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.

October 2011

A bug's ball

The Hauraki regional Big Sista Little Sista event arrived and it was a beautiful spring day.

So nice in fact that sun block and hats were needed by mid-morning. With 31 Pippins and seven Rangers everyone had a fantastic day together.

A round robin style day was run with the following activities:

• Climbing through a “Spiders Web”
• Making “Bugs in Mud” chocolate crackles for our afternoon tea
• Making bugs out of fruit and vegetables
• Going exploring and looking for insects with magnifying glasses
• Making a laminated placemat from special things we found in our natural environment
• Bug games which comprised of being a worm and wiggling under a net, following some tracks, and playing Skin the Cicada
• Burma trail
  

A special thanks to the team from Waiuku District who co-ordinated this year’s event and to all the other leaders and parents who came along on the day to give us a hand.

Waiuku Guides' Big Sista Little Sista

As part of the hands on badge, Waiuku Girl Guides donated cat and kitten food, old towels and blankets and newspaper to the local rescue cat colony. Zoe (at the back of the photo) from the Rescue Cat Colony was very overwhelmed with the donation. The girls also had a coin trail and gave Zoe the $18 raised from this.

Shaving for a cause

Earlier this term Te Kauwhata Brownie, Jaymee Fenton, let the TK Guide Club shave her head to raise money for cancer. The unit was enlisted to collect sponsorship money for Jaymee and then they were given the opportunity to "have a go with the clippers" under the supervision of one of the Brownie mum's who just happens to be a hairdresser.

Jaymee really wanted to raise money because her Nana has Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma as does her Aunty Katrina (who thankfully is in remission). Jaymee had asked her mum "if I shave my hair off, can I raise money for people like Nana and Aunty Katrina?" to which Jaymee's mum replied "Yes". Jaymee said "Well then, who wouldn't want to do that then?".

Jaymee says "I'm pleased I did it as it was for a good cause. I was nervous at first and I could feel the clippers vibrating on my head. I got a shock at first and thought I looked like a boy so I put my new Guide beanie on and I felt better. Now I don't mind and it was really worth it."

We are very proud of Jaymee's courage and think she looked gorgeous with her head shaved!

June 2011

Charlee a Delight

Charlee (the one sitting on the knee of her sister) is a Pippin at Waiuku. Although she is just older than seven, her disabilities mean she will stay at Pippins. Charlee loves the noise and movement and they keep her alert and help with her needs.

She is a delightful girl and the Pippins, all Waiuku leaders, parents and her sisters love her to bits. She appeared on television recently in a programme when politicians work with groups from their portfolios. Rodney Hide fell in love with her as he took her swimming etc. She has a lovely smile.
 
Mother Mel and the four girls who are Brownies, Guides and Rangers are just fantastic both with Charlee and in guiding.

April 2011

A Right Royal Affair

Her Excellency, Mrs Catherine Pollock has asked me to report to the New Zealand Guiding World on the success of Hauraki Region’s Right Royal Affair in celebration of our Guiding Year 2010.

The event was attended by Hauraki Royalty, Queen Carol Barker (CB) and Sir Lots-of-lollies (Lance Barker), Regional Council members, Trefoil Guilds, past Regional Co-Ordinators and current Regional leadership.

Her Excellency, presented her annual report on the supreme achievements and exceptional events of the Region over the past year.

Ms. Carolyn Loveday of Pukekohe District presented an extremely interesting account of her international experience to Guiding Mosaic 2010 in Canada with her fellow Guiders and girls.  While Ms. Nicki Hartley of Waiuku District gave us an invigorating account of the challenges of taking young women to a mixed Girl Guide/Scout camp in the United Kingdom. The event was called WINGS – Windsor International Guide and Scout Camp.

The inaugural presentation of the Hauraki Young Leaders Award was to be made. Mrs Tracey Gurney, past Regional Co-ordinator, made this award available at the end of her reign as Regional Co-ordinator. Mrs Hannah Styles, who was the first recipient of this award, was unable to attend. Mrs Styles received the award in recognition of her recent Guiding achievements – Gold Young New Zealanders Award, Contingent leader for Project Gold 2010, Level Two Trainer and Brownie Leader.

The annual presentation of the Frances Lees Travel Award was made to Mrs. Tracey Gurney. Mrs. Gurney hopes to travel to Our Cabana, Mexico.

Superb refreshments and a supper were provided by the Royal Household (Regional Council) who were appropriately dressed for the occasion.

The evenings proceedings were based around the retirement of Queen Carol Barker and Sir Lots-of-Lollies, her noble husband, from duties in the Hauraki Region, to focus on the affairs of their estate in Te Aroha. Queen Carol has had 28 year association with Hauraki Region and the loyal subjects of Hauraki Region were given an opportunity to share their special memories and acknowledge her outstanding contribution to the Region.

Queen Carol was presented with a unique canvas from every Regional Co-Ordinator she had worked with, the Regional Council, the Three Trefoil Guilds of Hauraki and every District. Each canvas depicting their special memories  of their time guiding with Queen Carol.

Adele Schick
Hauraki Region

March 2011

Lots of adventures at Kaipara Kapers

We woke up at 6am to get ready to go to camp. We picked up some other guides in Waiuku and off we went ... we passed some of the signs for the adventure activities like the tree top adventures on the way!! We were getting excited.

We arrived got a cool hat, name tag and little blue book with all the details about the camp. We put up the tents and got settled in with our new tent buddies. That night was the opening ceremony and we all got to meet this guy who taught us to do some drumming ... he was great. The drums sounded great when we all played together.

One of the activities I did was tree adventures. It was epic!! I liked how it challenged me when the ropes swung in the wind when we were trying to cross them.

My favourite food was the corn!! The yellowish juice drooled out of my mouth...corn is yummy. My favourite water activity was the aquatic park. The best slide was the one at the tippy-top of the tower.

We also did a visit called About Town... I was busy taking pictures at the back so I didn't find all the clues to who the murderer was!! The walk to town was HOT.

I liked the rock climbing and archery... I hit the target in archery 3 times. I climbed to the top of the rock climb 5 times.

I enjoyed doing swaps with other people and putting them on my hat. People had pretty cool swaps like Arabella’s shrinky-dink with the Guide symbol on and Kim’s Scooby pen she had made. I loved the movie night as I hadn’t seen Despicable Me... it was a pretty cool movie.

We all had to hail the cooks and sing them songs to cheer them up. We sang them "all the cooks rock... we will, we will love you, all the cooks rock".We also had to solve a riddle... luckily bus driver Ian knew all the answers so we got chocolate fish although some people go chocolate flounders once they squashed their fish!!!

One night we did skits with our leaders. We had a camp fire which was pretend as we weren't allowed a real fire. My Mum encouraged our leaders to do a skit too and it was really funny.

Thanks to all the leaders who took us on this spectacular camp especially the Hauraki leaders who really looked after our unit well, I had a great time and can't wait till Jamboree!!!

Janetta Hamilton,
Guide
Waiuku District
Hauraki