Now as I start along my chosen way....

After two nights of not sleeping very well I slept right through last night. We have a nice room with a balcony overlooking the park, it’s not too hot, and we can open the windows. Because it is not usual to have double glazing the noise level can sometimes be a problem in the city, but we are by the River Avon and the only noise we get is from the ducks.
Don’t recognise the words of the blog title? – these were penned by Ralph Reader and are the first words of the Scout Hymn. Today, after being in NZ for nearly 9 weeks we meet the archivists and current curators of the National Scout Museum at Blue Skies Scout camp site. Their names are Peter and Valerie Henwood, and are a really lovely couple. Those who are interested can see items on the following website www.nzmuseums.co.nz under the national scout museum.
We were blown away by the exhibits and the skill, sensitivity and detail of the work of love that we saw, not only in the main public areas but behind the scenes. And it is not just a static display, it is also a living history. We saw copies of so many books published covering Scouting that are from all round the world, including a copy of the Hackney Scouts Song Book (the same as I have at home)! Truly a must for anyone interested in Scouting and what has and is being done in the community, in the Antarctic etc... Fortunately we’d brought some Brownsea Badges with us, including one showing the new centre buildings, so we were able to present the museum with something interesting...I owe them a copy of “Why Brownsea” – they were really interested in it when we talked about it, so we’ll be sending them a copy when we get home.
We also managed to contact Andy Kenny a Scout Leader we met on Brownsea Island last September, and we are having Tea with him tomorrow, before he dashes off to Ashburton for his evening activities.
Well, we said good bye to our camping equipment which has kept us warm and dry for 2/3 of the time we have been in NZ. This investment allowed us to spend more on activities, and tours as we weren’t being stung for expensive hotel and motel costs. We were so lucky with the weather as those regulars to the blog will know, but maybe we were being looked after by yet another of those guardian angels! The camping gear was left at Blue Skies Scout Campsite, so they have some much needed spare equipment for the regional and national Jamborees that the site hosts. Apparently they are always scrabbling round for spare tents, sleeping bags etc and the stuff we’ve left will get good use. Valerie and Peter were amazed that we just wanted to give it away...but this had always been our intention, which is why we were careful not to spend megabucks on it in the first place.
We have also decided that our backpacking days are over! We had some very strange looks as we backpacked up to Kaikoura! Maybe old fogies like us don’t do that here! In any case, my knees don’t appreciate carrying rucksacks anymore, so we donated Ron’s big rucksack as well – hopefully the scout that gets to use it will have as much fun with it as we have had. My rucksack is coming home with us –we’re hoping to leave some of the gear in left luggage at Melbourne airport when we go up to Sydney, so we’ll use that for the stuff we’re going to leave in store.