge  map reading learning environmental code crafting - (to be presented by Ellen) water safety using the ACC river safe booklet Silver badge planning for weather A kayaking challenge evening A kayaking or rowing scavenger hunt Swamp testing the cutters We also plan to do the Paekakariki Escarpment Track walk, either one Thursday evening or if not the possibly, maybe a Saturday

Term 4  - Sailing Calendar

Below is a draft of the timetable issued from the Water Activities Team.  I know this is a long way ahead, but as Sea Scouts, we should be prepared to enter as many of these as possible: 2018 Onepoto Regatta When: Saturday 20 October, Sunday 21 October - 9:30am Where: Titahi Bay BC (Saturday),Ngati Toa Scout Den (Sunday) Charge Course (Certification for Parents and Leaders who wish to run Safety Boats, instruct Scouts and operate a shore base) When: Monday 22 October 9:30am Where:Ngati Toa Scout Den Petone Regatta When: Sunday 04 November 9:30am Where: Petone Foreshore Levin Regatta (Non sailing regatta) When: Sunday 18 November 9:30am Where: Lake Horowhenua Kapiti Regatta When: Sunday 02 December 9:30am Where: Paraparaumu Beach Ward Island Picnic When: Sunday 16 December 10:00am Where: Petone Foreshore

2018 / 2019 - Looking ahead

Term 4 Phone book deliveries Looking ahead to term 4 we will have our phone book deliveries.  This is our major fund raising activity of the year and saves a lot of sausage sizzles, so your support for this would be greatly appreciated. 2019 - Sailing Calendar Hickson Regatta When: Sunday 24 February 9:30am Where:Evans Bay Zone Raft Race When: Sunday 03 March 10:00am Where:Onepoto / Titahi Bay BC Harbour Race When: Sunday 24 March 9:30am Where:Evans Bay Worser Bay Regatta When: Sunday 07 April 9:30am Where:Worser Bay Cutty Sark Regatta When: Sat-Sun 20-21 April 9:30am Where:Napier @ Westshore Charge Course(Certification for Parents and Leaders who wish to run Safety Boats, instruct Scouts and operate a shore base) When: Monday 22 April 9:30am Where:Napier @ Westshore Swimming Sports When: Saturday 18 May 3:00pm Where:Cannon's Creek Pool, Porirua LNI Prizegiving When: Wednesday 05 June 7:30pm Where:Ngati Toa Scout Den

Contacts

If you have any questions of queries, feel free to contact me on 021 0292 8345, or at NgatiToa.SeaScouts@gmail.com. Yours in scouting Derrick