showmekiwi

Hi Everyone- This week we’re in Marlborough District and have visited Havelock, Picton and Blenheim. The weekend brought a 4WD track ride to Havelock where we met with the Blenheim club who hosted our weekend in the Marlborough Sounds. The club president, Neil, took us sailing on Saturday afternoon. It was amazing! I was stationed at the Hull—steering was tough when the boat is almost completely tipped over! The crew was certainly thrown around the boat and it was really exhilarating! Cindy and I are staying in the town of Blenheim with Trevor Ferguson. Trevor lives adjacent to miles of running trails and I’m really enjoying my morning hill runs. Monday we went to Picton and a rotary club member, Jo Huntley, brought us to her Maori cultural center. We also got to see one of ... read more

Posted by Sarah March 21st Monday morning Martin and Allan from the Motueka club took the Team for a walk in Abel Tasman National Park north of Kaiteriteri. Abel Tasman is the most visited national park in New Zealand and its popular trek can take 3-5 days. We opted for the (easier) 2-hour section and even had a lovely water taxi ride home! After our picnic lunch we toured a hops production and processing facility. The hops from this facility are used by Coors in Coors Light beer. Some hops are also used by microbreweries. The aroma was great. I also got to see my first kiwifruit plant Monday afternoon. Kiwifruit will be harvested next month. Tuesday we had the privilege of touring the Talley’s fish processing facility and ice cream factory—and yes, we got to ... read more

March 20th, 2006 Kaiteriteri, Tasman, New Zealand Posted by: Sarah On Saturday the 18th, the team drove to the Motueka area, on the North coast of New Zealand’s South Island. Sunday was a free day with host families, and the Barkers took Cindy and me to see some local and Maori art. It was really neat to learn about the Maori ‘mythology’ through artwork. We wrapped up the afternoon with a swim in Kaiterteri Bay. I really enjoyed swimming in the beautiful jade green water that is rimmed with golden yellow sand. The sand is difficult to run on though—trust me! I daren’t post a picture of us in our swimming togs on the web, rather I’ll post a picture of me getting pecked in the rear end by a Turkey (yes, turkeys are NOT native ... read more

Rotarians of District 6040, your team of Cindy, Brock, Sarah and Jesse represent you well. They are great ambassadors for Rotary and Missouri. We have made three team presentations and their skill, poise and knowledge has prompted questions after the presentations that last 15 -20 minutes. Each brings a knowledge base, that collectively provides in depth responses to the excellent questions ask by NZ Rotarians. I am very proud of them. Gordon ... read more

Another delightful day in New Zealand. NZ is absolutely fabulous as you would imagine. We are in Westport now which is on the West Coast of NZ. This morning we went on a hike along the coast up to a local lighthouse - the coastline is stunning. We even met up with some horses and cows grazing on the way. Afterwords, we went to a great lunch - I had shark ceviche - Delicious. We also went on tours of a local farm and a local port including a tug boat ride. Tonight we are going to another families house for a barbecue and then our host family is taking us out to the local pub to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. It is interesting being on the move all of the time. We stay with host ... read more

Leaving Christchurch Tomorrow morning I leave Christchurch after a wonderful stay in the "Garden City" and head west on the Tranz Alpine train towards the west coast. My experience in Christchurch was awesome and the bar has definitely been set very high for the rest of the trip. I will attempt to provide a quick recap of the past few days since we arrived. The flight to NZ went very well, even though it was bumpy and our seats were on the 75th and last row of a packed 747 for 12 hours. Between 2 meals, drifting in and out of sleep and 7 movie channels on my very own headrest screen, I managed to stay occupied. We arrived on the 10th and managed to skip over the 9th entirely. Friday Arrival day was full of ... read more