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