Local Scouts enioy jamboree

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 10, Issue 469, 19 January 1993, Page 5

Local Scouts enioy jamboree

Slip, slop, slap took 011 a new meaning for 10 local scouts and two leaders who have just returned from the 13th New Zealand Jamboree. When they weren't slipping in the wet and

slopping through the mud they were having a slap-up good time along with 8,000 other Scouts and Leaders in Trentham from 29 December until 8 January. After a day and a half

of constant and torrential Wellington wind and rain, the sky cleared for a spectacular opening ceremony and the fun began. Scouts became involved in scuba-diving,. horse-trekking, tramping, mountain-biking, abseiling, rock-climb-ing, flying and sailing to name but a few of the activities. Jamie Morrissey and

Kelly Evans were lucky enough to get places as crew members of the Spirit of New Zealand for an afternoon, while Jason Bright spent his birthday piloting a light aircraft up and down the Kapiti coastline. When Scouts weren't off on these major activities they were occupied with Challenge Valley

(as if they really needed more mud!), learning scout-craft, new skills (such as chain-sawing, operating heavy-plant-machinery, electricalwiring, scaffolding, block-laying and cake-ic-ing) and crafts (candlemaking, kite-building, screen-printing, leatherwork and weaving). "We may have just

been pipped in the cartrace and the Top Team competition but John Hays won the furthest gumboot-throw of the whole Jamboree, we won the Mr Bean contest, the Mr and Miss Scout competition and the competition they held to see who would host our patron Craig Baird to lunch," said a Waimarino Scout.

The closing ceremony, which included a magnificent state-of-the-art laser-light show, concluded an excellent 10 day experience that none of the Scouts will forget in a hurry. Fund-raising will begin soon for the 1996 Jamboree which is to be held in the Queenstown area.