Another Kea Camp - cheeky little NZ Parrot's -

So here I am s'posed to be in "retirement" but in Nov 09 - I have been rather busy.
First there was the Patrol Leader only camp - then the build a rope bridge across the creek Scout activity and then a Kea Camp. Next weekend I'm off on another weekend camp - this time from / with our Scout Zone. Mamabear will have a long list of jobs waiting for me during Christmas - I'm sure!!
Anyhow with out further adoooo here are some of the best pic's from kea camp
Enjoy

Getting the Flag pole ready. Then had to test it to make sure it held up ok. I have to say the lashing and knotting was first Class!! Go the "Former Guide" that did some good work here! :)












Incoming activity - getting the place mats decorated, which we then laminated for their use at dinnertime. Keeps them quiet and occupied while leaders set up the next activity. I have to say there is / was some fantastic artwork happening. I can see a budding Michaelangelo
:D










Vinnie had his first camp and he felt a bit overwhelmed, and homesick. This Kea took the Scout Kea motto to heart ( I care, I share, I discover, I grow) and gave a welcome hug and looked after Vinnie for a few hours! Well done!!











The official Flag break happening - and yep - it was correct and yep - stayed up it did, well done you have. I'd like to point out too that we anchored the post with 3 yes three only Tent pegs!!











Just in case - we had to advertise ourselves. The campsite last week was very full (long weekend here) but this weekend it was nearly empty - bar our Keas - some guides and a couple of caravans. That meant we could make a lot of noise - hehehe and give the guides some cheeky Kea - urm - stuff!! - see below later.





Hi ho hi ho - off to the mines - oooops forest walk - we go - exploring time yay!!








The sun shone - mostly - and the theme was based on water safety - so naturally we decided to have a tug of war - in the river. We then challenged 7 guides against our Keas. Not surprisingly the bigger and meaner girls won easily. But not for want of trying - and we certainly made the bigger grunting noises!!!! (hehehe payback time for that came later the next day)





You want to float down THERE. Ok we got it, will do, river allowing!!
(Actually the tins demonstrated how fast the flow can be)









Kids and water - goes well together. Here we are "improving" the Dam the guides had started and lost interest in. We also added a water wheel to demonstrate who power can be made!! This could have kept them going till tea time - sadly there was more to do / see/ go to . . . .







Feeding time of the cheeky Keas - and what better way to finish of a polished tucker with a decent dollop of good old Kiwi ice cream!! Yummmm









Indoor Campfire. Sadly we have fire restriction on and so have to be creative when it comes to indoor fires. We use a old gnarled branch and some tea-light candles. If you got a bright idea on what else we can do - let us know via the comments!! A lantern springs to mind . . . .






The concentration!!!! Turns out the only way to get a perfect round circle pancake is in the wrist action!! For some Keas this was the first time they helped with food cooking. Havnt they done well!!!! Hmmmm that reminds me - I need to go for a long walk - these pancakes where most delicious!!






LOL - having been beaten in the tug-of-war we sent the Keas for a walk very bright and early (you believe it - they were awake at 5.30 am - crack of dawn stuff!!) and took them past the guides who needed a sleep in - and of course we had to do the Kea chant. Which went down real well with the girls - so much so that brought them a peace offering later - which was duly accepted. Ahhh nothing like a good humored friendly inter - rivalry between the two youth movements. Bring it on



Hand drawn chariots - some water - and a challenge to get as much water as possible across the field to get to a winner. wohoooo








Sponge ball water fight - everyone (who participated) got wet - no further comment required (although I am not sure why a leader had to wear a life jacket - was he afraid of the Keas??)







At the end of Camp - presentation of the "I survived my first Kea camp badge" - nice badge too.








The birthday boy got to lower the flag!! And with that the camp finished. Some tiered and happy campers went home - hmmm wonder how many fell asleep on the home journey???












Ok these are a very small cross section of what we did on camp - I am going to burn all 100 plus photos on a cd and give it to the Kea leader - if any of you Keas want a copy - Hassle the cheeky grown bird!! Mind you - a small number of pictures aren't that great a quality - I'm still mucking about with the new SLR Camera - learning the different settings etc etc - anyways - enjoy

Camping with a cheeky bird - part three

OK so I got some more pic's delivered (thanks Andy)- so here is a promise - this is the last of the pic's from our Kea camp!!!

How many cheeky Kea's does it take to pull three leaders - urm - well - you know - we had to let them "win" - a n d we didn't cheat. Honest, would I pull one over you?
;)





LOL - we might never make it into the Guinees book of records but I am sure we counted 11 bodies "inside" this box.
pheew - I so hope they have had a shower before hand - or it could be a bit of a - urm - odorised experience??





Hmmm the best we can say here is that I was pretty sure my "show and tell" days from school where long over - apparently NOT SO.

Papabear is seen here talking about campfire blankets and campfire eticette.
More to the point why we have the campfires and how to keep safe.





Even though we had 2 weeks of rain soaked wood - I did manage to get a fire going - WITHOUT - the use of paper or spirits. HA Venturers eat your heart out - I still got it. (hint = use dry gorse and some dry pine cones and - urm - shhhhh thats a secret!) We did have a good sing song and the fire was warm and welcome.

I just hope we don't have future pyromanicas in training here - one set of Vent is usually enough

Camping with a cheeky bird - part two

Ooooops Houston we have a problem.

Really what is the nature of the problem?

Well - would you believe . . . . . . .














You know the story -

"Please SIR, may I have some more?"

bonus point if you can tell me which play this line is from. Anyhow we had a fantastic spread and plenty to eat!





Yes Mum - our Kea's did indeed wash and dry their dishes - so from now on there is no more excuse for not helping in the kitchen - well apart from I got homework . . . . and the - urm - isn't that why we have a dishwasher in the kitchen mom?


Isn't digi proof great - no escaping here.



Of course what better way to finish a good meal and hard work drying your own dishes then with a well deserved desert of ice cream! Yummm - and such a shame I am on diet . .. . . .







well - if I HAD known that rope jumping was part of the evenings program - I could have had that cone!!!
Here one of our Kea's can be seen learning to jump with a bit of help.

Funnily enough that exercise did not make them tired at all - more like woke them up - so we had a job settling them into bed.
Then I forgot - Kea's like to be up with the crack of dawn - so by 5.30 am two girls were merrily starting to sing away - dang there goes the sleep in on camp!!!!

Camping with a cheeky bird

Ok so a Kea is a cheeky NZ Bird that feeds on livestock and urm -well rubber from cars. So I was helping out my two leaders on their Camp = ooops sleepover. We had a blast.

I am very tired - but here is a snap shot of some activities

The term program was based on boxes and so we asked the Keas to bring a box to sleep in - here our Chief Kea is seen reading a bed time story to some of our Keas.







The theme for camp was - urm - ok - "reaching for the stars"
and so they made a semi solar system and of course water rockets. Here I was lucky enough to catch one just taking of.












Houston we have three shuttles on the launch pad and ready for action - copy that!!!!???









How many eggs does it take to bake some star biscuits?








Fill one balloon with rice - knot and attach a tail and take Keas outside to see the "rockets" fly!!!
Sadly some got stuck in the trees and had to be - urm - rescued!

There are heaps more pics - but i'm to knackered to play with this - maybe next week