Westcoast trip

Rightho - We have broadband back - so I am able to upload the pictures and tell the rest of the story from our recent Westcoast reconnaissance trip. 2 leaders and myself went over to Reefton - as previously told and scouted out the lay of the land. We are so lucky. For this years annual Westcoast trip we will be able to bunk down in the local school - and they will open for us the gym - which has a shower - and the kitchen techno block - which has Ovens. We are sooooo spoilt!!! We walked fourth and back and found little gems of information. Because Sir G.H. looks so handsome - ooops I am getting carried away - no seriously we just asked the right people some questions and got some special deals - like the subsidised 4 hour trip through a real working gold mine. Way cool.

The Locals are very friendly and have a very unique way at looking at live. The famous Westcoast hospitality is still alive. As are their indivdual expressions - see this garden decor!

Looks way to clean for coal so must represent the Gold rush.




I snapped this on the last morning. Fabulous mood and the colours through the trees - just gorgeous.
The cloud did lift later somewhat and revealed more colour. This picture does not do it justice!






On the way back to Christchurch we came across some stands of Willow and Poplars - and these.
The sun was setting and just lighting up the colours. I could have stayed a bit longer but the driver was keen to get back home to hearth and heart.

Ah well next year . . . .

Rain. rain and more rain

Rain and more rain and even more rain. NZ is so handily placed for extreme weather. Yesterday we had to fly out 120 trampers from the world famous Milford sound track. They had 400ml of rain in 24 hours - and water went passed them at head high!!! No way they could make the many river crossings on the track.

Here is a poem from one of the very early west coast settlers - Anonymously penned - and a classic - as it very accurately describes our weather out west.

" Rain - It rained and rained and rained,
the average fall was well maintained
and when the tracks were simple bogs
it started raining cats and dogs,
after a drought of half an hour,
we had a most refreshing shower,
and then the most curious thing of all,
a gentle rain began to fall,
next day but one was fairly dry,
save for one deluge from the sky,
which wetted the party to the skin,
and then at last - the rain set in."

And believe me - this is a very good description of some weather patterns.


Usually rain is a lot of fun - and next doors kid can be seen getting ready to have some fun with his duckie and umbrella. Pity his mum didn't give him gumboots, or a boat. Still he had fun which is all that matters.

Scouts begging to go camping on westcoast

Ok - so I am a sucker for punishment and take a small group of scouts on a annual camp over to our wonderful Westcoast. We usually leave Friday evening - arrive sometime before midnight - do some weird and wacky activities (see links above) and come home happy and exhausted on Monday evening. These camp must be good fun. So much so that I have no shortage for Scouts wanting to attend and - urm - well some Venturer Scouts begging to go camping with us.

- This from one lad -
Qoute " can i please com on the west coast camp this year? i really want to go as i have really enjoyed the last ones i've been on and its the best camp all year! and this will probely be the last one i can go on since i'm moving onto ventures. so can i please com i will be a big help! and with all my leaderships skills, and it will be a great experience! can i please come, please! thanks, "

And just in case I didn't get the message he followed up with:

" Dear Papa Bear, most revered scout leader, organiser of fantastic trips, great cooker of lamb..... I wish to ask you if I may accompany the scouts on their annual west coast trip this queens birthday weekend! I am sure that I can provide a most valuable service as a experienced west coast tripper in being a positive role model and an expert loader and unloader of cargo....... PLEASE!!!!!!! I would love the opportunity to go. "

Then there was the email from freckles

Qoute " heyy Reinhold! my favouritest scout leader ever! in the whole entire world :D
hows it going? good i hope.
you no how much i love you and all (: ....
well i was wondering can i come on west coast camp this year PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! please! you just no how much of a help i was there last year not getting sick and all if it happens again you will have my expert help since i survived last year :P
you no you want me to go, you really do"


Then there is good old giggles who promised me

breakfast / lunch and dinner in bed and to do all my dishes and even wash 10 days worth of my oldish clothing!

Plus a evening of entertainment -something about a demo on how to peel carrots and other various vegetables. All of that just so that she can secure the one remaining free spot!!!

Hmm tough choice. Actually I do have one piece of washing - its been worn for 10 weeks - has some old blood spots on it - does have a real earthy musky sort of lynx blokish smell - it could do with a good clean out. Amazingly - as you can see - it still fits me.

I have to say - seeing the scouts begging like this - is getting embarrassing. What do I do?????? Who do I take?????? Guess I must be doing something right . . . . . .

Actually - so far all of them have missed the mark by a wide margin. All the greasing up is nice - but really - they should have known better. A teddybear with a home made scarf and offered as a token gesture would clinch a seat on the bus . . . . . . - hmmmmm wonder who will read this first . . . . . . .

I will keep u posted

Teddybear on the net

Well now I have seen almost everything. I did a google image search for teddybear and various combos thereafter - eg teddbear army / teddybear cooking.
I also looked up teddybear scouting and lo and behold on page two - is ----- wait for it --- yeah Brodie - my very own and much loved bear - who always comes camping with me. Seems Brodie is now famous on the net.

Better not tell him - or he will get to - urm - whats the word - conceited????
shhhh - keep it quiet . ..

Papabear

Anzac day in New Zealand

25th April is the day we remember our fallen comrades.
It is the Anzac day and all over New Zealand people attend various Anzac dawn parades - or some more leisurely services at 9 am. All our shops are closed for the morning and are only allowed to be open from 1 pm onwards. Our Group has always had links with the Papanui RSA and marched with them - usually 9 am. It is a day to remember, reflect, and celebrate. No doubt there are people in Australia and possibly the States that have parades too.
Jade - I spent a thought or two remembering you as well!!
Naturally we had our Keas and Cubs and Scouts and Venturers attending - well -some of them - and they had great fun marching along with the old soldiers. Ok ok- so the marching was more akin to a rugby scrum - but at least they came.
The history behind the Anzac's is interesting and - if you want - also depressing. After all - New Zealand, still very much a infant nation in the making, sent many a young man into both world wars - and the losses where astounding - can you imagine loosing 80 % of all your males from your village??? Something to ponder as we tuck into our free breakfast etc etc . . . .


hmmmm Mamabear has set of the smoke alarm again - looks like she is resigning from her kitchen duties. And I soooo miss broadband - 6 more days of dial up - sigh

We remember them,
Lest we forget

Go well NZ Anzac's

Who's the real Oldbear???

ok - I know I am old-ish, and probably a bit of a novice geek. I got a nice surprise though when checking out my blog and some stats (you know- who logged on when and from where etc - yeah - surprise surprise some folks DO read this) -- and found out that someone had googled Oldbear and came to my blog - as well as some other blogs. Naturally I had to look that one up and yes - there is a genuine oldbear blog out on the web. :)

Definitely not mine.
Interesting reading.
Seems this Old bear is into - hmmmm - nah you gonna have to find out for yourself.

All I can say is that I own only one blog - this one - the one and only real oldbearnews, and that I will not or cannot take any credit for any other oldbear blogs. Hehehe at least mine is up-to-date!!

Hmmmm I have to get over the snail pace - Dial-up speed and load some pics from our Westcoast trip soon.
Have fun
Papabear

smoke alarm part 2

urm

well it does work - we know - its been tested again!!
Better eat the smoky food

:)

Autumn in New Zealand

I just LOVE Autumn - especially in New Zealand. It is why I chose that header - albeit a Microsoft photo.
I should have googled Autumn in New Zealand - and I would have had some more stunning images to choose from.
Anyhow I just love this time of the year -
So rich in colour and tone.
The air so crisp and getting cooler.
The smell . . . ahhh the smell

You really have to come here and see it to believe it.

























I can't express it any better then with either song - there is

Louis Armstrong - "What a wonderful world"
and my current favorite song -
Eva Cassidy - "How can I keep from singing".

Hm let me see if I can find a u-tube clip of her!

Song lyrics | How Can I Keep From Singing? lyrics

Annual Westcoast trip

Well every year in the first weekend in June NZ celebrates her Majesties fake birthday - and in honour of our Lizzie - NZ has a long weekend! Yihaaa. (Dunno what will happen if Chuck ever gets to sit on the throne?!?!?!) - Anyhow every first Monday in June we have a public holiday.
For the last few years I have taken a small group of scouts on a long weekend over to our fabled Westcoast. It's an annual trip and we usually leave in darkness and arrive shortly before midnight - then do 2 full days of crazy and wild and wacky activities (see some of the links above) like make a knife from rusty steel or carve Greenstone, or . . . . . .
This year we will go to Reefton to discover something about Gold and the first southern hemisphere town in the world to have electricity. Naturally that is just an excuse for somee scout leaders to dash away for a weekend of fun and fact finding.

I am told that the trout fishing over there is fabulous - so u can see Sir G.H and his trusty side kick Brush doing some practice already!! Dunno if I trust them to bring back a fish for dinner though. I might yet order pizza to be delivered - just in case!! Should be a great weekend away - and yes - Sir G.H. will have his lappy with him so we can update you on who fell into the river first :P

Cant understand why Giggles and Freckels (2 Venturers) are starting a bidding war in order to secure a place for the trip. So far I got - all meals served in bed to doing all my washing up and being a first aid driver. Hmmmm this has got possibilities . . . . . .

Will endeavor to post from Reefton later.
Freckles - NO - knee-capping your younger bro - so he's to sick for the trip - does NOT count and is just not ladylike u at all!!!!
Good thinking though . . . . :')

check this out --------> Reefton

Does the Easter Bunny really live????

Easter time.
A time to reflect and urm eat. Or is it eat and then reflect -- on all the extra pounds gained from chocolate?

We bought some easter treats for our boys.
Here Mamabear can be seen pretending to be the Easter bunny and get one basket ready. We hid them in the boy's bedrooms. No sweat for the older one :)
The other one - had difficulty finding the gift. No surprise there, as his bedroom usually resembles a rubbish tip - excellent for hiding little treasures!!
Sadly the idea that cleaning up while searching for the easter goodies would be a really good idea (as it would make future searches easier) did not enter into the consciousness!! So much for the Easter Spring Clean. Next year we might add a rescue beacon into the gift baskets . . . . . .

Of course - rabbits are a bit of a plague here and annually there is the great easter bunny shoot/hunt on in our country. During some years previously, in a single night of hunting some hunters would come back with well in excess of a 1000 bunnies - which are usually skinned and made into dog tucker. Word of advice Mr Easter Bunny -- better avoid New Zealand this time of the year - there are no guarantees :)

For myself - well I was reflecting on the rich food devoured while in Europe searching for snow and Santa - and have decided a "See-food" diet is a great way to loose weight - as long as I only see healthy food. I think this would be part of the "daily eat 5" campaign.

Shhhh --- ok ok so my cousin KNOWS I also ate a Schwarzwald Kirsch Torte for dessert last night - but hey - it had cherries in it - thats'a fruit - and that's gotta be good for you - RIGHT????!!!!!!!!

HAVE A GREAT EASTER
BLESSINGS
Papabear - over and out

hmpf - where did I stash these yummy caramel chocolate easter eggs ---- MAMABEAR . . . . . . .

Why oh why is linux so challenging

Well - I'm gutted, I tried to install "audacity" into the Linux pc (Ubuntu7.04). Should be straight forward enough I hear some of you say, just fetch the file of the net - unpack it and extract the files to - well desktop - and run make and install in Konsole. 2 hours of challenging time later . . . . . . . . .

No joy. So this morning after some research via google / linux - I gave it a final whirl, and if that wasn't going to work - I would have dumped the file and looked for alternatives.
So I'm typing in konsole and all of a sudden line after line of rm -delete - permission denied. uhu - not a good spot to be in - so I closed out of that.

20 seconds no more

W E L L

I dunno what I have done but it stripped out EVERYTHING - like - everything - as in really everything . . . . . . . .

all documents / music / picture files on hd - gone
all settings / passwords for xchat / pidgin/ firefox - etc gone
all applets on Panel (even the colour settings) - gone
all bookmarks / toolbars / download history - urm - everything inside FF - gone
all radio stations saved in Amarok - gone
hehehe all best scores in the various games - gone

So I am a bit pissed 'cause I have some work ahead of me that I don't really need - BUT (as they say in the commercials) wait there is more

Fear not - I have back-up of some things - so that should make things easier
So I look for my trusty usb memory stick - urm - yeah I did work on a file a few minutes before then and it was still attached to PC - A N D
you guessed it, it completely stripped the usb stick of all files - even the lock/key files!!
Now I am really bummed - and very fragile.

So much for Linux
:)

worst part is - I still don't know why I could not install audacity.

check smokealarm at daylight saving

Well - u know - daylight saving is today in NZ - that means we get to sleep in an extra hour.

Wohoooo - of course with daylight saving we are supposed to check our batteries in the smokealarm. We bought one just before we left for Europe - figuring that it might be useful for when the boys where left on their own. 'Cause they never cooked or smoked enough to set it off. Beary good cooks they are indeed!

Rest assured - we know it works even without testing it - hehehe Mamabear was smoking some chicken for dinner and the resulting smoke from the oven set the smokealarm off - first time ever!!

Or could it be that she fancied a visit from this dashing young uniformed fella???