Wow, it is hard to believe it is March this weekend and not too many months before the end of the Rotary year. After the Book Sale in January where we raised approximately $22,000, there has been the usual club nights, the long weekend at Mt Aspiring, Tititea, a visit to Coma Villa and today our members are on duty for the Child Cancer Appeal.

Coming up in the next few months are more away club nights, a movie night, the St John Appeal, the District Conference and our Charity Dinner.

Club nights at the Stadium have been a work in progress but with good numbers attending and a positive atmosphere, we will hopefully settle into the new routine soon.

It has been great to see some new, returning and transferring members at the club and I wish to welcome Bob, Brent, Murray and Arnold.

We are looking for projects to do and support, so please let the Directors know if you have any ideas. I will also be putting out the call for members to attend the District Conference in the next week or so.  Block it out in your Diary, 17-19 April 2020.

 

Comments to me indicate that our visit to Como Villa was enjoyed by all. Thanks to Mike Burdon for looking after the cooking of the venison, Nev for not burning the precooked sausages and the Courthouse for the salads. Seems the “green pasta” was not everyone’s favourite. I thought it was pretty good!!

John and Pam have certainly made some improvements since the last time we were there.

The next planned away night is to La Bella Vita Café + Eatery (Previously known as the Shaky Bridge) An Italian styled finger food menu as per below. Something a little different no doubt.

*Tomato and basil Bruschetta

*Mini Fried pizza

*Antipasto platter with Italian cured meats and cheeses

*Seafood platter

*Polenta fries

Price $20

Gelato will be available to purchase for dessert

 $5 single flavour or $7 double

 

Tuesday 31 March.

Subject to how we get on with the DHS Gardening project on the 4^th of March I am proposing the review of the rules on Tuesday the 31 March.

 

You will notice that the trees are down, and we are now waiting on Ritchie Stephens to return from holiday so we can remove as much of the rubble as we can.

I am working with the council to get an acceptable Health and Safety plan so some of our experienced chainsaw people can work on “slicing” the logs ready for splitting. This will be done under the supervision of a few people who hold an appropriate certificate. Our operators will likely know more about operating a chainsaw than the supervisors, but that’s the way it seems it has to be.

Will have to do something similar for our “splitting’ team but don’t expect this to be quite as hard given we have a few people who have been doing this for a year or two.

Watch this space.

 

Richard managed to organise a good crew again for this years expedition. A total of 17 bodies crossed the river a little bit later than planned but eventually 17 came back. Neil and jenny McArthur came as guests, Neil had done a lot of work up there in the past and came back for a look while he can still get about.

We were honoured with the presence of Tania Lowery, our District governor, and her partner Phil who proved to be dab hands in preparing part of the building for painting and emptying our guttering of leaves etc.

Jarrod Frazer from the Aspiring Rotary Club also came with his great array of heavy-duty tools and did a few carpentry and plumbing jobs around the place.

Our International guest from Switzerland joined John Whittaker in painting our toilet block. Unfortunately, due to a “tactical” decision by yours truly, we ran out of paint, so we still haven’t finished that project. Also, in the painting department we were left the wrong coloured paint by Wanaka Rotary for the outside so that has been deferred also. Ben Liley and Susan got the weed eaters out and to tidy up and increased the area of lawn. (Not sure that was a good idea). Judy Clarke took on gardening duties and Richard. Gordon and Paul attacked the potholes on the track bringing gravel from the river. Richard demonstrated his skills by managing to show that the TEA Fergusson was capable of operating on its back two wheels only!! Yours truly was in charge of getting the lawns under control.

Louise, who was nursing an injury, Delyn day and another helper did a stirling job making sure we were fed and watered well. No complaints were received.

Saturday was very productive with almost all the tasks completed (painting being the exception) which is just as well as it started raining on Saturday night and it was obvious on Sunday morning that we needed to try and get out. Having established that the river was too high for the tractor, and definitely too high for the 2 vehicles we had on our side, there had to be a balancing act between those who were able to walk out over the bridge, those who couldn’t, and how many vehicles were there on the other side that were available to complete the trip home and remain to get the rest home in due course. After some mathematical calculations, 9 departed.

It was still raining on Monday morning when we were visited by the Search and Rescue Helicopter who were looking for a Cromwell couple who were overdue. They came back later in the day after solving that problem to “rescue” some people who apparently having difficulties from our site. We decided this meant the McArthur’s and Louise who were unable to walk very far would go out and we tossed in Richard as well as his weather forecasting skills were no longer of any use to us.

The rain continued and it was not until Thursday that we thought it was time we had another attempt. River was still too high, but John and I decided to come home, Jarrod needed to get to work and could come back and get his vehicle when the water level came down. Gordon also walked out and went into Wanaka to stock up on a few basics as another couple of days without bread, milk meat was not something to look forward to. Gordon had sort of volunteered to stay with our 83 and 92-year-old “minders” until they could get the tractor and Gordon’s truck out, which finally happened on Friday afternoon.

Interesting times. John learned how to bake “scamper”. A scone/damper hybrid, from Louise which supplemented soup and later spaghetti. We found that dehydrated Chicken Korma wasn’t that bad and we proved that the school’s recipe for self-saucing chocolate desert was easy to make and tasted good too. Certainly, filled the gap after pasta. I believe the hangers on may have had a steak on the Thursday night.

All in all, an enjoyable weekend (for some and a week for others!) Looking forward to next year when we might get to finish the painting. Thanks to all who participated.

 

 

This was another very successful book sale – the best ever first day trading day on New Year’s day ($14,500 approx.) - total turnover just under $26,000 – with over $22,000 clear into the trust fund.

 

Particularly notable was the great club participation, particularly on those very important days – set up and clean up.

 

Approximately 80% of the club membership were involved to some degree, including honorary member Gordon. The other 20%, no doubt were out of town or unavailable for other reasons..

 

Special mention to all those who assisted with pick up and book sort pre-sale, in particular fellow committee members, Barry and Kevin and wives Nola and Sue. Book sorting - Don and Stu and also for book pick up, and Nev for many tasks.

 

Also acknowledgement of treasurer Graeme the money man, Andrew - promotion, Claire - hamper raffle and again the very generous John Taylor for the cherries.

 

Finally, corporate support from Aurora and Radio Central – very much appreciated.