friday february 26

The last couple of days have just been a whirlwind.  We were met by the district friendship people in auckland and they took us to this place that is an Antarctica museum and display area--- there is a whole section with live penguins and you get in this snow type vehicle and ride it around inside the ice capsules and sort of like a roller coaster up and down-- the penguins are amazing. there was also alot of history of antartica. We then drove straight to Hamilton stopping for lunch in between and we were at our first Rotary presentation.  The 9930 District Governor was there as well as all of the chair people and we did gifts and flags,  etc.  It was a wonderful evening and the people very welcoming.  All of our host families are really going out of their way to make us feel at home and comfortable. 
            Yesterday we started out mid morning and visited the location where the world rowing competition is to be held--these kids that do this are amazing and strong. Then some local touring, lunch at an old church converted to a cafe and gallery.  The afternoon was spent at one of the worlds largest horse stud farms-- it was quite interesting and the grounds were stunning-- we had quite a few laughs about the stud process. We had a visit to a working dairy farm and Jim's wife Dawn had the honor of placing the milking tube things on a cow- -and the cow wasn't that happy.-- In the evening we each had dinner with our hosts.
           Today is a bit busier but I have been up now for a couple of hours and will try and go back to sleep and see if that works for a while.

tuesday february 22

today is kiwi orchard day-- we have had a wonderful tour of bevin and jo's farm-- there is alot to this kiwi growing-- yesterday we did some local touring and walking-- to the largest gold mine in the world, a wonderful beach area and a quaint little town for lunch--in the evening we attended bevin's rotary meeting and had a speaker about the Samoa tsunami-- this gentleman who is a new zealand photographer was on holiday with us wife-- his whole resort got wiped out and they were in it-- it brought tears to your eyes
-- we are now headed out somewhere and people are calling me---

saturday february 20

We have arrived this afternoon at Bevin and Jo's kiwi orchard farm-- it is beautiful- we celebrated with a glass of new zealand wine and have been talking- and now will have dinner soon.
yesterday we left the northland after having attended a rotary meeting with
frank at the bay of islands club and headed south leaving the northland. We stopped at warera boulders for a hike- stunning scenery-- and then also stopped along the way in the kauri forests to see the largest kauri trees-- they are sort of like the american sequoias but not quite-- then we got to a small town something like parapoe and stayed at the post office bed and breakfast-- we walked into the village for dinner and bought a phone card at a local dairy store-- we go to a pay phone-- phone card didnt work-- we walked back and forth to this dairy three times-- and finally the girl realized she sold us the wrong type of card--- so that was the excitment for the evening.
Hopefully I will now be on to a regular post-- we should be seeing Dee and Gary tomorrow morning sometime
 

February 17th, 2010

We haven't had wireless for a couple of days so am using the laptop at the B&B. We are in the northern most part of  of the country and left our ITHF  hosts  two days ago. We are staying near the town of Opua in a Bed and Breakfast that  just happens to be owned by a Rotarian named Frank Leadley-- he and his wife are just wonderful. This part of the north country on the water is a tourist area with the towns of Keri Keri and others. We have visited the Whaganui treaty house-- which is where new zealand started as a country and the treaty was signed between several of the Maori tribes and the british.-- fascinating. We have also done of course some of our back country roads and long hikes into forests. Today we went to the northern most point in New Zealand on a very long bus trip -- it is called Cape Reinga and 90 miles beach--- the scenery is  overwhelming and the sand dunes are enormous.  Tomorrow we are headed on a boat to look at the scenery , dolphins and something called hole in the rock. In the evening we will go to Frank's rotary club-- where is is going to be the incoming President for the 3rd time-- can you even imagine??
It is very very warm and the sun is very strong-- at night once it cools down it is good sleeping-- but humid til it does. 

Cindy and Chris arrival in new zealand -2 13 10

We have followed Mike and Carolyn's departure a week later-- they are currently  in the south island.
       Our arrival was so wonderful after a long flight leaving two feet of snow to come to shorts and t-shirt weather!
        We started our drive up  to the northern parts of the north island where we will spend about 10 days.  Our first stop is Whangerei where we are staying with Mike and Liz Williams through the ITHF rotary fellowship-- they are wonderful and their home is beautiful.
  We chatted for quite a while then liz fixed us a wonderful dinner and we could hardly keep awake so we fell asleep about 8:00 pm

Sunday, February 14th-- Happy valentines day!
what a wonderful day-- mike and liz took us on a hike to Whangerei falls and then we  walked back into town-- about 4miles total-- we lunched at an outdoor cafe over looking the harbor, drove into city center and viewed a lookout.
     They then hosted  our first rotary barbecue with several of their friends- including the incoming DG who just got back from Sandiego and is all pumped up as well as incoming president and a few other couples-- we sampled quite a bit of wonderful new zealand wine and finally by 10:0 pm we couldnt keep our eyes opened and they all told us to go to bed!  This district is north of where our friendship exchange is going to be and the incoming president is interested in maybe doing a smaller friendship exchange with us in the next year-- so that could be pretty fun!
     This morning Mike and Liz are taking us to a bird sanctuary then chris and I will head farther north.
      
 

Getting Started

The team has had the final organizational meeting and is anxious to get going.  Some are going early, some staying after, and some both.