A New Day in New Plymouth

The day started off bright and sunny, and our first stop on the tour train was the local port.  We had a tour around the 5 star enviro building as well as the port itself and the security building where the loading of oil tankers is monitored.  We also saw a LOT of milk powder...

Then, our Scottish friend and Rotarian, Robin, took us to our morning vocational visits.  I visited the Western Institute of Technology to learn about how the college meets the NZQA standards while Laura and Nathalie visited the District Council.  Mary and Robin took in St. Mary's Cathedral.  Then, Nathalie went off to another vocational while Robin, Mary, Laura, and I headed thirty minutes into the countryside.

Pukaka bird

Constructed wetland used to catch sediment and clean storm water in New Plymouth

We were on our way to 84 year-old Rotarian Barbara's "farm" house for lunch.  The house was an amazingly kept time capsule of days gone by, and the lunch has set the standard for all future lunch parties that I will ever personally host.

We were greeted with orange juice and mini appetizers.  Next, we moved to the table for a very generous bowl of pumpkin soup, a heaping basket of fresh bread and buns, and a glass of wine.  Then, Barbara brought out cream cheese stuffed dates, candied kiwi, a cheese and fruit platter, blueberry muffins, lemon muffins, whipped cream, AND walnut cake.  This was all savoured with a steaming cup of tea.  It was so amazing, we had to take a picture of the food before anyone was allowed to start eating.

After stuffing ourselves, we learned that Barbara maintains 7 acres of gardens and pathways.  We rolled ourselves out the front door for a quick tour of the grounds as that was unfortunately all we had time for.  The well-manicured grounds were immaculately maintained by one part-time gardener.  There were also 500 cattle on the farm.  Barbara was definitely the hostess with the "mostess", and she is an inspiration to all who meet her. (We learned that while in her 70s, Barbara became the Rotary District Governor.  This entails driving all around the district to attend meetings.  The running joke, apparently, was whether or not Barbara was going to make it to the meeting before her licence was revoked as she is quite the speed demon!)

We then toured an old lighthouse that contains very interesting information about the Rutherford family.  This is an important link to Canada because Mr. Rutherford did some very important work at McGill University and is responsible for splitting the atom.  There are many important things in Edmonton named after him, but I didn't read anything about him visiting Edmonton...

A Note from Nathalie

While the other girls were stuffing themselves and enjoying the sites of the area I was hard at work!  I had been recommended that I meet with Hive, a local environmental education trust in New Plymouth.  I was lucky that the program coordinator Kama agreed to met with me and I was able to learn more about a few of the cool programs they offer.  One program that I really like is that they encourage donations from individuals in order to buy trees.  These trees are planted at local Enviroschools and help the individuals offset their carbon footprint.  The Hive benefits from the donations, schools get trees, people can feel better about their carbon emissions.  Its a win win win!  I thought that the staff at my work, the Battle River Watershed Alliance would like this program so I bought us three trees that will be planted here in New Plymouth.  Maybe an upcoming staff trip to come visit them? 

The BRWA leaf representing our donation to the Enviroschools tree planting.

Now back to the girls...

A couple of us fell asleep on the drive back into town (who wouldn't?) before being dropped off at our host families' houses to quickly get ready for the evening Rotary meeting and our last presentation.  It was a wonderful night and the ladies of the Inner Wheel did a great job pinch hitting for the woman who normally does the catering.  It was actually our last time presenting our Canadian presentation! We had probably done it 15 times so having it be the last time was something to celebrate!  

Upon arrival back to my host family's house, I got a call from our wild child, Nathalie, saying that the bars were hopping downtown and that I was to meet her immediately.  After much protest, several misinformed phone calls, and very bad directions, Laura, Nathalie, myself, and our host families ended up in a local pub where we enjoyed some great company, cold drinks, and a few peculiar quiz questions.