Getting behind the wheel of a Mazda Demio for the first time proved ‘good, fun’ for a trio of Rakaia Scouts.
William Doig, 11, David Scott, 12 and Riley Allen, 13, were in the driver’s seat of the four door runabout during a recent scouts training session.
Their training ground was a wide, open grass paddock on a Pendarves farm.
William, the first to take to the driver’s seat, was a first-time driver in charge of a vehicle.
He said it was ‘‘good, fun’’ after his first drive and looked forward to his next.
The other two, older scouts said they had driven before; they both lived on farms.
Scout leader Kelvin Perry and Gareth Wright guided the scouts during each of their drives.
Perry was in the passenger seat of the car – bought locally for $500 – while Wright was on ground control moving traffic cones, as required.
Driver safety, braking awareness, position on the ‘road’ and reversing were among the skills taught using the cones placed around the paddock.
The car – labelled with Rakaia Scout stickers front and back – was a good size for learning.
Perry said the idea was to keep it for now.
The session was one of the programme events planned for the year by leaders, he said.
It had been an idea inspired by Allenton Scouts who had for many years offered the experience to its scouts.
Rakaia Scouts have eight members aged between 11 and 14 years of age in their group and are always keen for more members. Anyone interested in joining can contact Perry via the Rakaia Scouts Facebook page.
