Week 48 Spectacular New Zealand and on to Oz for the Rotary Convention

Rotary Engagements since July 1                              321

Suspect this week is definitely the week that has had the least Rotary in it since Christmas – certainly no face to face Rotary this week, although I did chat to the Secretary of RC Hokitika – we’d normally have gone there on Monday evening but they weren’t meeting this week.

Compared with the storms of Sunday, Monday was gorgeous and we anticipated good news in the scenic flight front.  A series of calls with our pilot Ben during the day, however, showed naggingly persistent cloud over Mount Cook and the glaciers and definitely made flying down to Milford Sound a non-starter.   

 

So we made other plans to take advantage of the beautifully sunny weather – setting off to the previously buzzing gold town of Ross – a centre for gold exploration during the early twentieth century and “enjoying” a revival in the 90’s – now though it’s a very small town, the school boasts around 25 children and just two teachers.  Later we went across the pastures up to the Hokitika Gorge, through which the river flows and brings glacial minerals down to earth as it were!

 

Hokitika isn’t blessed with vast numbers of evening eating places – most of the eating establishments do their trade for breakfast and lunch – but Fat Pipi’s pizzas are pretty special (Fat Pipi is the name of a boat NOT a person).  Some unusual and tasty combinations of toppings here.

With the weather forecast not in our favour, Tuesday was thus going to be our last opportunity to take to the skies and the cloud overhead when we woke did not bode well.  However, to our surprise pilot Ben cheered us with the news that the skies were clear over our destination and we were going up.   

So with fellow passengers Bill from San Francisco and AC (Anne-Cecile) from Paris we took off in pretty cool temperatures to be blessed by cloudless views of the newly snow-covered spectacular Southern Alps, the glacial rivers, the cattle and sheep stations, the glaciers, the mountains, the glacial lakes and the simply breathtaking scenery.   

We flew for approaching an hour and a half and every second was a revelation – simply stunning – otherworldly – prehistoric almost, unreal.  (Actually words are not enough to describe the beauty of what we saw, so here’s some pictures).

In the afternoon we went up past Greymouth to see the Pancake Rocks and blowholes at Panakaiku – seriously impressive stack rock formations (a little like on the West Coast of Scotland).  The coastal drive up to Panakaiku is renowned for its natural beauty and it lives up to its billing.

While we were having storms on Sunday and the mountains were collecting their first snowfalls of the winter, the South of the South Island collected some pretty impressive snowfalls and caused a fair number of roads to be closed.  So Wednesday we decided that getting to our next jumping off point for our flight to Sydney (Queenstown) as soon as possible would probably be a wise move.  That meant a 500 kilometre (300 mile drive), which, with UK motorways would not be an issue – longish way but not a problem.  However New Zealand roads are not motorways – single track all the way, maximum 100k speed limit, with most bridges being single alternate line (with no traffic lights!). 

However, being late autumn there wasn’t a lot of traffic – in fact we doubt we saw more than 100 other vehicles in the first 300 kilometres and maintained pretty close to the maximum speed all the way.  A mandatory stop at Diana Falls on the Haast pass for rockfall work slowed us down a little.  Cup of tea in Wanaka very welcome – Wanaka felt like a return to civilisation in a way – the first bigger town we’d seen, lovely setting also.  

 

And finally over the Crown Range pass – reopened that day after snow clearance – another spectacular drive and drop down into Queenstown where we lit upon our home for three nights, Pounamu Apartments.  Set on a bend on the Frankton road into the town it looks out over just a stunning vista of lakes and mountains.

So we enjoyed a really relaxing couple of days just pootling around Queenstown – little bits of shopping, bits of eating – taking of which – best meal in New Zealand at Sasso’s in Queenstown – billed as an Italian but with a really imaginative chef who does a treat of a 3 course chef’s selection – foo to live for!  We decided against the more extreme adventure options available in Queenstown – sorry to disappoint but our bungee jumping days are in the past!  We opted to settle for the natural beauty of the scenery around the town – it’s just stunning.  To be fair, on our first day much of it was invisible through the driving rain and low cloud (!) but Friday and Saturday were stunning days, bright but cold, oh, yes readers, our first frost of the summer, no wait, winter, well, whatever, we woke on Saturday to minus 3 – distinctly chilly!

And so to what is yet another highlight of our round the world extravaganza – Sydney.  Splendid service from Qantas getting us in a full half hour early (why are ground crew never ready for this eventuality – is it that it’s so rare?).  Great to meet up with successor Tim & Linda and catch up on some of the things that we’ve missed by being away.

Sunday 1^st June – Convention Day 1

There are few things more heart-warming in Rotary than the sights and sounds of Rotrainas from around the globe gathering together to excitedly exchange ideas on how to make our great organisation work better.  Sydney is a log way for most Rotarians and the distance has deterred a goodly number.  However, what is long way for some means that others have the opportunity to attend a global event on their doorstep and the Aussies and Kiwis are certainly taking that opportunity in huge numbers.  They reckon there’s about 18,000 of us here this week, which is hardly a bad turnout.  From the efficiency of the registration process to the enthusiasm of the exhibitors in an enormous House of Friendship featuring Rotary projects and commercial vendors, supported by free transport courtesy of the government of New South Wales it’s clear that our hosts have been determined that everything should run well.

 

Opening sessions at Rotary conventions can be a mixed bag.  Paying homage to the origins of life in this vast continent we were treated to a delight of public school native dancers accompanied by traditional native music. 

Recent elections in Australia have changed the post-holders – New South Wales Premier Mike Baird confessed to having been in post for only six weeks, as has Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who found his warm welcome refreshingly appreciative, the more so when he announced an Australian government contribution of $100 million to the campaign to End Polio.  

 

Australian origin Las Vegas cabaret band Human Nature gave us a fantastic Motown show, which was frankly brilliant for those of us who were children of the sixties.

International President Ron Burton reminded us of the need to make sure that Rotary is fit for the future, by regenerating our clubs and capitalising on our investment in young people – if we don’t we will have no one to blame but ourselves – wise words and definitely ones to ponder on.

Sunday evening and a great pleasure for Joan & I to play host with Tim & Linda to those intrepid travellers from District 1090 who made the long trip down to Sydney.  24 of us met for a very convivial evening of food, drink & fellowship including a couple of guests – nice ot see GSE team leader Chris Roach & her husband Adrian again – great way to round off a great day!  Thanks to the Lord Nelson Brewery for accommodating us!  (And apologies to Karen & Richie, Terry & Avril who arrived just after we had the pictures taken).