Chief Scout Rimu Award Adventurous Journey
On saturday the 1st of july i led 4 scouts including me into the orongorongos with the aim to get to shalimar hut, a private hut owned by one of kim's friends jenny. We were very happy and grateful that she let us use it when walking in. We were happy talking and when we hit the river and got off the track we started listening to music. Then we hit the big river where Derrick and Kym were waiting for us on the other side. They taught us how to cross over properly which everyone felt very insightful. We kept walking to the hut picking up some good firewood. On the way we had to leave some of it at the bottom of the track because it was too big to take up so we would have to come back to saw it up, and get more.
Once we got to the hut we left our packs outside and had some snacks which made everyone happy because they didn't have their packs. We got some saws and went back to find more firewood. And saw it up so that we could bring it up the track. Everyone enjoyed using the saws and when we got back to the hut we left the firewood outside so that we could restock it later. We went inside for the first time, brought our packs in and picked our bed. Which everyone enjoyed as we looked around and found where everything was. We then got the food out and put it on the table. Unfortunately our bag of nacho chips popped so instead of having pasta that night we had nachos which everyone enjoyed. Then we talked about short term thinking, hate, prejudice, and types of conflicts and ways to resolve them in order to get our peace education better world badge. We talked while we toasted some marshmallows and ate some biscuits which people enjoyed. The next day we got up and had weetabix and rice bubbles with peaches and packed our lunch and thermals for the walk. We got our map with the planned route on it and set off into the bush on the track down to the river then walked along until we found the track stopping at the entrance of it to look at Baine Iti the oldest hut in the orongorongos then we walked up there was a lot of steep incline and we decided that we should have taken two packs instead of one so it was a good learning experience. We planned to go up to the top but everyone was hungry when we got to the south saddle so we stopped and ate lunch there. Then it started snowing and we stood there for a couple of minutes with our hands out and our mouths open trying to catch some. When we got there we talked about it and decided not to go to the summit. So we walked back down and found our arrow back to the slightly hidden track through the bush and back to the hut. When we got there derrick had found a piece of wood and Kym had found some axes and saws so derrick taught us how to split wood and once we did that we moved on to sawing up some of our firewood that we found the day before and restocked Jennys firewood reserves to replenish the wood we used. Then we went inside as it started to rain. For a game of scrabble which unfortunately Derrick and Kim won. Then we made dinner which was pasta and I found out that no one in our group likes mixed vegetables. We made too much pasta so I also learnt that I needed to buy smaller portions. After dinner we used a camp oven to make a cake in a cup. The marshmallows that we put into it melted but the actual cake was ok. Then we filmed our domestic violence video and went to bed.
In the morning we woke up and made our pancake batter than one of us cooked it while the others cleaned up and packed the food into our packs. Once all of the pancakes were all done we took a little break to eat them and they were really good. Then we cleaned the dishes and got back to cleaning the hut. We finished that quickly and left for the tramp back. We walked quickly, beating our time that it took us to get in and less stopping too. We got out and had lunch in the carpark. We then went back to the den, put the saveable food back in the den and went home. All in all I would say it was a successful trip.
Some more pictures are available here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/huAzmkscKBYXacXy5
