Short weekend in Picton

Say what???? A non-scouting Queen's birthday weekend - how did that happen???
Yess astute (and regular) readers will remember that for the last 10 or more years, every NZ Queen's birthday weekend I had a trip away with some scouts to our gorgeous West-coast for various activities (Greenstone [Jade} carving / knife making / digging for gold or coal etc).  That particular weekend is always my and my son's Birthday - so a reasonable large sacrifice is/was made - very enjoyable though!

THIS year - urm - it was deemed everyone is to busy and with all effort going into fund-raising for jamboree - no scout was willing to make this trip work!
(sad face)

Urm - okay urm  *cough* urm     H u n n y     -   guess what - I am home this weekend - WHAT will we do???

This will feel weird!  Anyhow after a brief discussion early in May it was decided to treat me (yeah I know - lucky sod eh?)  to a weekend away in Picton.  We have been lately to much in Tekapo,  so Picton sounded just refreshing!

Soooooo we packed up and looked at the weather fore-cased with trepidation (heavy rain for Picton on Friday afternoon and maybe Saturday) and set of.
It was a very warm and sunny day in Kaikoura! We had lunch there (in short sleeves and sitting outside on a terraced cafe)  and then decided to stop at the waterfall with the seal-pup nursery.  A short stroll inland along a tiny stream which ended up in a hollow basin at the end of a waterfall full of seal-pups - enjoying a good frolicking swim in safety from predators.





From there, a non-eventful drive north towards Picton only to see dark and heavy clouds arriving and yes - before we even got to Blenheim - it started to urm rain - if you can call it that - it rained cats and dogs, ok not literally but it did came down large and full - enough to float Noah's Boat, which made driving a bit challenging - and slow going.
Eventually got to Picton - found our new temporary home on the main-street and unpacked - then strolled around main-street in search for dinner.  Found a good place - that served our entree (garlic-bread) post mains being served - they forgot the order!! Fell to bed for a good night sleep with the rain pounding on the roof - wondering what the morning would bring!


Have fun!








Post-script:
There are stories going round that with the massive earthquake in Kaikoura that this sanctuary is no longer.    I dunno - however - there  I S  a waterfall so would not take long to re-create a pool - I am sure mother nature will and can take care of that in no time!!!!

Notable Queens scouts in New Zealand

 

The Bear celebrates 30 years of marriage

yeah

30 years ago to this day - I very calmly  walked into Durham St Methodist Church and says - "Yes - I do" amongst other things.
Funny how things work out.
I was supposed to be here for a years worth of voluntary work - and then got "stuck"!  These Kiwi Gal's are just to tempting and a very beautiful - and one of them in particular!!   How could one resist??  Honestly!?!
Somehow everyone in Europe knew before I left - with all of them saying - " ah he finds a girl and marries and  . . . . "   yeah right!  yes right alright! Wouldn't do anything different given the chance . . . . .

 After the church - off to the gardens for some traditional pictures.

 The bridge of marriage - one of the favorite places to take pictures.  Hmmmm that must be the only second time I wore a tie . . . . .  ever

 The cutting of the cake.  Rumor has it that whoever has their hand on top is wearing the pants at home.

(guess by now you had a good look to see how our hands were placed  ;-)   ) 

 We were a very modern couple already back then.  Proceedings normally require the groom to give a speech, after the - you know - and we did - *cough* well I said two words and then "delegated" urm "volunteered" my newly minted wife to say a few words.  She did well on our behalf!

 Sharing the light finger-food with the rest of the folks.  Emma the flower girl from Pam's next door neighbor, had a good time.

Pssst - a quick kiss and then we got in the Viva and drove off to the honey moon suite - in Oxford were a couple does what . . . . enough said there!   I'm sure you get the picture.  From there we drove to our new place in Wellington.
We did have a few nights at a certain Bach in Picton and - still remember having to unpack the car (as in take out ALL of the wedding gifts - no easy feat as it was packed solid up to the roof - no room for even a mouse) to get to the spare tire and change that - then RE-pack everything and having the tire fixed later in Wellington . . . .   Amazingly it all fitted back in . .
It did look funny - us on the side of the road and presents all over the grass and things . . . . 


hmmm I did look skinny back then.  Marriage obviously suited - I gained a wife and 25 kg!

  
Within these 30 years of bliss, we traveled 3 times to Europe, had 2 strapping boys, bought a house (now mortgage free), and I did 17 years worth in Scouting - being away on 215 camping nights (and still counting), survived a 7.1 and 6.3 earthquake, and fell in love with two places in NZ - Whitianga and Tekapo

Soon we go to Australia (for a treat)  - and have 10 nights in a campervan there - arriving in Brisbane and somehow we have to find Sydney, -- shouldn't be to hard.  If we survive that as a couple we then plan to sell the house and buy ourselves a Campervan (xtra large) and tour around NZ for a full year before retiring to Whitianga . . .    (well - thats the plan for later)

gotta go and prep - urm dessert I think, then the ironing, gardening.
hmmmm maybe something else ^.0  *grins*

shhhhhh my lips are sealed . . . . .

Why Scouting matters . . .

I arrived at work one day and found a plain envelope on my desk - with only my name on it. Wondering what might be inside I gingerly opened the letter.

To my surprise it contained copies of a letter that obviously belonged to some one else from a time ago.  The "letter" all nicely handwritten and so forth contained some stats on Scouting and why it matters.  As most people at my work know that I am still involved in scouting they obviously thought I would need - or appreciate said letter.

See below (the text and an image of the original)


Take 100 boys

In your minds eye, take a look at any 100 boys who have recently joined Scouting.
Line them up in your imagination, of that 100 boys.
Only rarely, will one ever appear before a juvenile court.
Twelve of the 100 will receive their first church contact through Scouting.
Five of the 100 will receive church onwards and one will enter the clergy.
Eighteen will develop hobbies that will give them lifelong interest.
Eight will find their future vocation through badge working and Scouting contacts.
One will use Scouting skills to save another persons life, and one will credit it with saving his own life.
Four of the 100 will reach senior rank.
Seventeen will become future Scout Leaders and will give leadership to additional thousands of boys.
You may wish to consider the above mentioned points when you next meet your eager young people. It seems to make the scouting job very much worthwhile.

-------------------------------------

The interesting part is the first and second reference (court and church)
Further - it is boys only - no girls, so obviously written a long time ago.

I am wondering if there exists a "modern" set of Scouting statistics and if we can post them here.  Should you know or have some - please do let me know!   Also wonder if anyone famous in NZ past or present was involved?   I am pretty sure Sir Edmund Hillary was a former Scout.

Cheers

have fun










PS - found this from the USA

1. 181 NASA astronauts were involved in Scouting (57.4% of astronauts). 39 are Eagle Scouts.

2. 36.4 % of the United States Military Academy (West Point) cadets were involved in Scouting as youth. 16.3 % of cadets are Eagle Scouts.

3. 22.5 %  of United States Air Force Academy cadets were involved in Scouting as youth. 11.9 % of cadets are Eagle Scouts.

4. 25 % of United States Naval Academy (Annapolis) midshipmen were involved in Scouting as youth. 11 % of midshipmen are Eagle Scouts.

5. 189 members of the 113th Congress participated in Scouting as a youth and/or adult leader. 27 are Eagle Scouts.

6. 18 current U.S. governors participated in Scouting as a youth and/or adult volunteer. Four are Eagle Scouts.

a n d

Boy Scouts in High School Statistics
Total percentage of senior class presidents that were boy scouts	89%
Total percentage of junior class presidents that were scouts	80%
Total percentage of Student Council Presidents that were scouts	85%
Total percentage of football captains that were scouts	71%
Total percentage of basketball captains that were scouts	64%
Total percentage of school newspaper editors that were scouts	88%
Accomplishment	Percentage
Total percentage of Rhodes Scholars	72%
Total percentage of FBI agents	85%

Annual Westcoast Trip - pounamu carving

 Ah yes - the last few images to be shown.  All day Thursday night it felt strange - for once I did not have to go shopping for food.  This was done by two other leaders (Squeek and Mr Schick) and they did do a very good job too.  The local scout hall is usually so cold (June - winter here and no insulation) that there is no need to take stuff home for chilling or even freezing!!  So came Thursday night - I was at sixes and sevens, not sure if I was coming or going!  In any-case - this was not the only trolley as I understand it.













Back to the grind-stone.  The paper is diamond tipped - so the grinding / shaping is relatively easy!

















At this point I was  on dry sanding.  You start with a 400 grit - then 600 / 800 / 1000 and 2000 grit. One needs to be careful as the stone can get quit warm / hot even.  I must admit wet-sanding sounded much better.  It also would have helped to be less proud and taken with me my reading glasses . . . . . Hmmmmmm  now I do feel old!!













Decided to toss in the street front view of the carving place.  You can't miss it . . . .

So in between carving and working and gas-bagging - ooops story telling - and learning all matters greenstone, I found this piece. 
Some haggling resulted.  I so wanted this piece, as the grain in the Jade reminded me of the nor-west arch / cloud formation often seen in Canterbury.  After some furious haggle - a price was agreed upon and I became the proud owner of NZ Pounamu - just need to polish this up and then mount on a suitable piece of Rimu or driftwood or . . . .     (found a piece of timber on the beach the next day - yessss)   







Often you get / find some stone and you will not know what is inside, until you either polish away from the outside - or cut into it!!  This particular piece was on the shop floor and for me it  was VERY tempting to slice of a piece.  I love the moonshine effect from the grain on this!!  Alas I already spent some cash so - maybe next time - yeah - next time

 No west-coast camp is complete until you do a campfire on the beach (below the high tide mark - so the tide washes away any remnants of the fire).  The other tradition is to try and light the timber that has been laying on the beach - and is always totally  RAIN-soaked - to the point were one needs a lot of, either, magic water or a gas burner in the middle of the timber structure to be burned - before the timber properly catches fire.   Honestly next time I will bring some kiln dried timber from Christchurch  ^^

 A often missed attraction - the Glow-worm Dell.  It is no-where as great as either the one at Te Anau or Waitomo caves - but it is still pretty impressive. You need to walk in quietly and have no lights on with you (so cellphones and torches off!!)  a n d  - watch out for the Hokitika Groper :D   or at least watch out that you snuggle up to your own wife - a mistake some men have made frequently in there, then are surprised with the reaction  they get . . . . .

We stopped at two places on the way back - this is at the Viaduct where the local kea resident population has great delight in entertaining the visitors.  You do need to be careful what you leave laying round - or indeed in or on your car - as anything remotley loose is fair game for this Alpine clown!! They have a way of dismantling anything,  that has to be seen to be believed!  Indeed one unfortunate tourist once  lost his car keys  over the side of a steep cliff/hillside . . . . . .



Have fun

 

Annual Westcoast trip - Pounamu

Every year we go with scouts to the beautiful west-coast of New Zealand and do a camp based on one particular activity.
This year we went to Hokitika and did some decent carving of the local, special and VERY precious resource called Pounamu  (also called Maori green gold - or more colloquial Greenstone/jade).

On previous camps I left on my Laptop a word file open, for everyone to be able to write in their thoughts etc during camp - on one condition - that they leave everything written and do not delete anything.  They are usually very good and leave good honest feedback.  I then go and post said word file on my blog.  Tomorrow I will flesh out the words with pictures.  For today - the Blog - as written by the youth and adults - see below.


Friday

We arrived!!!!

Camp is set up = now we need some pizza for a late snack

Loving the set up, and the warm felling that Hokitika gives.

I left my slippers at home because my mum didn’t pack them!

^ lol

Rumour has it that brush snores – yeah right “)

Can’t wait for tomorrow morning and all the people reaction to the early wake up call.

Evening slumber music loaded and ready to go to send the wee sweeties to sleep





Saturday


= yawwwwn = who set the alarm and played THAT music????

Wake up call was harsh :-{ )

Think the patrols should have been organised differently

Mhmm, smell that coal burning

^^ Na, the patrols are good.

^^Ahhh, the sweet music to my ears in the morning. – Starting to get used to it after 2 West Coast camps!!!

Nice trip to try find some greenstone it was a shame no one found any still got a lot of rocks to take home

Fantastic stone carving today, really enjoyed, looking forward to finishing it tomorrow/

Greenstone carving for Da vinci Group was fantastic

Wow, that walk, outstanding, just a nice calm beautiful walk between trees of nature.!!

Making the greenstone necklaces is
A
M
A
Z
I
N
G
!!!

The walk was great

Leaving on a walk with papabear

Been and came back then back to the beach for some sunset pics – not much sun but nice red hills behind us!!

Me bored : - [

Ahhh, have to prepare the salad now!! ^_^
Waiting is boring 
Oohhhhhhhhh  mushrooms !! yummm!!   Brush is in heaven

Shot for dinner lads
Fooooood was good

NOOOOOO!!! Where’s my balaclava gone!!!!! Who took it?

Me felt like it

Time to read

My speed at the beach       snail pace mode with some glue on it’s slime!!!!






Sunday

Yawnnn – another early morning wake-up-call – and the little man in white coats are taking me away!!!!

I hate that wake up call !!!!!!

I love the wake up call!!!!!

Hmmmmm, where are the snacks today for Michael Angelo?!!!

Shotgun!!

No baked beans  but pi can solve this     I think?????

Oohhhh, we’re about to leave for greenstone walk!!!.

Yesterday made 2 greenstone carvings because was quick and was tiny bit small my first one

My dolphin is awesome    and for my girlfriend

Looking forward to finishing my carving

Noooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!! Not the walk

I know =(

Honestly I told the leaders to do an alarm but not like that though

Great walk.  Did the hike in 90 min exactly. Suck on that Michelangelo

Great walk can’t wait until tonight we are going to see glow-worms

You are slow people Michelangelo YAWN!!!!! Put a sock in it and suck a lemon when you read this (laugh)

This is Scouts, not the army…

This is a blog not a thing to tell people what to do!

We made lunch for you like a professional

Somewhat missing the knife part of the wake up call but then again this isn’t Knife camp

Looking for pounamu was fun

Carving pounamu was fun too!!!!!

Completed the carving, was fantastic!!! 

The museum’s radios are awesome!!!

I know my fav were the knitting , BBQ and the pavlova

My favourite is the “splitting the atoms radio and the bush radio”, what’s your favourite?

Ahhh, the sweet sensation of carving a Toki!!! Ahhh.

Sup guys I cool.

Got one cool looking pendant!!

No one has complained about the Venturers taste in music – I am surprised!!!!

For tomorrow – I don’t like Mondays? Seems fitting, is the last day of camp after all…..and the last day of the weekend…

Mmmmm, my apple tastes delicious!!!!!! Ps. Learn ur gramma (3 lines above ^^^).

Finally made the CRUMBLE of apple crumble after 1-2 hours

Got to love muse :D but the music has been awesome in general

Wha’? did I hear my name being called?!!

Who took my balaclava?

Feeling amazing after having a swim and a shower!!! Ahhhh.  0_0

Funny how scouts can handle only ONE instruction at a time!!!

Fooooooooooooood

I hate doing duty patrol because I have to do everything and I’m hungry!!!!!! 

I think my group is la-a-a-azy

Dinner was go-o-o-od I hope dessert is better

Dessert was delicious mmm- mmm

Good meal, great company.

Going to see glow-worms now hurray I’ve never seen one before so its going to be a cool experience

If only luca was here, he would eat one.

Decided to not go to the glow worms, seen them loads before and will do again.

Just came back from glow-worms they were stunning and looked like stars that are bright

Glow worms cool would like to see again

First time ever seen glow worms su-u-u-u per AWESOME






Monday

Breakfast and clean up and we are on the road again – home here we come.

Richard Hammond is driving a very old slow car!!!
Fantastic clouds on the way – Greymouth barber.

Jon-e wanting to play with the big toys.



The End

 

Annual westcoast trip - rock hunting

           Every year for the past nine years - I have taken a  group of scouts across our Alps to the Westcoast.  We bunk down in a hall and do various activities that include a day hike.  The four main activites (which get rotated from year to year) include such things as knife making / Pounamu carving / Coal scuplting and digging for gold.

        This year - we went back to Hokitika, the jade capital for New Zealand.  We left Friday around 5 pm and drove in near darkness across the main alpine divide (Arthurs Pass) - I say near darkness - because we had brilliant blue sky during the day and at night we had star-lit roads. In fact - we usually stop at Arthurs pass and the night sky was just stunning - the milky way was - just milky!!  So wish I had taken my tripod.  Alas I was already carrying enough electronic gear.  Pretty soon it will out weigh the regular camping gear!! Anyhow - we arrived late and had fun getting the oven going for a late night pizza snack - seems a mouse ate through cables and shorted that out!!
Scouts brought the gear in and then it was time to set up the sleeping arrangements - Army style.  I started the row - then there was Brush followed by Squeek then Mr Schick and then - - hmmm never mind.

The  sleeping arrangements.  In the middle the tables to sit and eat and play and . . . ..  
 The hall now has two heat-pumps so it was quite warm - luxurious even!!  Only thing that was missing was a shower!!


 



This scout was ready for bed!  Guess he did look a bit less happy when woken up again at 6am with the, by now traditional, wakeup call / music, starting with a bugle call played from the PC!!
yess some traditions are worth keeping!!

There are cameras everywhere!! No escaping big brother!! I did notice however the "looking over glasses look"
when taking pictures - something I am starting to do myself!  Something about older age etc.    sighs

Next day - one patrol was of for a hike in the bush and did an outdoor cooking of soup and stuff while the other patrol was taken upriver by Dan ( a local Maori elder) and looked for green-stone - while the fabled Rodin patrol was able to select their design and start the carving of green-stone!  Picking and choosing can take longer then you would think!!  There are plenty of templates and design options and inevitable everyone makes and adjusts their own choice / design as they go along!!

Using a dremel drill with diamonds to carve and reduce and shape and hollow and . . . .   hey was that my thumb that just got a tickle up - urm - not this time!!

Until you end up with a simple teardrop or fishhook or Koru or . . . . . .
This particular teardrop turned out to be a teeny wee bit larger then anticipated - but is its weight worth in gold!!  The actual jade is/was sourced from near Jackson Bay / Haast region!! It has the classic moonshine effect!!  Now just need to polish it off then get a rope attached . . . . . .  then wear it for a while . . . . .

When it was time to get home and have lunch and thus leave the workshop empty, so that the other patrol could do their carving,  we found some wet shoes sitting outside in the sun drying off.  Seems the 'look in the river for NZ jade' activity  does mean you get your feet wet - not to mention your socks and trousers!!

Vinnie enjoying a bit of a break.  He lately always comes with us to the coast trips.  Brodie on the other hand is a teeny wee bit jealous as he has stayed at home for a number of years now  - and this has NUTHING to do with the fact that Brodie has always been camping when it rained!!
Suffice to say - this year, we had sunshine all the way - yet again!!  Vinnie certainly living up to his reputation!! 

At the end of the second day - every bit of carved pounamu was hung up.  There were some very creative designs!!
In case you are wondering - the papers' have the names of the owners written on,  as we seem to have forgetful youth amongst us  . . . .

A close up - but it was not great as the light was - well not great and so forth

I ended up using a camp-light and maneuvered that round while getting real close and NOT used the flash to take pics of each and every carved piece.  There are to many to show here so there is just a cross sample here.
The colors of the stones vary - they are not the usual green at all - some of them can look milky and semi white while there are others that have very deep dark lines.  
Some have specks and others - have not!!  As said before - my own personal preference are the stones that come from near Haast - there is something about that - but I digress

Here you can see a more intricate piece (belonging to Brush).  We did go back there the next day to finish this - so he has spent about 8 or 9 hours on this particular carving.  The extra time was  needed due to the complexity of the design (and cutting and polishing the wee holes curves etc)

We opened up the laptop and left a word file open for anyone to write what they felt about camp / food / things etc.  A full transcript can be found here --->
annual-westcoast-trip-blog-by-youth
they got right into this!!
Well done everybody!!

On Sunday night we invited Steve and his wife along with Dan and Frazer to a meal.  This was a semi formal thing with speeches and so here they are being greeted.

The reply

ahhhhh - yes eventually we got to feeding the troops - chilly con-carne!!

There was even time to hang five and play the guitar - although judging by the expression of this scout - he was waiting for his dinner - or was that dessert???

Eventually we got round to doing what we had promised - part payment - was the price of a scarf - well I guess Dan is now a member of Gordon Scouts.  Turns out that he was a former Cup at Papanui - so not to far away from our own group!!

Then came what everyone had waited for - the formal presentation of the individual pounamu!!   I was tasked with taking a picture of everyone - and got that with the exception of one youth - just as the camera decided to have a wee hissy-fit!!  bummer

A personal moment for one of our youth!  There were some lovely touches and speeches and far to many photos to show here - or all of them!!

The next morning  - time to pack and come back home.
This rates as - hmmmm     "I was sure I packed my teddy in here"   - then again - am I still wearing it??  Nah - Chef - whatever it was (sanity) you where looking for - it was not in here . . . . . . . .

Ready to pack the van and almost time to come home

Just have to do a final clean up.  We always endeavor to leave the place in better shape then we found it in (that scouting ethos coming into play here) so we wash and mop and clean and - yeah!!
The trip home was again in sunshine along with some stunning fog-driven valley's and mountain ranges!
I gladly came home - there is nothing like your own bed to look forward to! :)  Another successful annual west-coast trip completed and some very happy campers delivered safe and sound back to their caregivers.  Well done to Chris who organized everything!!


(There are a whole lot more pictures here and of course on other peoples cameras and cellphones etc - hmmm wonder how we gonna chatch up with all of them)

Next year - Coal in and around Denniston for Gordon Scouts!!