World Record attempt for most number of sandcastles built in a single hour

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We rocked up to the beach around eight in the morning. After signing in, we were assigned a section of coastline.
Some had it easy
Our C.I.C was a pocket rocket pirate, and she soon had us organised into squads. Wielding spades (kindly provided by local hardware megastore) we leaped into a abbreviated castle erecting boot camp to hone our skills.

A horn blared and we were off!
After a quick reconnoiter, we discovered that our patch of the beach was less sand and more tiny round stones. This patch of gravel looked like the best place to survive the incoming tide, so we mapped out our plan of attack in the sand.We ended up doing twice as much digging to get our mounds up over the height requirement. A small sand castle was jiggled out of it's mold to sit on the apex.
As the morning warmed up a wind started to whip the sand about. I reckon the weight of the small stones provided a better foundation against the erosive effects of the breeze.

KPMG adjudicators spent the hour running around inspecting our work, and a couple of castles had to be rebuilt to fit the spec.

What we were building castles with
Once the castles were up, we had to guard them from kids and dogs for an hour. The sea we couldn't do much about so we hoped that we had judged the high tide mark correctly.

In the end I think 'section 10' built 83 castles. One was disqualified during the hour long endurance test.

The event took over most of the beach and the erections springing up along the distant curve of the coast was an epic sight.

The Southern Cross Hotel had laid on a free sausage sizzle which had a persistent line of patrons leading to its tent.

The event was an opportunity to raise much needed funds and awareness for an awesome Kiwi charity, the Neonatal Trust New Zealand.



Great write-up of event here...
sandcastle-record-smashed-at-lyall-bay-wellington

Event organised by...
adventurewellington.co.nz

 Photos...
Phil

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