Let’s hope this stunning autumn weather holds through the Easter weekend. We’re looking forward to having most of the family home, and I’ve been busy planning our annual Easter egg hunt. Someone suggested I use AI to help—so I did! Here’s part of what it came up with:

“Where shoes rest after a run,

Your Easter hunt has just begun!”

“I grow things tall and sometimes small,

Find your next egg where we water them all.”

“I open and close, I squeak or slide,

Look where things are kept inside.”

“You sit on me to eat your treats,

I’m where the family often meets.”

“You’ve done so well, now here’s the trick,

Look where wood is stacked or sticks are thick!”

 

How easy was that! If you’re in charge of an Easter egg hunt this year, feel free to borrow a few ideas.

 

We had a productive Board meeting on Tuesday evening.

The committee responsible for Board nominations and Paul Harris recognition will, going forward, consist of:

I’m pleased to confirm that the inaugural committee will be Jillian Jopp, Steve Robertson, and Gordon Wilson. This structure will become the standard process from June onwards.

Please also note that our Changeover Night is scheduled for Tuesday 23 June—be sure to mark this in your diaries.

 

The Bus trip for our elderly generation is being planned presently and a request for help will be called for soon (and see more information elsewhere in this bulletin).

 

I will be making contact with the Alexandra Rotary Club in Australia to explore the possibility of restarting our exchange programme. This would be a great opportunity to reconnect, although it’s important to note there would be some additional cost to the club in supporting both visiting and travelling members.

 

I’ll be taking leave from mid-April through to the end of May as Tony and I head off on our next cycling adventure. We’ll be exploring parts of the Camino in northern Spain, travelling down to Porto in Portugal, and then spending time with family near Henley-on-Thames before heading home for winter.

Paddy and Jillian will keep everything running smoothly in my absence—many thanks to them both. I appreciate your support while I’m away during my presidential year; we are fortunate to have such a strong and capable team.

 

Enjoy the Easter break, stay safe, and don’t forget to indulge in a few Easter eggs!

🐰 Happy Easter everyone

 

 

 

Frances Petuha, often alongside Tamara Jones, is associated with the Big Buddy Program (or The Buddy Programme) in Central Otago, New Zealand, which provides mentoring for children aged 4 to 12. This programme, often supported by local community groups such as the Rotary Club of Alexandra, matches children in need of additional adult support with trained volunteers. 

Frances Petuha (and Tamara Jones) highlight the role of ‘Big Buddy’ in Supporting Youngsters in Central Otago. For information on volunteering or engaging with the program, individuals are directed to Family Works Otago or local Rotary initiatives. 

 

Rhys, Graham and I attended as volunteers at the RYDA day at Highlands Motor Sport Park. A great day to be part of with 101 Dunstan year 12 students.

 

RYDA is a compulsory part of their curriculum. The school sees it as very important. And it is. It is the second time I have been and we get to sit in on six great seminars with professional facilitators.

 

The students learn about the safety features of cars with a physical demonstration. They interact with their peers learning about their own capabilities and how they can be a positive influence on their friends. There is a session on crash statistics, factors influencing crashes and how it affects people injured in a crash. Very sobering presentation.

 

It is a high-quality day that is well worth supporting. Volunteers are fully involved and I recommend it as something well worth attending.

 

 

 

We had a group of seventeen in total spend the weekend at Aspiring. Seven members, two partners/spouses, Kelvin from Aspiring Trust and seven guests including one international.

 

This year we gathered on the Friday, three different groups arriving at different times but all arriving in time for Friday’s evening meal prepared by Sue Phillip and helpers, a magnificent Indian curry featuring venison. We had one guest, who didn’t make it on Friday but turned up in time for breakfast on Saturday, spent the day working hard in the firewood department and departed before dinner in the evening.

 

Saturday started with a big breakfast with Owen directing the traffic. After breakfast we ended up with a gang dealing to the pot holes on the road in with Gordon in charge. We had gang of three dealing to splitting the wood on hand, while Owen with some intermittent help set about cutting up a dead tree which he felled. Also cleared three loads of dead branches and stuff that had been accumulated which was removed to our bonfire site in the middle of a paddock.

 

Peter took a group of ladies for a tramp up the East branch of the Matukituki Valley returning about 12.30 in time for lunch. They spent the afternoon gardening operating the line trimmer, hedge cutter and anything else that was mechanical giving the garden a great tidy up with hedges cut and edges trimmed. Finished up in time for drinks etc at around 5pm.

 

Meanwhile Gordon, Andrew (who also fitted in some internal roof painting) Franz and Chris our international visitor dealt to the roading requirements. Paul was also involved before he was sidetracked to help Owen with cutting up the tree for firewood.

 

 

A summary of the speech follows (Ed.)

 

Terry is a bit of an entrepreneur. And what is an entrepreneur? An individual who starts, organises and manages a (new) business venture, assuming the associated financial risks to pursue growth of the venture. Being an entrepreneur requires resilience to handle failure and risks.

 

Terry, who is also involved with many other pursuits in Central, says that the gold panning championships are sponsored by Santana to the tune of $60 K. The event here in Cromwell will be the 49^th world wide and there are 28 gold panning countries. The most recent was held in Spain last year. Terry said that that event was quite fascinating because the culture in the town where the event was held is Celtic and there were even bagpipers present.

 

Terry gave a demonstration with a fancy looking pan. He said that the amount of dirt to wash is 15kg and the world record for completing that task is around 45 seconds. Some people wash the whole 15kg at once. About only half of the contestants complete the task.

 

The dirt is preloaded with a known number of gold flakes and these have to be counted on completion of the panning. Terry said that not all gold flakes are suitable, in fact he said that gold flakes in the North Island are too flimsy and light to be used, but that is not the case in the South Island.

 

The flakes need to be roughly 1 to 1 and ½ mm and contestants can keep the gold flakes at the end of the competition. Some people come to these events around the world year after year and some wear rather way-out gear. There could be around 400 contestants at the event in Cromwell that starts on September 27^th and ends on September 3^rd 2026. Eight days in all including set up.

 

At the event in Spain the contestants enjoyed kiwi fruit salsa and cheap Spanish wine. The host country after New Zealand is Finland.

Gold panning in Central Otago (from the internet)

 

Central Otago’s rich gold mining history is set to shine on the world stage soon.

 

The Otago Goldfields Heritage Trust has secured the rights to host the 2026 World Gold Panning Championships in Otago.

 

The championships come under the umbrella of the World Gold Panning Association which has members from more than 20 countries, including Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Finland, South Africa, Italy, Spain and Slovakia.

 

Trust treasurer Odette Hopgood said news of the successful bid was still sinking in.

"I had to get up at 4am to speak to the world committee at their annual general meeting by Zoom — we were given special dispensation not to have to travel to the world championships in [Zlotoryja, Poland] to present — but we do have to go [to the] world championships," she said.

 

The championship’s location was yet to be determined but options in Alexandra, Arrowtown and Cromwell were being explored.

"We’ll hold it in September — usually they are held in August in the northern hemispheres and we said it would definitely be authentic because we’d be cracking the ice every morning."

 

Competitors would be in the area for a minimum of two weeks and there would be opportunities to showcase the region’s goldfields with heritage tours and exploring the hills of Central Otago, Ms Hopgood said.

 

Competitive panning has its roots in Finland, with the first modern competition held in 1974, and the inaugural world championships held three years later.

 

Trust secretary Terry Davis said it was the only sport men and women competed against each other on even footing — at the end they have the supreme champion.

 

Central Otago’s previous Mayor, Tim Cadogan said people in the area were proud of the huge part the gold rush had in the region’s history.

Part of that is the allure that something as seemingly simple as panning could bring a fortune.

 

This event will show the skill and dedication actually involved in finding the flecks and will bring many people from around the world to share our special place with us.