DISCIPLINED ADVENTURE

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29102, 14 January 1960, Page 10

DISCIPLINED ADVENTURE

Camp Set Up < Near Blenheim 1

(New Zealand Press Association) BLENHEIM, January 13. Twelve youths, ranging in age from 15 to 21, set out from Blenheim last night on two weeks of “disciplined adventure." They were the first party in an experimental camp designed to develop individual qualities of leadership and self-

reliance, teamwork, initiative and endurance through controlled outdoor adventure.

Conducted along the lines of the Duke of Edinburgh’s award scheme for boys, the camp is being sponsored by the national council of the Young Men's Christian Association. It was initially hoped to have 25 campers for this first camp, but unfortunately only about half that number responded

when applications were called throughout New Zealand. But when the scheme and its purposes are more publicised, it is anticipated that future camps will have waiting lists of those wishing to take part. The site of the camp is In the Upper Wairau Valley, about 60 miles from Blenheim, and 20 miles off the Blenheim-West Coast main highway. The surrounding bush-clad country is mountainous and ideal for such a venture.

Use is being made of a New Zealand Electricity Department hutted camp about eight miles up the valley from the Dip creek camp.

The camp will end on January 25, by which time the boys will have had training in many aspects of outdoor life. They will have tramped many miles and camped out in the open for three nights on end as well as having lectures on map reading, first aid, hunting and recreational activities.

The master of the camp is Mr F. C. Coates, assistant to the national secretary of the Y.M.C.A., of Wellington, who is assisted by his wife, who is a Y.M.C.A. worker in the Hutt Valley.