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