Search The Way gives many congratulations to all recent participants from the Reefton Area who successfully completed a William Pike Challenge Award with them this year.

We have really enjoyed putting you all through the paces in various outdoor challenges and seeing your personal growth through the giving of voluntary service and skill development.

We hope you all continue to build on the fine success you have achieved this year and look forward to encouraging you and all participants in the year ahead.

Big congratulations to some really great participants from Karamea on their recent completion of the William Pike Challenge Award.

Search The Way has thoroughly enjoyed taking these participants on some a number of fun outdoor activities this year, and encouraging the youth in their developing of skills and giving of service to others in the community.

We hope that they, and all other Search The Way participants, are inspired to keep taking on and succeeding in further challenges in 2019. Keep an eye on STW's calendar of events for new opportunities coming up in year ahead.

It was a real pleasure for Search The Way to recently take four great young adults on an Exploration Camp based from the beautiful Gentle Annie at the mouth of the mighty Mokihinui River.

The camp included participants completing numerous activities such as cooking their own meals on Trangia Cookers, completing a maze, navigating bush walks, learning about setting up tents, playing traditional games, toasting marshmallows and singing campfire songs.

Congratulations Nathan, Mya, Georgia and Amy on a superb effort at camp - we thoroughly enjoyed your company and were impressed with your skills and abilities. We encourage all participants to keep an eye on our upcoming events listed in our website.

For more than 40 years the Boyle River Outdoor Education Centre, based in the stunning Lewis Pass, has been a leading provider of Outdoor Education and is also a Duke of Edinburgh's International Award "Accredited Activity Provider". Now may be your opportunity to "Experience the Boyle, and Explore Your Potential".

There are currently a few places left available on a three day two night Silver DofE Adventurous Journey, that is running from the Sunday 16th December - Tuesday 18th December 2018. Participants would need to arrange their own transport to and from the Boyle Lodge, Lewis Pass and provide their own food and suitable footwear. All other clothing and equipment is provided. The cost of this adventure is $250 per person, but some subsidies may be available - ask on application.

The Boyle River Outdoor Education Centre also has some other exiting DofE opportunities coming up. This includes a Potential Leaders (STAR) Course that runs from the 17th - 21st December 2018 that not only gives participants the opportunity to achieve the Adventure Based Learning (Domain) Unit Standard 24663 (L3 C3) ‘Demonstrate leadership while participating in an ABL programme’, it could also qualify as a DofE Gold Residential Project (N.B. Participants need to be registered on the Gold DofE prior to the course for it to qualify as a Gold Residential Project - check with your Award Leader at Search The Way for more information about this requirement). You also may want to put into your calendar for next year an epic Adventure opportunity - the "Alps to Ocean" Expedition which involves hiking, mountain biking and rafting across NZ.

To find out more information about any of these fantastic opportunities and register your interest please check out the links at:

https://www.boyle.org.nz/boyle-courses or contact Boyle Staff directly on Tel: 03 315 7082 Cell: 022 438 2952 or via Email: info@boyle.org.nz

Paparoa National Park is a tourist hot spot, so it was great to check out some of it's gems with local participants.

Search The Way thoroughly enjoyed exploring some local attractions with the four top young woman who attend John Paul II High School. We were very impressed with their great competence in bush-craft as well as keenness to learn, including enhancing their knowledge in some of the native flora.

We encourage everyone to check out your local attractions, with a great resource of sourcing these being the Department of Conservation website: https://www.doc.govt.nz/. Search The Way participants are encouraged to check out upcoming events on the Search The Way Schoology calendar and can "Register Interest" on the Search The Way website page: https://www.searchtheway.org.nz/register-interest.

Search The Way have found it a real pleasure to give opportunities for participants to undertake new learning, during recent events based at Kirwan's Track. All participants for these events attend Reefton Area School and showed excellent teamwork, an genuine interest in their surroundings and demonstrated great initiative.

At this unique and historic location, participants were given a series of challenges which included demonstrating constructing a range of knots, building emergency survival shelters, learning about native flora in the area, and looking at protecting the environment for other users by practising 'leave no trace'.

To learn more about 'Leave No Trace' check out this video from the New Zealand Mountain Safety Council, from their excellent series "Get Outdoors"- Camp Craft - #29 Leave No Trace: https://youtu.be/8dpf4jDtjmQ

Search The Way has in recent months, really enjoyed working with participants, who all attend Westland High School, in helping them learn the ropes of survival skills in the bush. The participants demonstrated a real willingness to learn some new things, share existing skills with others and support one other in achieving each task set.

These events were held in the beautiful location of Lake Kaniere Scenic Reserve. Participants learnt about what to do if lost in the bush, emergency survival shelters, knot tying, fire lighting, water collection and native flora (including some medicinal and survival food properties).