Memorable Marton

The team has spent the last two days in Martin, and we've done so much, I can't believe we only arrived yesterday!  On Monday, we spent a lot of time travelling between Taupo, Marton, and Palmerston North.  We went to a lunchtime Rotary meeting in Palmerston North and gave a presentation, and then we went to a dinner meeting in Marton and gave another presentation.  The presentations seem to be going well, and both groups had very interesting questions to ask us.

Today, Nathalie and Laura got up very early for a 7 a.m. vocational breakfast, and then we all met up to go to the armed forces base.  We were toured around by a pilot trainee, Ed, and got to sit in several helicopters, both new and old.  The new ones are currently going through trial and development and are worth about $90 million each.  We were also lucky enough to get a tour by Brendan Deere of his private hanger on the base where he keeps his WWII spitfire and another plane from that era called the Avenger.  The Avenger was the first plane to be flown after the bombing of Pearl Harbour, which is where the name comes from.  Brendan used to be a teacher, and then started his own business.  He now buys,  restores, and maintains these old air crafts as a "hobby".

The Spitfire

Captain Nathalie

Checking out the helicopters

After the base, the whole gang went back to my host family's house for lunch (thanks, Bob and Judy).

A warm welcome at lunch

Next we head out to the Hunterville Waste Water Treatment ponds.  The constructed wetland oxidation ponds are the innovative way Hunterville (pop. 500) is treating their waste water. The soils in the ponds and the roots of the plants are actually able to remove most of the nutrients and heavy metals in the water.  A UV filter finishes the process before the water is released into the nearby creek, cleaner then the water in the creek! 

Oxidation Ponds

Sewage water after flowing through the ponds

Next, it was over to Nathalie's host family's house to learn how David and Maureen are raising sheep for genetics, helping with research related to livestock diseases and parasites, and earning carbon credits for the trees on their land.  We were also treated with a tour of their amazingly scenic farm with gorgeous views.

Then about 30 Rotarians descended on the house for another amazing pot luck   The Marton group has been amazingly warm and welcoming, and we are sad to go after only two short days.  But, it's up again soon for an early 7 a.m. start tomorrow as we are off to our next location.  The adventure
continues...

Fun Pot luck Dinner at the Smith's

More Time Out

So yesterday, we went from the cafe to a pub for afternoon tea where we came up with a master plan for our final presentation.  Nathalie and I rented bikes along the way, and set out after our meal to try to work off some of the calories that we've packed on over the past two weeks.  We then spent a quiet evening at home reading, chatting, and playing cribbage.

Our delicious supper

Competitive cribbage at its finest

This morning we had another nice lay in followed by French toast and eggs since Mary brought along some maple syrup with her.  Mary then headed off to church where she had to rescue the woman beside her from a fainting spell, Laura stayed home for some much needed "me time", and Nathalie and I headed off on the bikes again.

We decided to ride up to Huka Falls, which is 5km from the base of the mountain.  We didn't think it would take that long, but we forgot to factor in all the hills.  On the way to the falls, we thought we were learning the lesson, "What goes down must go up," but instead, we ended up learning that the laws of physics CAN be defied since we seemed to bike up hill and the way there AND up hill on the way back.  Luckily, we made it back to our meeting point just in time to meet Mary and Laura.

Nathalie headed off on her bike for a lazy afternoon on the beach while Mary, Laura, and I headed off to DeBretts Mineral Spa for a soak and fassages (facials and massages).  We then picked up Nathalie again and headed out for lunch at an outdoor French Cafe.  We are now sitting in the sun, enjoying more of the "fall sun".  Nathalie is sitting on the ground beside the table doing yoga stretches after a long day of biking, and the rest of us are sitting beside her pretending that we don't know the crazy girl who just happened to plunk down beside us.

Taking it easy in Taupo

Yesterday, we met up with our wonderful hosts, Mitchell and Lyal, in Foxton at the very large Dutch windmill.  We all packed up and headed off to Palmerston North, where we picked up a friend of Laura's from Alberta who is studying at Massey University.  We then met up with a few other Rotarians, one of whom works for the Department of Conservation, and headed up the Manawatu Gorge to view a very large slip that occurred two years ago and shut down one of the major thorough fairs for eighteen months.  The hike up was 2.2 km, which meant a 2.2 km hike back down.  Our guide, Faye, very generously provided us with delicious skroggin (traillmix) for the hike up and "rewarded" us with bananas and oranges when we finally reached the top.

Our intrepid hikers

We learned about local flora and fauna as well as how the Department provides a wide range of services including maintenance of the natural areas and education.  We also learned that Manawatu means "place where my heart stood still".  The story is that long ago, members of one tribe came and kidnapped the daughter of the chief and took her back to their tribe.  As the chief was chasing them, he came around the bend and saw that the river in the gorge was high, and he was not able to cross.  This was when his heart stood still because he knew that she was gone forever, and that he would never see her again.  What is interesting is that when the story is told from the point of view of the other tribe, it is a love story with a happy ending.

Just as we reached the parking lot, it started to rain, so we dashed off to Beyond the Bridge Cafe, which was an amazingly cute old farmhouse with a clay oven roaring just outside the front door, filling the room with the faint aroma of campfire and home baked goodness.

At the cafe, enjoying Mitch's excellent hat collection

Next, we drove through a massive wind farm (passing a dead hedgehog along the way).  Mitchell is the head of the volunteer fire department for several towns, and at this point, Nathalie found the microphone for the overhead speaker on the car.  Her cow imitations were so good, that we soon had a heard of cows following the car down the hill looking for their long lost mother.

Huge turbine

We pulled into Taupo around 9:00 p.m. and promptly set about hunting down a dinner of fish and chips (which apparently is the traditional thing to do on a GSE trip).  Unfortunately, everything was closed, and we ended up getting fish sticks off the kids menu of an Indian restaurant that was 5 minutes away from closing.

Everyone was relieved to get back to the "bach" where we are lucky enough to stay for the weekend.  We each have our own room, and the kitchen opens up onto a wonderful kitchen and living room, complete with a window seat and French doors onto the patio.

This morning, we really enjoyed a leisurely morning sleeping in, reading, doing some laundry, and cooking for ourselves.  After taking it easy, we finally got ourselves sorted enough to head into town for a bit of GSE (Group Shopping Experience).  We are now fully enjoying ourselves in a beautiful cafe with lattes in hand, doors open, Italian music playing, and bare arms soaking up the last of the summer sun.

GSE: Group Study Exchange?

Hey All,

Our dinner and presentation at the Rotary Kapiti Cluster meeting last night was hosted at the Southward Car Museum. We had a chance to look around the museum before we met. The collection was amassed  by one man, and it now consists of 350 cars, 150 motorcycles, and 3 airplanes.  We took pictures mostly for our brothers and fathers. One of our very clever hosts, Grant, has decided that (in our case) GSE does not stand for Group Study Exchange, but either Group Shopping Experience or Girls Supporting the Economy.  That's a good thing for those of you expecting presents upon our return!

 "GSE: Group Shopping Experience" -Grant

We started off this morning by visiting the Clean Technology Centre, which assists clean energy businesses in getting up and running and becoming profitable.  It was interesting to see what they are doing, and we were able to share information about Edmonton's waste management centre, which will be responsible for diverting 90% of Edmonton's waste from the landfill by 2015.

Then, it was off to Nga Manu nature reserve for an interpretive talk, walk, and picnic lunch.

Kiwi's lay eggs that are 18% their body mass!

Tuatara - a reptile somewhere between and dinosaur and a lizard

Eels! 

Finally, it was time for the most anticipated event of the day - quading!  Although I started off as the scaredy cat of the group, it only took one lap around the training course before I was ready to charge full steam ahead.  We went one a one hour guided ride through bushes, rivers, and several hills and valleys.  It was great fun, and the only thing I could say when we finished was, "Can we do that again?"  The nicest part was that after we had changed out of our wet gear, there was tea and scones with jam and whipped cream waiting for us!  I'm not sure if they do that for all the bikers or just the more refined ones...

All set and ready to go!

These girls can 4x4! 

Catching Up

The last two days have been busy as usual (and I've had no internet access).  On Wednesday morning (that's Tuesday for those of you east of the date line), we got up early to drive to Mount Bruce where we saw our first kiwi bird in another beautiful bird sanctuary.  The kiwis have been nurtured back from the brink of extinction to live peaceful lives in this protected, yet natural, environment.  The kiwi we saw was white instead of brown because both of her parents had the recessive gene for it.  It wasn't an albino, it was just white.  These birds are flightless, and when they run, they kind of look like a chicken with it's "arms" cut off.  They are nocturnal, and apparently, they mate for life.  The males are also the ones who incubate the eggs - a pretty highly evolved species, if you ask me.

Kiwi bird in its nocturnal home.

Next, it was off to the Tui brewery.  Tui is New Zealand's most famous beer, and they have become very well known for their "Yeah, right." ad campaigns.  As in, "It's too cold for a beer.  Yeah right." or "This is a business expense.  Yeah right." After a tour of the brewery and a turn at creating our own "yeah, right" slogans, we had lunch in the brewery restaurant with our new host families.  As an aside, two days after our visit, the brewery was hosting its second ever "drought shout".  This is an event for local farmers after a long summer of drought - there were more than 3,000 farmers registered to attend.

After driving for about 1.5 hours, we arrived in Otaki to tour a traditional Maori church and learn about it's history from the parish's pastor.  It was very interesting, and we learned a lot.  What was most interesting was how the community came together after the church had been burned down to recreate an exact replica of the original church, including building the structure around three enormous tree trunks, which functioned as the internal supports for the church.

That night, we met with all our host families at club president Carol's house for anther great potluck meal.  Then, it was off to our host family's houses and straight into bed.

Yesterday, we spent the whole day doing vocational visits. (see below). Our dinner and presentation at the Rotary Kapiti Cluster meeting was hosted at the Southward Car Museum. There were "only" 70 members at this meeting.  Members had great questions for us afterwards, and it was a pleasure to do more sharing and comparing of cultures.  We had a chance to look around the museum before we met. We took pictures mostly for our brothers and fathers.

For my vocational visits, I had the pleasure of meeting with a very dedicated instructor/program manager in the local Learning Centre, who told me about their Youth Guarantee programs and how they do goal setting and career pathway planning - very interesting.  Then, I had the privilege of spending the afternoon with the principal of the local Maori immersion school.  It was a great pleasure, and I was able to learn a lot about what they did to help Maori students become successful in the school.  There are a lot of things that Canadians can learn from how New Zealand has embraced indigenous culture and language.

Nathalie and Laura had the pleasure of spending the morning with the Friends of the Otaki River which is a group that is working hard doing riparian plantings along their beautiful river. They had a lot of fun helping with weeding and repotting. In the afternoon they met with Dr. Mike Joy, a professor at the nearby Massey University. He explained all about the pressures New Zealand's waterways are under and some of the solutions they are exploring to help address them.

Nathalie helping transplant some native tree saplings for the restoration. 

Laura helping group leader Margret remove stakes from maturing trees. 

That's all for now, we are off 4 x 4ing this afternoon!

Tui Bird

One of my favorite sounds of NZ- the endemic (found only in NZ) Tui Bird.
This is for you Steve ;)

Another full day

My day started out with a visit to a local tutor who is offering an Australian-based program similar a Sylvan Learning Center. What was really neat was to see how she had set up the program in an annex to her house.  After lunch, I headed off to REAP (Rural Education Activities Program) where I learned about the literacy programs that are offered in New Zealand.  What was most amazing was that learners only have access to between 25 and 100 hours of education in TOTAL!  Much different from Alberta where learners can access an unlimited amount of ESL education and thirty months of free literacy and upgrading education.  The highlight of the day was visiting a community house where members of the Samoan community had come together for an English conversation class once a week.  Because there were too many students to fit in the small house (12), the husband of one of the women had been hired to add insulation to the large shed in the backyard so that the classes could be offered there.

I was lucky enough to meet with the instructor and three of the women from the class who came in just to meet me.  It was powerful to hear the women speak about how they were too shy to talk to people outside of their community before coming to the class and now they have the confidence to talk to Kiwis, go to the doctor and explain what it wrong, fill out the census forms, talk to their children's teachers, and discipline their children who speak English better than they do.  They also talked about how one of the most important things for them to learn was how to "read" the weather symbols so that they could predict the weather that day.  They also said that they were able to take this information home and teach their husbands how to read the weather forecasts.

The center offers a really interesting computer program where students receive 25 hours of computer instruction.  At the beginning of the course, they sign a contract saying that they will teach what they have learned to their family and friends.  They are then given a second-hand computer at the end of the course and are subsidized for the first year of internet access.  This course is often a door-opener for the learners and they sign up for other courses after they finish that one.

The day ended with a wonderful dinner at a meeting of one hundred Rotarains where we gave another speech and met many interesting people.  Tomorrow we are off to Otaki.  Thank you Carterton Rotary for an amazing time.

Inspiring Vocational Visits

Hello Everyone,

Nathalie here.  I hope you are all doing well, either back home or our new Kiwi friends.  I have had a wonderful day (aren't they all!) but am particularly inspired from my Vocational Visits.  

Visit #1

This morning Laura and I met with Jill Greathead, business owner and local City Councillor who is actively involved in the Mangatarere Restoration Society. We were also joined by Esther from the Society and Anneke Wolterbeek from Greater Wellington Regional Council.

The Mangatarere Restoration Society (MRS) is a newly formed streamcare group that is working to improve the health of the Mangatarere Stream. We are volunteers from the community, farming, local industry and Iwi. We are currently developing a plan which will:

• support Greater Wellington Regional Council's Land and Environment Plans for landowners adjacent to the Mangatarere Stream. This includes providing community volunteers to assist with ecological restoration activities.

• implement environmental education campaigns encouraging the Carterton community to reduce stormwater discharges and ensure only rain enters our drains.

• work with local processing industries to adopt better wastewater management.

• develop methods to raise awareness and promote behavioural change via three paths: working with the community, working with farmers and working with local industry.

Laura and I enjoyed a wonderful tour around the Mangatarere catchment- seeing many parts of the river, its tributaries and races (man made ditches).  We were able to visit various restoration sites varying from 6 years to 6 months old.  All of the sites were on private land, the landowners being the initiators of the projects.  Generally the landowner is responsible for building a fence along the stream,  the local governments pay for the restoration materials and the Mangatarere volunteers do the planting and maintenance.  This system seems to be working very well.  We were very impressed with this volunteer base which allows the work to be done.  Good work people of Carterton and area!

Jill orienting us to the area

One race which has been fenced.  It has not yet had plantings done and the team is planning to have  planting done on one side but not the other in order to compare.

Visit #2

After lunch I went with my host father Stefen to visit his son Spencer Pallister at the Opaki school near Masterton.  This school blew my mind! Much due to Spencer's environmental interest and a supportive administration, this school has done an incredible job in promoting land care and sustainability with its students and community.

School Garden

School Water Tank

Opaki has done a river bank restoration project, turning this grassed, relatively lifeless stream into a lovely rest area complete with a few parking places, a picnic table and a message board.  The students in Spencer's class designed the area, choosing what plants should go where etc. and have helped with the planting and maintenance.  The town and regional council and local community members all supported the project   It is truly an amazing example of what a group of dedicated students and leadership at the school level can do!

Stream Before

Stream After

 On a more personal note, I was so excited to observe these kids out on their lunch break. Many were playing a game of touch rugby, groups could be seen in the trees climbing them and building forts, many weren't wearing shoes and everyone was having fun.  In terms of how schools can help connect kids to nature, this school has it all going on.

Space in the trees to play and relax.

Wood and tires are supplied for students to build forts with.

Thank you to Alastair and the entire Rotary club of Caterton who arranged for such a great day!  And for my manager David, if you have read this far, make a comment and I owe you a coffee!