Bowled over

What a night!  Seven teams of six bowlers enjoyed a colourful night of Ten Pin Bowling - members and friends... and who was that lady in red.  Teams were named by colours and most dressed to suit - the yellow team took the 'colours'.  Bowling styles - let's just say there were several although it was noted that Peter was the fastest at 19.63mph and Angela attempted to go with her ball down the lane.  Isabella and Colin managed to go the wrong way to the distress of their team mates but Patrick ... what a high score (must have been practicing every day at lunch). And Liane was spotted using THE RAMP but it kept her out of the gutter unlike some.  Thanks Brenda for organising a great night out.

Camera - and action

The meeting of the 29th September was another busy one with many guests including a couple of prospective members and a film crew continuing the documentary of Varayame's story.

Varayame is becoming a fan of our breakfasts, tucking in with healthy appetite. It is now almost a whole year to the day since he arrived into New Zealand and he has now completed six surgeries and his extraordinary recovery from his last, being the amputation of his feet, means that following breakfast he was off to the Limb Centre to be fitted for his prosthetics and begin the process of learning to walk for the first time.  Varayame continues to be very active in his new found sport - wheelchair basketball.  His dream is to become a doctor.  The meeting contributed $170 from the day's Sergeant Session (Sunshine Fund) to help Varayame with those little things that he needs to purchase as his stay extends.



Not a powerpuff in sight and President Bruce ran the meeting with the usual efficiency and humour.  Of particular note wasFriday's social Ten Pin Bowling where there are now 7 teams competing.  Then of course, teams and sponsors are being assembled for the Golf Day on 8 November and also for the Trivial Night on 12 November - click here for the flyer and full information

Mary Ann provided a hugely interesting account of her trip to conquor Mt Kilimanjaro.  The preparation for the trip, the effort of the climb, the exhilaration of reaching the top ... exhausting and inspiring.  The often observed holds true - our own members invariably rank top as quality guest speakers.

Scholarship winner places 2nd at CORK OCR

Young kiwi Laser Radial sailor, Andrew McKenzie placed second at the CORK Olympic Classes Regatta in Canada, hot off the back of a win in the youth regatta which preceded it.

“Arriving with one day to acclimatize on the back of 30 hours of travel was not easy however, my Rotary host family made me feel very welcome and at ease,” reports Andrew.

“The light and shifty conditions of the CORK International regatta made for a challenging start. My pre regatta winter training on Auckland harbour, in equally light and choppy conditions, proved to be the perfect preparation and resulted in me winning the Laser Radial youth event with five wins from ten races in the 150 competitor strong fleet.”

The second regatta was the CORK OCR, an open event.  “The competition for this regatta was of a much higher standard and included the top Canadian women Olympic trialists. Conditions were better with predominantly 12-16 knots for the three days that racing was able to take place although the other two days were lost due to extreme weather.  Consistency was the key. Eight out of ten finishes in the top six was enough to secure 2nd overall. I am extremely happy with how I sailed and have learnt many new things on big fleet racing and boat speed.”

McKenzie, from Auckland’s Kohimarama Yacht Club, was in Canada for the CORK Regattas after being selected as the 2011 recipient of the Yachting New Zealand St John’s Rotary Scholarship.

“It was an awesome couple of weeks racing for the young guy who has two more years left as a youth and will now come home to start getting ready for the coming year’s youth selection trials aiming to make the NZL Yachting Trust Youth Team to go to Dublin, Ireland in July 2012,” says YNZ’s Youth Head Coach Ian Neely.

From: Briefings, 8 September 2011 Yachting New Zealand newsletter

St Johns Facebook is now up and running.

A Facebook page has been created for the club.  Anil will be administering this and will bring it on-line as a comunity contact point for the club over the next little while:


Click here to view the Facebook page


This Blog will continue to showcase the activityies of the club and the website www.stjohns.rotarysouthpacific.org will be the clubs primary administratyion, contact and information resource.

Ladies of St Johns Romanian Cooking Event

Next time - cooking for dummies, and event for the men

Three in One Meeting - just incredible

Today's meeting was amazing with Varayame attending following the amputation of his feet - his recovery from this is so incredible and his spirits so high, especially at the likelihood of prosthetics being fitted next week that he lifted everyone's spirits as well; this is a club/ROMAC project.  In addition we had the Fiji RWC team along for breakfast and also our guest speaker Andrew McKenzie, this year's St Johns Rotary Youth Yachting Scholar. 

Fiona shares a quip with Fijian RWC team members

What a breakfast - continental and / or cook - what choice!

The "Sergeant Session" was highly entertaining and very well thought out. 
Anyone who thought a Rotary meeting was dull got that myth thoroughly dispensed with!

Andrew McKenzie is a high achiever with commendable future plans and is the 15th
scholar and like his predecessors finished tops in the CORK Regatta in Kingston. The scholarship provides promising young sailors assistance to their first international competition



Other activities mentioned during the meeting were:

• An update on Varayame (mentioned above)
• The success of the Glen Taylor Camp that many members made donations to
• The Brian Gibbes Memorial Golf Tournamant in October to raise funds for a sporting scholarship
• Also in October is the Trivia Night raising funds for club projects but also an incredibly popular fun event
• Simon Jones gave an update on Deltacom and the fact that the club support programme has contributed $18,000 back to the club over the years and 150,000 to Rotary in general - people signing up can ask for 5% of their bill to be donated to their charity - in this case, the club.  More information later as services have hugely increased since first launched.

At Africa's Highest Point

Member Mary Ann Davison with here good friend Nicola Dewar at Uhuru Peak - the very top of Kilimanjaro in August

Truely 'Active in the Community'

NEWSFLASH

Update from the Community Committee (Local and World):

• Dictionaries for Schools:  Students in Pius, St Josephs, Glenn Innes and Glen Taylor Primary Schools have recently received their dpictorial dictionaries at a special presentation.  For some students this is the first book they can truely call their own.
• Hospice Garage Sales:  Club members continue to support these - an easy hands on opportunity
• The Great Kiwi ANZAC Day Breakfast:  Planning for the 2012 ANZAC Day breakfasts event continues.  Look at http://www.thegreatkiwianzacdaybreakfast.co.nz/
• Habitat for Humanity:  Another hands on building dau is being organised for early 2012
• Varayame:  This ROMAC project initiated and supported by the club has been an huge success - see earlier Blog Posting
• Zambia:  a USD250,000 project between Rotary and Child Fund where the funding has been approved and in-process of being made available so the work in Zambia can commence.  The vast amount of work by members Gary Key and Gary Lord is acknowledged
• Samoa Water Project:  this joint water project with the Rotary Club of Auckland Harbourside has now been completed and the project report is due out shortly
• Group Study Exchange (medical focus with Alaska - District project): Club has offered to host the inbound team for part of their stay in March 2012 and has submitted a application to the GSE Outbound committee for an excellent candidate who the committee has recently interviewed.
• Ambassadorial Scholar:  Wesley Johnston is with the club and the club has flagged its interest in hosting again next year, possibly also looking for a suitable outbound candidate from the local community.
• Emergency Response Kits (& ShelterBox):  the club will continue to support this project.  ShelterBox will be on display at the clubs stand at the St Heliers Festival in early 2012.
• Trees for Survival:  This continues but a new club champion is needed.  The growing unit is at Glendowie Primary.
• Fundraising activities are varied but include Rotary art calendars, the delicious Christmas Puddings and Entertainment Books

A Welcome and a Farewell

Welcome to Christine (centre), our newest member who was introduced to the club by Brenda.  Christine holds a senior position at the University of Auckland and has the classification Medical Operations Manager.  Living in St Heliers, she is looking to continue her involvement in the local community through the club.

Also at this meeting we farewelled Carin who is moving to Malaysia but is keen to remain a district member but through the eClub that is in the process of being formed.  Thank you Carin for your support and involvement of the club during your time with us and all members wish you the very best for the future.

Meeting at Grace Joel - retirement to look forward to?

Club meetings are an opportunity to socialise, plan for service and have fun.  Occasionally, the club holds meetings at alternate venues and here is the report from one such meeting in September:

A most enjoyable breakfast meeting hosted by Grace Joel.  We were treated to delicious array of dishes in their rather luxurious dining room prior to being addressed by Brooke Read, Sales Adviser at Grace Joel.  Brooke explained that Grace Joel is part of the Ryman Health Care group which has 24 villages throughout NZ with plans afoot to launch into the Australian market next year.

The village offers a range of options from independent apartment living to full hospital care and everything in between. Residents reside in stunning homes, and enjoy fabulous resort style facilities which include an indoor pool and spa, beauty salon, gym, library, bowling green, shop and so much more.  With the change in demographic of residents over the past 20 years the minimum entry age has recently been raised to 70 years.  Interestingly enough our very own Gary Key was showing a great deal of interest in the facilities on offer however with the level of repartee flying around, there is a strong possibility he’s already been black listed! Certainly an entertaining meeting!  For most members, enjoying such facilities is still a distant dream with year of work still ahead of them before retirement.