Chief Scout's Award

Recently we were very happy to be able to present the Chief Scout's Award to Aquila. They have put in a huge effort over the last couple of years to complete the Bronze, then Silver, then Gold and finally their Chief Scout's Award. Along with a number of Personal Challenge Badges.

As part of this award they planned and ran a weekend camp for the Troop at Motu Moana.  

They also designed, organized, and led a four day expedition from Mt Albert to the Whangaparaoa Peninsula and back. This included walking, catching a bus, a train, a ferry and even more walking. They also swam, but that was just to cool off rather than to go anywhere. 

During the Expedition Aquila put together a guide to rigging Sunbursts for the Troop

Waiting for a train

Walking

Yes there were Leaders at the camp, but we just got to relax while Aquila did the hard work

Camp at Hahei

At Labour Weekend our Troop went camping at Hahei on the Coromandel. 
During the day the Scouts had a great time exploring the beach, kayaking and sampling the local shop's milkshakes. At night they settled into a high tension game of monopoly and a hilarious game of twister.

We finished of the weekend (before the slow trip back to Auckland) by dropping our Lone Scout back to her family's cafe in Thames, complete with another round of even better milkshakes! 

Scouting from home (again)

 

With the return of Tāmaki Makaurau to a higher alert level we've been back to doing all our activities online. We continue to meet each week. Some of our activities have included quizzes, a debate, a drawing competition and planning for a collaborative minecraft event.

Troop Sleepover & Sailing

Last weekend our Scouts were very happy to be able to return to having overnight activities!

We started small with a sleepover at our hall.

The Scouts that arrived first started by exploring some of the lesser used items in a storeroom and the result was a surprise for the next Scouts to arrive.

Then the Scouts designed their menu and went off to the supermarket to do their shopping.

Dinner and a blindfold trail through the park followed.

Next came the unscheduled discovery of a Pokémon gym on the far edge of the park. 

The evening wrapped up with a movie and the Scouts settled down with the soft glow of the fire (while the leaders retreated to the side rooms).

Sunday saw a trip across the harbour bridge to Lake Pupuke for some fresh water sailing - our usual winter sailing option at Pakuranga will have to wait until we rig up some rain water collection to wash down the boats after use in salt water.

It was great to be out on the water after a 3 month gap in our schedule. We were joined by some of the Venturers from our combined Venturer Unit.

They were very impressed by the foiling sail boards. The (lack of) potential for a foiling Sea Scout Cutter was discussed at length.

Back to our hall!

After 10 weeks of meeting online we're very pleased to be back meeting face to face!

After a thorough clean of the hall we had our first meeting. It was a nice low key evening where we awarded the badges that had been completed and gave out the prizes from our Lockdown competitions.

The next step will be working with the Scouts to finalise the plan for the rest of term II. Watch this space as we move back to real world adventures from our online ones.

  

Iso - Scout - i- Con

As part of our Scouting from home our Scouts came up with the idea of doing something based around the anime, comics, superheros, books and movies they enjoy. 
So the first ever Ōwairaka Iso-Scout-i-Con was born. 

The logo above was designed by one of our Scouts and we'll put it to use over the next period of time as the Scouts share fan fiction they have written ( towards the Writing badge) and make video clips of their very own super heroes in action (towards the Entertaining badge).

The Venturers at the combined Ōwairaka & Western Bays Venturer Unit have been invited to take part and early leaked photos show that their Venturer Leader is already preparing for the costume competition.

Check back over the next few weeks to see how it all turns out.

ANZAC Day

Several of our Scouts and Venturers took part in 

#StandAtDawn to commemorate ANZAC Day. 

Some also made wreathes or decorated the footpath outside their home.

We look forward to returning to gather at our local War Memorials next year to acknowledge the service and sacrifice of the ANZAC's and of all Soldiers, Sailors, Air Crew, and those who kept the home fires burning.

Ka maumahara tonu tātou ki a rātou : We will remember them

The Adventures of the Gnomes

While we were at Jamboree Ōwairaka Sea Scouts sent two gnomes off on a journey around the country with the hope that they would reach the next National Scout Regatta and then hopefully the next NZ Scout Jamboree. 

This blog is where he Groups that are hosting them record their adventures

https://nzscoutgnome.blogspot.com/

See where they are up to, and even comment to say hi.

Who knows where they will end up next!

Pet Photo Competition

Over the last fortnight our Scouts have been taking photos of their pets for our lockdown pet photo competition. It all came about when lots of the Scouts had pets walk through the shot during our first online meeting!

We have some judges busily working way on looking through the pictures. But you at home can play too! In the comments at the bottom of the page just put the number from the caption of the photograph you want to win our peoples' choice prize.

Entries close 11pm New Zealand Time on Wednesday 22 April 2020. The winner and prize will be announced during our Troop online meeting on Thursday 23 April and posted online shortly after that.

Happy voting (click on each image to make it bigger)!

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The rules that the Scouts were set:

1. You must take the picture
2. Taking the picture must not hurt or distress any pet, or family member
   
   (eg no live action shots of siblings being eaten by pet lions)
   (ie no identifying features like names, Street signs, letterboxes etc)
   
3. The judges’ decision is final
4. Prizes may be awarded for cuteness, tricks, composition of image
5. You must state if a photo has been edited after it was taken
6. Still images only
7. Images must be suitable for publication on a public blog
   
8. Entries must be emailed to owairaka@group.scouts.nz by 9pm on Tuesday 14 April 2020.
9. Inanimate pets will be considered at the judges’ discretion (eg a pet rock)

Voting Rules

1. No spam voting (ie excessive multiple voting within a short time period).
2. Only votes with only the photo number in them will be counted (other comments may be deleted).