2021 Whakaipo Bay (Leaders summary)

This was definitely a camp to remember.  Grant is already plotting to do it again in two years time, while the Venturers are off at Venture and the scouts have a year off from national events.  I thoroughly support this idea.

The plan was to split the group into two so that no one particular activity was overwelmed by numbers.  At our peak we were 37 people so you can imaging the mountain biking or river kayaking equipment would have stretched us.

As such the contingents were formed (Green - lead by Hamish & Purple - lead by Ciara).  These two have written their own reports for their groups as I was with the Green Contingent and really did not know what the Purple one was doing other than what I was told.

The first day was supposed to be a River Kayaking and Camp Day but with high winds and lots of chop in the bay is was decided to postpone this programme day to the free day on Sunday and use this as our free day.  We went for two walks, one about 9km in the morning and another about 8km in the afternoon.  

The first was just in the campsite.  We walked down along the side of the bay out to a small beach near the head.  It was all bush and the beach was so small we couldn't all get on it.

Emma collected a bunch of weta skins on the
way in.  Amelia was admiring them.

Charlie, Sean, Will, Liam, Ollie and Hamish

We spent the afternoon watching the Aratiatia Dam open and flood the downstream basin from ...

... this ...                               ... to this ...

... in under a minute or so.

We then walked up the side of the river up to Huka Falls.

Gabi and Ciara with Kym

Quinn, Bronson and Matt

All in a row watching the dam open

We followed all this exercise up with a visit to AC Baths to get clean and cool down (sic - it was a hot pool at 36 degrees Celcius)

Zoe, Amelia and Emma chilling together

Rosie in action, doing a dive bomb

The next day was in line with the programme and I will let you read about it in the other posts.

Through all this we had a 7am swim every morning which was compusory on the last morning.  It was exhilarating.  We also had a sunset swim on one day.

Beautiful evening for a dip in the lake

Ciara & Will keeping Dougal company on a morning swim

All together on a morning swim

While we were there, we could not beach the cutters.  The centre case is of a size that means that pebbles get stuck into the casing and the centre plate can not be used until they are removed.  Therefore it was decided that the boats would anchor.  The consequence of this however was that the Taupo Lake Harbourmaster required us to maintain an "Anchor watch" over night.  All the scouts were involved in this and did a two hour shift each from 10pm every night through until 6 am the following morning for the three nights that the boats were on the water.  The scouts set up a bivouac to sit in while they were on duty and the gazebos were set up nearby to sleep in. (not that many of them did, sleeping "al fresco" was the order of the day)

The Bivouac

The boats looking a little pink in the sunset

The boats looking eerie at night with their anchor lights

There were plenty of similar activities, 

• we went to AC Baths on Sunday night as well and had dinner there
• we took a photo at a large blue chair positioned on the road side
• we played cards at night
• lots of cricket, swing ball and football were played in the camp ground
• and some scouts even got some pioneering work done

Never a dull moment!

The whole camp (except Connor)

Tree house with swing built by Calvin, Rosie, Zoe and Emma
(It even had a secret staircase behind it)

Freddy and Toby built this bridge over the ditch
for the venturers to be able to access their campsite
in the bamboo stand behind them

The Blue Chair

Hamish & Ciara lead us through all our Flag parades

Quinn, Hamish B, Matt, Roaise and Emma upstairs
in their sleeping area

Amelia preparing dinner with Robin

Gabi goes in to bat

Vanessa taking on Nathaniel with Ruan looking on

This has to go down as one of my favourite camps I have ever done with scouts, and I really do feel for those scouts who did not get to sail back to Acacia Bay and see the Maori carvings on the way.  I am sure all scouts who came to this camp feel the same way.

Looking forward to the next one!

2021 Whakaipo Bay (Purple Contingent)

Written by Ciara - Bosun of the Purple Contingent

Contingent purple started off the camp with mountain biking. We started by collecting bikes and riding over to the tracks. As the day went by everyone completeld tracks to their different levels. We found tracks that we all enjoyed but by far my favorite track was scaggs and scaggs return or as like to call it bumpy bumps and seesaw. Mountain biking tested everyone skills. Overall everyone ended up finishing the day with a smile.

Everyone together in front of the MTB Hire

Quinn & Matt preparing to set off

The second day of activites we had camp day. This day was also my birthday. We started the day off with a small sail. This lasted around 15 minutes. We had a little sail round the bay. We found an old biscuit in the storage shed and decided to try it out. Knowing our luck it broke the first time we tried it. With a little help from some rope and duck tape we got it to work. We spent most of the day using that. Me and Alex decided that we were going to swim out to the 200m bouey. This was a struggles cause of the waves but we made it in the end. The rest of the night was all based around my birthday. A little party, some cake, and a night swim. Overall this day had alot of laughter and smiles.

Preparing to go sailing

Ciara excited by her birthday present of
pinapple lumps and chocolate fish

We then had the kayaking day. We spent the day kayaking down the river. Well most of us did. Some of us decided that it was to hot to kayak so we decided to swim down it. Liam, Magnus and I tied our kayaks on to Grant and he was kind enough to pull them down the river. Thanks Grant. As we kayaked and swam down the river we stopped off in a few places. Starting with the swings into the water. The people who made the swings were there and were kind enough to give us a hand. There were a few reservations but we got basically everyone to have a turn (We even convinced Vanessa to do the high one.) There was also the hot pools along the way we stopped there as well. They were very relaxing. The kayaking was definitely very chill and relaxed. Overall this was a main highlight.

A few people lining up to swing (including Vanessa)

Ruan taking it easy

Taking it easy in the Hot Pools

The final activity was meant to be sailing to the Maori carvings but it was to windy. So instead we went and played football minygolf. It was extremely hot and after the first 9 holes we all kind of got a bit sore tracked and started giving up. I think the heat was getting to us. After we all almost died from the heat we went to spa park and had lunch at the playground and of course we had to stop for an ice block. We had a pretty good day overall. Sad we didn't get to see the Maori carvings or sail.

2021 Whakaipo Bay (Green Contingent)

Written by Hamish - Bosun of the Green Contingent

As our first activity my contingent (the green one) went for a big sail from Acacia Bay to our campsite at Whakaipō Bay stopping at the Māori carvings. The day started with some impressive trailer reversing from Kym, Derrick and Dougal and some speedy rigging from the scouts. After a bit of difficulty with radios we were off and sailing to the carvings just after morning tea. We had some great wind so it was very smooth sailing for a few hours to the carvings with some scouts having turns driving the patrol boat on the way (some better drivers than others). We shared our M~aori carvings viewing experience with a tourist boat that one of our cutters had a very near miss with. Once we were done looking at the carvings we started sailing to our home bay and got all the boats anchored up there at around 6 ending an overall great day of sailing.

Xavier helming away from the carvings

Ethan, Bronson, Amelia and two others

Our second activity was a nice relaxing kayak down the Waikato River. With some borderline illegal kayak transport we arrived at our starting point and were greeted with a group of people blowing up inflatable unicorns and pandas to float down the river on. We launched the kayaks with the people with the inflatables following suit. We had lots of stops along the river with some people hopping off their kayaks to go for little swims. We waited a few minutes at the bungy jumping (GO CHLOE) and saw someone get completely dunked. And had a nice visit to the hot pools as well. On the way down the river some people chose to get comfortable lying down and drifting, however Gabi took relaxing a bit far by falling asleep and almost rolling into the water. Eventually we all made it back intact including Kym who did the whole journey without a paddle. I personally loved kayaking as it was a very relaxing day.

L-R Back: James, Xavier, Freddy
L-R Front: Sean, Bronson, Calvin

L-R: Toby, Nathaniel (facing away), Sean, Ethan

Toby & Calvin enjoying the hotpools

Our third activity was the camp day. We started off by immediately rigging the boats with some people sailing and some staying on shore biscuiting. I started off on the water and after some technical difficulties with our boat we were off. It was a very windy day. The cutters were all leaning over and going very fast until one leaned over a bit too far…. Bronson now has 5 cutter capsizes under his belt. After the capsize it was deemed a bit too windy to sail and my crew sailed in as the other boat (now a bathtub) was towed back into shore. We all spent the rest of the day relaxing and biscuiting. I liked the camp day, especially the windy sailing.

Nathaniel, Toby, Cath, Bronson, Xavier and James after their turns

Freddy (front), Amelia (middle) & Zoe awaiting their turn on the biscuit

Last but certainly not least my contingent did mountain biking. I am a very avid mountain biker so this was definitely my favourite day. We collected our bikes and I started leading a group on a little adventure. We started off on scraggs and had a few early crashes with James doing a frontflip off a drop. Me and 7 others ended up on the other side of the park on some epic trails but we had to head back for a break as the sweltering heat was exhausting to say the least. After our break we went on an even bigger climb to some more trails with most people walking at the end, although after riding down the trails everyone agreed it was worth it. I loved this day as I got to see tons of people getting ‘sendy sendy’ and enjoying my favourite sport.

Ethan and Sean on one of the drops

Hamish navigating the see-saw

2020 - Term 4 - News and Roundup

Hi, So the summer term began, with regattas and sailing and kayaking and swimming and even cycling.  Certainly this term we packed a lot in.  Our sailors and rowers were a credit this term, taking home some good wins, including a first time junior crew who took honours in seamanship at the Onepoto Regatta. This was also our first full term of our new "Youth Lead" approach, giving the older scouts the opportunity to lead programme evenings and activities.  They even lead some parts of regattas, assigning crews and organising the boat unloading, loading, rigging and derigging.

Term 4 roundup

Rowing and Sailing We had several evenings of dedicated rowing and sailing instruction this term.  The majority of the training came from the youth leaders at scouts.  Clearly it was quite successful as is demonstrated but the amount of success we had at regattas through the term. Ethan, Hamish and Magnus are worthy of mention when it came to these evenings, leading them all exceptionally well.

Visit to Whitby Scouts Whitby Scouts invited us to attend one of their programme evenings on a Tuesday.   Our scouts opted to have two scout evenings that week and had a blast at both.   Whitby entertained us with "Panto-horse races" which were a novelty to us.  There are lots of pictures here:   https://photos.app.goo.gl/ypcw771QrUNe8BJW7

Onepoto Regatta This years Onepoto regatta had a few weeks lead in which meant we got everyone a little practice before getting them on the water.   Saturday was fantastic sailing weather with light breezes and calm waters.  Sailing was brilliant and the rowing even better. Sunday was drizzly and misty but still warmish.  Iron Scout, Kayaking and Seamanship all recorded good results for us, with firsts in Iron Scout and Seamanship and several second places in all of them. More is on the blog:   http://ngatitoaseascouts.blogspot.com/2020/10/onepoto-regatta-2020.html The picture below is our junior seamanship crew doing a dry run of the seamanship exercise before the real thing.  These are the guys who won!

Levin & Kapiti Regattas Levin was not a regatta in the traditional sense, more like a visit to Paraparaumu to sail with our sister troop, Kotuku.  The days started reasonably well, but the weather got the better or us.  More news and pictures here:  https://ngatitoaseascouts.blogspot.com/2020/11/2020-levin-regatta.html Kapiti Regatta was far more successful and we even had some good results out of it.  More on this here: https://ngatitoaseascouts.blogspot.com/2020/12/2020-kapiti-regatta.html

Bike ride, Swamp tests, Campfire & Beach fun The rest of the term was a mass of fun organised by the youth leaders in the troop including all of the above.  Some fo them (Bike Ride & Swamp Tests) have write ups of their own but the Campfire and Beach Fun evenings were special for their own reasons. The campfire organised at the home of one of the Youth Leaders, provided a an informal evening to cook sausages and marshmallows and run around in farm paddocks for an evening playing wide games.  It was not a traditional camp fire but that did not detract from the fun that was had. The last night of term, we kayaked some scouts over to Plimmerton Beach while the rest walked and we all had a picnic on the beach, playing games and swimming in the sea.  A great evening, again, organised by the youth leaders as an end of year send off.

Individual achievements

Invested Several of our new scouts were invested during the term this year and are now fully fledged members of the troop.  The investiture was held outside in the dark, to allow parents to watch during the Alert Level 2 when we were contact tracing.  This was something different and quite fun.  They are: Rose Ruan Welcome to the troop and we wish you loads of scouting fun. Sandford "Young Leaders" course This course is a full on two days of learning and doing on how to lead (and how to follow a leader). 3 of our scouts completed this course successfully in October. Max Sean Charlie Well done, all of you.

Looking ahead

2021 Whakaipo Bay Camp When: Sunday 20 January til 26 January Where: Whakaipo Bay, Taupo Harbour Race When: Sunday 14 February @ 9:00 am Where: Greta Point, Evans Bay Kapiti Coast Zone Raft Race When: Sunday 21 February @ 9:00 am Where: Pauahatanui Inlet Worser Bay Regatta When: Sunday 28 February @ 9:00 am Where: Worser Bay Yacht Club Hickson Regatta When: Sunday 14 March @ 9:00 am Where: Greta Point, Evans Bay Cutty Sark Regatta When: Sunday 2 April - 4 April Where: Napier Swimming Sports When: Sunday 22 May @ 3:00 pm Where: Canons Creek Pool LNI Prize Giving When: Thursday 17 June @ 7:30 pm Where: TBA