It's not every day the Waiheke Sea Scouts are given free rein over a 55,000 tonne-cruise ship.
Then again, it's not every day you turn 10 and for cadet Leni Hamilton, her birthday couldn't have come at a better time.
As part of the P&O Pacific Aria's arrival celebrations at her new home port of Auckland, the Waiheke and Howick Sea Scout troops joined members of the Royal New Zealand Navy for a day of fun and training.
When the Pacific Aria arrived in her new home port, the 15 scouts aged between ten and eighteen were guests of honour on the 1500 passenger ship.
Semaphore: Scouts spell out welcome for the Pacific Aria's new homeport. Photo / Supplied
The RNZ Navy were on hand to talk through the cutting- edge navigation equipment onboard, and also give the scouts some hands-on lessons in flag messaging and celestial mapping.
"Few people know that navigators still learn how to communicate using signal flags and navigate by the stars using sextants," said Doug Bird, the ship's master navigator.
He explained that the ship regularly hosts Navy trainees "for whom celestial navigation remains a mandatory part of their training."
As well as training the ship held a special ceremony for their young guest crew in which the Sea Scouts Flag was raised on the ship.
Birthday on the bridge: Leni Hamilton, 10, takes control of the Pacific Aria, with Scouts Chairperson Sol Harris, right. Photo / Supplied
Sol Harris, a Chairperson for SCOUTS New Zealand, was delighted to have his Auckland scouts invited on board.
"What a fantastic experience for our young Waiheke and Howick Sea Scouts to be welcomed on board Pacific Aria," he said.
The Aria, which made her maiden call into the Port of Auckland, will call the city home for the next five months until August.
She will be ferrying primarily New Zealand guests on itineraries into the Pacific, including Norfolk Island, Nuku'alofa and the Fiji islands.
While the Scouts will be sad to see the Aria leave at the end of winter, she will return next year for an even longer posting in Auckland.
The 2020 season will be "our longest ever home porting in Auckland" said Sture Myrmell, President of P&O Cruises. "Next year has even more opportunities to offer, and new and longer itineraries."
Troop: Members of the Auckland region Sea Scouts with P&O Navigator, Doug Bird, right. Photo / Supplied
The Sea Scouts are a branch of the international Scouts movement who have 14,000 members in New Zealand. Their youth programme offers challenges and opportunities to develop outdoor skills and qualifications in sailing and boating.
The Scout troops are funded entirely by donations and Mr Harris said his organisation was extremely grateful to P&O for the "inspirational" opportunity:
"Who knows, maybe we have a future navigator, engineer or ship's captain among our kids today?"
For more information about Sea Scouts or Scouts New Zealand go to scouts.org.nz
