All about Manaia Tai
Rangers
All about Manaia Tai
Rangers
Who we are How we began Unit Name and Symbol Unit t-shirts Unit Traditions Sea Ranger Taps
We are a group of 5-6 Rangers (which is the older section of the Guide Association), we belong to the Waitemata District in Auckland Region. We are aged 13-18, and into outdoor activities, especially kayaking and anything else that involves water, food, talking and having fun. We're a very active group, we meet in summer at the Auckland Guide Boat Centre at Westhaven and in winter we meet at a Guide Den in Pt Chevalier. We're quite a mixed group, some of us were Guides and some weren't, we come from all over Auckland, we're all into different things; together we are prepared to try anything (at least once).
Manaia Tai Rangers was started in 1999, to make better use of the Boat Centre and better use of the opportunities in the Ranger Programme to do fun and exciting water activities. Agoo put a proposal to the outdoor team to see if they'd be behind her, Busby said she'd love to be a leader too, and Camel, K2, Bananna and T were the first Rangers, and our first meeting was at an ice skating rink. We then sat down to work out a name and purpose for the unit.
Several names were suggested, the one we liked best was Manaia. Manaia (a Maori word) has several meanings - the main one is a beaked (birdlike) monster, usually associated with the sea. There is said to be a Manaia living in Meola reef, up the harbour from the Boat Centre (our winter meeting place is by Meola Creek). Manaia also means seahorse, and it is this meaning that is associated with the Boat Centre. There is a seahorse painted on the side of the building, and the cutter that is currently on loan to the Devonport Sea Scouts is named Manaia. The addition of the Tai (which means sea) is because we liked the idea of being Sea Rangers, but couldn't really call ourselves Sea Rangers, since Air and Sea Rangers were deestablished some years ago.
Rangers are the only group in New Zealand Guiding that can design their own t-shirts, so we set about making special ones for out unit. We had a screen print screen made and as each Ranger joins she gets to print her own t-shirt. We used the same design for the front page of this site.
Over time we've developed a variety of unit traditions.
- You aren't a Ranger 'til you get wet - everyone has to get wet somehow before they are a proper Manaia Tai Ranger. Funnily enough this hasn't been a problem to carry out, which might be obvious from our programme.
- Thinking Day Overnights - we've slept overnight at the Boat Center twice before the Thinking Day Dawn Service (we recommend sleeping in the trailers - they are more comfortable than you might think), and once at Agoo's (the year we were organising the dawn service). We've also overnighted all sorts of other places.
- Auckland International Film Festival - every year we choose one film from the myriad on offer and go and see it. These are films you might not get to see any other way, and have been really interesting.
- Our Fly Ups are Paddle Ups - we rolled Wildflower up from guides to Rangers in a kayak on wheels and Trouble Jr in a rigged sailing dinghy on a trailer, and L in a kayak. To add to the tradition it always seems to be raining as we lurk outside Guide Halls waiting to bring our transport in!
- Parakai Hot Pools - one of our favorite places to camp is at Parakai hotpools, nice campground, cushy kitchen and a lot of time spent on the water slides. We've been at least 5 times. Next time we will take the kayaks and explore the Kaipara river just down the road.
- Tree Planting on Motutapu - combines a trip on a boat with helping with New Zealand's conservation. All good.
We've adopted the special version of taps that Sea Rangers used to sing:
Pipe down
All is well
And our lights
Burning bright
For tonight
Watch below
Hands turn in
Pipe down
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