The End of the Road

The team at at Pukekura Park, New Plymouth, with Mount Taranaki in the background. New Plymouth was the venue for the final presentation before the team travelled on on their own to Rotorua.



The last evening was quite an emotional affair, with many Rotarians and friends in attendance - DG David Watt, Mitchell Brown and his wife Fiona, AG Jenny Goddard,
AG Jim Shepherd, DGE Howard Tong and many more.

After the team gave a review of their "Exchange" and what it meant to them, we persuaded GSE Inbound Chair Mitchell to entertain the guests with a Highland Fling - Coached by Marie and dressed by Alex.

The "Blow on the Pie" t-shirt was a parting gift from the team, a long running joke during the trip....

DG David finished off the evening by congratulating the team on their achievements in all aspects of the exchange, Vocational, cultural and social, and remarked on the team's constant and shared humour. After which he presented each member of the team with a personal gift.



Driving and navigating ourselves is a novel experience.....

Could this be the start of a new adventure ?

Nearing the end

We are fast approaching the end of the Exchange and we have been looking back on some of the vocational highlights.
For Neil, one was visiting the Police College in Porirua. Where we all enjoyed joining him for some fascinating insights to police training in New Zealand.

One highlight for Lindsay and Marie was the visit to the Tararura District Council offices in Dannevirke, where Mayor Maureen Reynolds acted as guide and chauffeur for the day.

Maureen also attended the Pahiatua and Woodville Rotary Clubs meeting that night to hear the team's presentation.







Presentations have ranged from the formality of the Parliamentary Dinner and Massey University, shown above, with all the latest technology, to the very informal. Like the front porch of past DG Alastair Osborne's sheep farm below.

Activities

Unfortunately, vocational activities, other than Lesley's, don't offer much in the way of photo opportunities. We can't really publish pictures of Marie and Neil at a court hearing, so on the blog the majority of photo's will be of other activities.
Above you can see the team (looking remarkably relaxed) just before skydiving from 1500 feet.








Another event we attended was "The Golden Shears", the annual sheep shearing championships.

The winning finalists took only 17 minutes to sheer 120 sheep.







We had an opportunity to try for ourselves this week. Marie was our champion, but we don't think 20+ minutes per sheep will get us far.






The Tongaruro Crossing was an incredible experience, on what turned out to be a great day.

Just over 7 hours to cover almost 20Km of mountains, and all 5 made it. No prize for who found it hardest. And it's not the guy on the right!


Alex did find something more appropriate to his speed. Taking the wheel of a 100 year old paddle steamer, the Waimarie, on a trip along the Wanganui River.

Lesley and Rocks

Lesley in her element, studying a pyroclastic flow.

Between this and the trek across the Tongariro Crossing she's had the opportunity to study a wide variety of geological features.








Some at very close Quarters. Like exploring a landslip in the Manawatu gorge.

Hospitality

Marie presenting Maureen Reynolds, Mayor of Dannevirke, with a Glasgow City Council broach. Maureen was our host for most of the day in Dannevirke, and drove us around herself.



On the left are our very own "Tui Girls (and Boys)". Pictured on a visit to the TUI Brewery. A particularly enjoyable cultural visit for Neil and Alex.






With past DG Rodney Wong enjoying a tour around Palmerston North city centre, on one of the warmest days of the trip so far.
In the evening we gave a presentation to 76 Rotarians and guests hosted by the Rotary Club of Terrace End, Wharerata.
Our pronunciation of place names is improving dramatically.

Parliamentary Dinner

Here you can see the team with Mitchell Brown and Marty and Glenn, from the GSE team that visited Scotland, displaying one of our "Survival Bags". Provided by our Kiwi hosts, they contained everything from water to marmite!, pens, notebooks and sun block.
The Dinner was a great success. The team delivered an hour long presentation to the assembled guests. Not bad considering it was only three days into the exchange and they had been going flat out from the moment they touched down.

Porirua visit

Team pictured at Porirua club presentation with President Don. Wonderful hospitality, wonderful people and a smashing buffet (after our presentation, which was much appreciated by the team!) The team also climbed to the top of Kapiti Island (around 1500 ft) through dense forest and managed to see a wide variety of birds native to NZ and other wildlife.