Thursday 27 October 2022

Venture fund raiser raffle - Prize draw results


As part of their effort to get themselves to the seminal event in a Venturers time at Scouts, the Ngati Toa Venturers held a raffle with some awesome prizes. The draw was concluded last night, with the actual draw performed by a member of our NZ Police force.

Congratulations
to the lucky winners for our Ignite Fundraiser Raffle!!
  • 1st prize was a Interislander Voucher - ticket number 336
  • 2nd prize was a Coffee Machine - ticket number 38
  • 3rd prize was a Bunnings voucher - ticket number 39
  • 4th Prize was a French Kiss Boutique Voucher - ticket number 1119
  • And last but not least 5th Prize was a Tuk Tuk Thai voucher - won by ticket number 1393.
Was a great success , plus a special thanks to our leaders and Gareth for coming in and doing the draw!🤗

Monday 17 October 2022

Amelia & Kalinas' Adventurous Journey

Chief Scout Rimu Award Adventurous Journey

by Amelia Short and Kalina Zaric

Amelias Report

Plan

Before we started our adventurous journey we had to plan. Between us we planned
  • A gear list
  • Equipment we needed to take
  • A menu and subsequently a Shopping list
  • The route we took
  • The logistics
We also filled out a rams form.

Do

We started our tramp at our scout den from which we were driven to Avalon park by a
parent who we had organised to drive us prior. We then had some fun at the park
including a train ride around the park. We started walking at around 2pm and walked
down the river to St James scout den, where we were staying the night. We made a
dinner of Nachos including a vegetarian version and headed to bed.
In the morning we cooked a breakfast of pancakes and then set off on our walk to Days
Bay ferry terminal. All of our scouts managed very well on the busy road, staying to the
side and crossing properly when needed. We arrived at Days Bay earlier than expected
and spent some time on the wharf. We caught the ferry to Matiu/Somes Island. When
we arrived at the island we underwent a biosecurity check and had to empty our packs
to look for rats, mice and insects. We then went up to our accommodation Caretakers
Cottage where we were staying and dropped our bags off. We explored the island for a
little while, looking out for lizards and other wildlife. Unfortunately we did not see any
lizards but saw some birds and sheep. On the way back we stopped at the visitor centre
and had a look around. Later we made a delicious dinner of Mac and Cheese which
everyone very much enjoyed. When it got dark we headed down to the beach to see the
penguins. It took a little while for them to come out but when we saw them it was worth
it. We went back up to the cottage seeing penguins as far up as the cottage.
In the morning we again cooked pancakes but much better this time and set off to do
some orienteering. We ended up just exploring the island as we couldn’t find the
orienteering. We didn’t get to explore for long as the first ferry broke down and we had
to catch an earlier one than intended to Queens wharf. We had wraps for lunch and
then caught the train to Mana and walked to the scout den.

Review

After we got to the den we had a little review of our tramp. We discussed our favourite
parts of the trip, what we had seen and things we could have improved. We then shared
a presentation about our time on Matiu/Somes island to the cubs the following week.
We also reconciled our budget and reimbursed where necessary.

Kalinas Report

Plan: 

Before going on this journey me and Amelia had to plan loads of things. Such as the
following:
  • Planning a menu
  • Shopping list
  • Gear list
  • The route
  • Logistics
  • Budget
  • A gear check
  • RAMS Form
  • AIF

Do:

We started our trip by meeting at the den, then got driven to Avalon park in lower hutt. We
ate lunch, played a bit and even rode on the little train. Our next destination was St James
scout den. We got there by walking along a trail by the river and it ended up being roughly a
2 hour walk. When we arrived we all chose where we wanted to sleep and played card
games till we decided we should make dinner. After finishing our amazingly made Nacho's
(Thanks Amelia and Ellie) we all went to bed and woke up refreshed in the morning.
We packed up and ate a breakfast of pancakes then we were ready to go. We walked
between the motorway and waterfront for 2-3 hours till we reached day's bay. Our scouts
were very responsible along the busy road and listened to all instructions and wore high vis
on their packs. The weather wasn't that great that day so while we waited for our ferry we
found shelter under a bus stop and ate our lunch (which was some yummy wraps). When
the ferry arrived we caught it to Matiu/Somes island. When we arrived we were asked to do
a biosecurity check and had to empty out our packs. After that we walked up to our
accommodations known as the caretakers cottage. Not too long after arriving we decided to
go on a short walk to the lighthouse as well as exploring other various parts of the island. We
stopped to look at the boards of information on the way and became preoccupied by a
painted rock with a cat on it. We returned to make a delicious pot of mac n cheese (your
welcome) and once around the table we shared something we had learned about the island
to go towards our better world badges. But by far our favourite thing that happened on the
trip was our encounter with the little blue penguins. A bit before it got dark we walked down
to the beach to wait for the penguins. We could not find any for a while but we eventually
spotted penguins huddled by a bush. They had set off a night vision light so we were able to
see them in the dark. It was absolutely incredible to see them waddle up the hill to their
boxes. We spotted some on the way up even all the way by our cottage! After that we got
some sleep and woke up ready for our last day (even though some people took a while to
get up cough cough me). Then we all ate a breakfast of pancakes and left for our day's
activities. We decided to do some orienteering. Unfortunately we didn't get to properly start
what we had planned when we had to leave the island due to the earlier ferry breaking
down. We were a bit disappointed but quickly cheered up when we got to ride up the top of
the ferry doing titanic poses. Upon arrival we ate our lunch and headed to the train station.
We caught the train back to mana,signed our flag and had a quick review with Derrick and
our other leaders.

Review:

When we got back to the den we reviewed our tramp with the leaders. We asked the
younger scouts how they thought it went and how they think we could improve it next time.
The feedback we got was very positive. We shared a presentation to the cubs about the
island and a bit about our journey. We also reconciled our budget and refunded where
necessary.

Wednesday 2 March 2022

Harbour Race

 A fantastic harbour in great conditions meant a great race.  The weather while overcast was not cold.  But then neither was it warm.

The downwind start brought the fleet together for the only time in the race with all the boats crossing the line within a few minutes.  There after they were all spread across the harbour.

Course was Evans Bay, Somes Island, Ward Island and back to Evans Bay.

The course

It was a great day out sailing, and even our flotilla of safety boats managed to have a little fun.

Ngāti Toa Patrol 1

Kiore Awa from St James (Operated by Bounty Rovers)

The whaler impressing everyone with a ful suite of sails

Senior winners rounding the island

Results were record in true scouting style


Results

Harbour Race1st2nd3rd
Scout CutterSt JamesParaparaumuNgāti Toa
Venturer SunburstNgāti ToaSt JamesBritannia

A few more pictures here

Tuesday 18 January 2022

Wellington Airport Community awards

Voting has opened for the volunteer awards and as we were Poriru winners, we are now up for the big one.

The people’s choice awards have opened for the Welllington regional volunteer awards 

Thes is the link to the Peoples Choice where you can vote : https://www.wellingtonairport.co.nz/community/wellington-airport-community-awards/community-awards/community-awards-peoples-choice-award-2021/

Wairakei Camp, Taupō (Blue Contingent)

Written by Jesse - Bosun (with Bronson) of the Blue Contingent 

On day zero we were down at the den at 8 getting ready to drive to taupo. The weather on the way up was wild, in Levin it was raining and then the next hour it was sunshine and 25 degrees. Me Bronson and James sadly got separated at the last moment.

Day one at camp the blue group was headed for Rotorua, before we went to our campsite/den in ngonotaha we stopped at the amazing Redwood Treewalk. The walk itself was incredible with the option of walking twenty metres up along some massive trees, after the cool walk we went for a swim at the Blue Lake which was nice and refreshing. After the lake we went back to the Ngonotaha den and setup tents and then we went back to do tree walk at night, we didn’t get into bed until 1am, we were all really tired the next day.

Ruby, Annaliese, Bronson, Jesse, James
& Megan in the Redwoods Treewalk

On day two we went on more walks, and we walked to a fun lake with a wharf. I also forgot to mention it was NEW YEARS EVE. Me, James, Matthew, Connor and Bronson where all just Vibing during the party

The Blue Contingent at Sulpher Point
Standing on the rocks L-R: Rose, Hannah, Hamish, Ruby, Annaliese, Sam
Standing/sitting L-R: Jacob, Bronson, James,
Ash, Jesse, Toby, Kalina, Alex, Lily, Emyr, Sean

Blue Contingent - the group jump into the lake


On day three we had a sailing day and we tried to get out to the Māori carvings but there was not enough wind and we only got halfway. And I probably got some bad sunburn on my lips which is still hurting now

Emyr on helm, Annaliese on main, Hannah and
James on jib and Rose as bowman

Ash on helm, Lily bailing, Freddy on main, Toby and Kalina on jib

Ruby on helm, Grant, Connor on main, Alex and Hamish on jib

Over the next few days, we went river floating which was cool because we got to see the amazing bungee jump and hot pools, we got to go to a sweet as mountain bike park with amazing tracks that I did with Toby.

Inner tubes on the Waikato River - a great way to see the scenery

Sean entering the MTB park

We also spent another day sailing and we made it to the carvings and got to jump off a cool rock.

The "cool rock"

Rose and Hannah in fron of the main Maori carving

On our final day we got to do a white-water raft down Tongariro river with James which was the best part of my trip because I have never gone rafting before.

Kym, Amelia, Annaliese, Charlie, Ciara, Gabi

Rosie, James, Angus, Jesse, Magnus, Sean

Matt, Grant, Emyr, Kalina, Dougal, Ethan

On our last day it was the worst part because we had to pack everything away and drive home which took forever but Neil brought me as I did get to go home and see my family and sleep in my own be and not a stretcher.