2011 Stories

These stories appear by month in which they were put onto the website, starting at the most recent month at the top of the page.

July 2011

Brownie Revels

30 Brownies from the Westland region attended this year’s Brownies Revels held in Greymouth on Sunday 26 June. The girls spent the morning learning first aid for their Bees stings and Band Aids Unit Patch. They had fish and chips for lunch and spend the afternoon doing a round robin of activities including making something useful from recycled materials (boot pot plants), learning sign language, semaphore signs, compass reading and lots more which credited mostly to their 8 up badge.

June 2011

Congratulations

Congratulations to Hannah Poynter and Eilish McBride on completing their Camp Cooker and Camper Badges. Well done girls.

April 2011

DOC Wetlands Walk

Greymouth Guides with leaders and parents on the DOC Wetlands walk.  We were studying inanga in a local stream habitat for our Conserve It Patch.

Blues Clues Camp - Seddonville

March 2011

Thinking Day - Cobden

Granity Flag At Brownies we put the New Zealand flag up. So we had to put it up ourselves. We needed string, one stone to bang in the pegs, a bamboo stick and a New Zealand flag. And then you can put it up.
Dharma Van Diepen Granity Guide Club

Technofunk Big Day Out in Hokitika

Eleven Brownies met at the local library recently to spend the day completing clauses from the Technofunk specialised badge. I also had three computers booked at the library for the day so that we could participate in Jamboree on the Internet (JOTI).

The theme for this year’s JOTI/JOTA was the right to be heard relating directly to article 12 of the Convention of the Rights of the Child. Working in pairs the girls spent time chatting with others from Australia, India, Finland, South Africa, England, and our fellow Granity Guides! We hope to catch up with them at Regional camp next month.

After a couple of hours, we headed outside to catch up with the some Pippins at Lazar Park who had spent the morning doing activities with their local Scouting cousins the Hokitika Keas. We had a picnic lunch, and then we also went to the local radio station, Bluetree FM, for a visit. Some of the girls got to speak over the airwaves, introducing songs on the playlist.

Back to the library for more activities, some girls went back on JOTI while others drew a picture of what they saw and did at the radio station; played a computer game; made telephones; learnt about star constellations and made an indoor star show of their choice; built something from a simple kit-set; and used three different forms of communication.

One of the highlights of my big day out was enjoying the ice block we all had on the walk back to the library in the sunshine. Bring on summer!

This was the first JOTI that the girls and I had participated in, and we’re keen to take part in JOTI 2011; the planning has already started. Watch this space...

Jane Walders

Hokitika Brownies

Our Westland Camp We had 40 brownies congregated at the Carter’s Beach Hall in late November for a weekend of fun, creativity and service. The girls participated in activities from three themes. They made a load of crafts, went on a walk to the Cape Foulwind Lighthouse where only a hardy few made it all the way, made tracking signs on the beach and played games. The highlight of the weekend would have to be cooking their own lunch on Sunday. On the menu was Hot Dog Milk Cartons. There was even a beach cleanup. Everyone went home for an early night.