Cosgrove Gold Course 18 -20 October 2019
This weekend Adam, Liam, Gabi, Alfie, Harry and Hamish took part in the Kapiti Coastal Zone Cosgrove Gold course. Cosgrove Gold is a course for our senior Scouts, where they learn - and more importantly get to practice, managing and leading in an outdoor setting.
We met up on a rainy Friday evening at the Otaki A Frame, where we joined 12 more Scouts from around the Zone, as well as the Lance, Ben and Paul who (along with Derrick and I) were overseeing the course.
The first evening was a classroom session. The Scouts were divided into their patrols for the weekend and worked through the planning and paperwork necessary for any activity. The focus was on trip planning, gear planning, menu planning as well as safety and risk management.
This weekend Adam, Liam, Gabi, Alfie, Harry and Hamish took part in the Kapiti Coastal Zone Cosgrove Gold course. Cosgrove Gold is a course for our senior Scouts, where they learn - and more importantly get to practice, managing and leading in an outdoor setting.
We met up on a rainy Friday evening at the Otaki A Frame, where we joined 12 more Scouts from around the Zone, as well as the Lance, Ben and Paul who (along with Derrick and I) were overseeing the course.
The first evening was a classroom session. The Scouts were divided into their patrols for the weekend and worked through the planning and paperwork necessary for any activity. The focus was on trip planning, gear planning, menu planning as well as safety and risk management.
It was a pretty intense few hours, and finished up with a "Dragon's Den" where each patrol reported back on how they would manage the next days' activities. Here are the Dragons at work:
Saturday morning dawned grey and damp....
Each patrol collected the supplies they had selected and we headed up into the Otaki Gorge to the Otaki Forks road end to begin the tramp.
Occasionally the rain stopped. But not for long.
Navigation and route finding was a key part of the course, but Alfie showed how it was done, with a clear sense of where to turn at every intersection.
The rivers were very high after a couple of days of rain, but there were good solid bridges when we needed them.
However even some of the little streams were pretty interesting
The rain continued, but, as we say, there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes. And everyone was well kitted out for a day in the bush.
By a very circuitous (but thoroughly planned) route we arrived at Parawai Lodge, where the Scouts set out building some shelter for the night. Mostly successfully.
It was still pretty stormy however, so we made some additions to the hut - and used some man-made options - which in the end was where the Scouts slept.
Derrick did sterling work lighting the fire with wet wood (although he did eventually concede defeat and sourced some of the left over Ngati Toa pallet wood from the A frame) while Scouts prepared some pretty tasty burritos for dinner. There was an extended, and increasingly noisy game of Scouting Charades, followed by several rounds of Mafia (which I understood was a quiet game - apparently not....)
Everyone slept soundly on the deck outside (or at least, I didn't hear anything from my mattress on the bunk in the hut. Which is essentially the same thing...).
Sunday morning dawned grey and rainy.....
and we breakfasted on pancakes and bacon.
Gabi demonstrated her serious pancake flipping skills, and somehow the boys managed to persuade her to cook their pancakes too.
We completed some activities (which I will keep quiet for the sake of Scouts who will do the course in the future), before a serious fire wood collecting effort - paying it forward to future users of the hut, and the short walk back to the cars, and drive back to the A frame.
Where the rain had stopped at last.
All of the Scouts were awarded a swag of badges (which I am sure they will have sewn on by now!) including the coveted Cosgrove Gold award, which they can wear with pride.
Well done to all the Scouts - it is a real achievement, and some great skills learned and demonstrated that will really help you to manage and lead your own adventures in the future. BRAVO
Nick
