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RYE GUESTS - 14 NOVEMBER

We recently hosted Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE) students, from 8 European countries, with a BBQ at our Tuckers Beach area.

The visiting students were from Finland, Switzerland, France, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Denmark and Belgium. They are currently being hosted by Rotarian families in the upper North Island in Rotary Districts 9910, 9920 and 9930 - from Whangarei south to Hawkes Bay. The team were chaperoned by Drs Jennifer (D9910) and Raoul Neaves who are now retired and living on Great Barrier Island.

RYE students have Rotary organised ‘get togethers’ where they experience activities whilst seeing their host countries.

The group performed a waiata for us at the end of the evening, taught to them by their tour guide. That was highly respectful of our NZ culture and impressed those present.

STANLEY PARIS - GUEST SPEAKER 21 NOVEMBER

Stanley Paris, of Monte Cristo Wines, provided an comprehensive account of his remarkable life this week.

Stanley attended Otago Boys’ High School (OBHS) and qualified in Physiotherapy at Otago University. Graduating, he particularly enjoyed applying ‘hands-on spinal manipulative’ skills to enable patients’ recovery from injury and he set out on a life-long pursuit in this field.

A NZ scholarship/grant enabled Stanley to travel to the UK, Europe and North America. In the USA he gained a PhD which led to a faculty position and scholarship at Boston University, but there he was banned from teaching, writing, or being associated in any way, with ‘spinal manipulative therapy’. This was considered a chiropractic profession which challenged ‘medicine’ at that time.

The medical profession controlled physiotherapy back then - its curriculum, examinations and registration, in the USA and in NZ. Stanley wanted his profession to grow so he set out to challenge the status quo to make that happen. He has always believed passionately in free speech.

Stanley resigned Boston. He moved to Bermuda where he bought a hotel and established a health resort incorporating physiotherapy, medical clinics and a better health focus including healthy menus, exercise and weight reduction.

Later he sold the hotel and moved back to the USA ending up in St Augustine, Florida where he opened clinics and strengthened his Training Institute that eventually became the fully licensed and accredited ‘University of St Augustine for Health Sciences’. Stanley’s drive and pathway to this eventuality was due to his pursuit of improving the quality and practice of physiotherapy education by breaking away from the medical domination that existed. His was the first private school of physiotherapy, wholly free of medical dominance and control.

Stanley was preparing to establish a physiotherapy school here in Queenstown when the Global Financial Crisis, with its implications, intervened.

Amongst his life achievements, Stanley has swum the English Channel. On listening to Governor General Lord Freyberg (visiting OBHS) talk about his 2 failures to swim the English Channel, Stanley was inspired to do so. This he achieved at age 45, after many attempts. He more recently (at age 75) participated in a relay that swam the channel.

Stanley was awarded an ‘Honorary Doctor of Laws’ degree from Otago University where his graduation address, to the Law faculty, was the story of his convictions and journey.

In retirement Stanley, and his sons Nicholas (Master of Wine) and Alan, have stablished ‘Monte Christo Wines’ at Clyde where they have restored the old brewery on site, built guest accommodation, established a wine cave and are developing a full winery operation.

Stanley was from a Dunedin Rotary family, his father once a member and President of the Dunedin Club. Stanley was a charter member of the then Dunedin North Club and has belonged to clubs overseas. Now living part-time in Queenstown with bis wife Catherine, he will be reuniting with Rotary by joining our Club. We welcome Stanley to Queenstown Rotary.

DUCK RACE AN AWESOME FUNDRAISER EVENT

This year's event was a quacking triumph, and the real winners were the wonderful folks at Kiwi Harvest. Thanks to the generous supporters, we managed to raise an astonishing $8,000 for this fantastic charity. That's food on the table for countless Kiwis in need, and this event has a significant role in making that happen.

Now, let's talk about the ducks and their extraordinary achievements. The top honours in the Corporate Duck Race went to Queenstown Ice Arena, who managed to waddle their way to victory on a very interesting designed duck. Their prize is as cool as ice – a splendid stay at Hotel St Moritz along with a delectable dinner! Ice-tacular, right?

Novotel secured the second spot, and they're quacking with joy! Well done, team!

Designa Tiles showed their tiles-to-talent skills, earning themselves a well-deserved third place. Bravo!

And who could forget the dazzling fashionistas of the duck world? The award for the Best Dressed Duck went to Findex! Their duck's sense of style has won them a fantastic Millbrook Golf Voucher prize. Honourable mentions go to Pak N Save, whose runner-up duck was dressed to impress, and Future Hospitality Group, whose winged wonder, Earl, soared into third place. Fashion-forward ducks, indeed!

In total, we had 40 ducks in the race, all competing for glory and the greater good.

We have immense gratitude to all our sponsors and prize providers. Their unwavering support and generosity made the Queenstown Rotary Duck Race a truly quackers event.

The countdown is now on until the next duck race! The plan is to run it around the same time next year.

Let's keep the quacking spirit alive!

Note: The hard work was done for many months behind the scenes by Tim and Fiona Wilshire.

Photos of the day below...

VISITING ROTARIAN - RAJEEV SOOD, SHIMLA, INDIA

Rajeev joined us last week whilst in Queenstown visiting his son, Sanchit, who has lived and worked here for 4 years. Rajeev related that he was born into a family of Rotarians. His father was a President of the Rotary Club of Shimla.

Rajeev began his Rotary experience as a member of the Interact Club at St Edward’s School in Shimla. He moved on to the Shimla Rotaract Club during his college days and became its President in 1986. He was also a RYLA participant.

Rajeev joined Rotary in 1993 and has extensive Rotary experience and service. He became his Club’s President in 2004-05. He served his Club, and District 3080, and was honoured for his Secretary and Presidential roles in receiving a coveted ‘RI President’s Citation Award’. He was an Assistant Governor in 2010-11.

Rajeev was a ‘’Group Study Exchange leader to District 6990 Miami in 2012, and has been a member of 3 medical missions to Rwanda, Gabon and Zimbabwe. His commitment and achievements have been recognised with several ‘Paul Harris Fellow’ awards.

Rajeev said that he finds visiting other clubs provides a unique opportunity for him to connect with other Rotarians from different cultures and backgrounds and this fosters international understanding and fellowship.

ROGER MARSH - GUEST SPEAKER 22 AUGUST

Our newest Rotarian, Roger Marsh, was our guest speaker last week. Roger studied at, and qualified from, Manchester University with a Degree in Electronics and Electrical Engineering. His work included the measurement of various rock properties to determine the extent and type of gas or fluids in potential oil and gas wells.

Roger provided a comprehensive and highly informative presentation covering oil exploration, oil components, renewable energy sources and alternative fuels for motor vehicles.

Amongst other things, Roger showed us where oil deposits are located in the earth’s structure and locations around the world. He explained the different types of oil rigs for various situations/locations from the older to newer ‘technology’ rigs. He also described an oil well and showed the use of various types and sizes of bits for different rock characteristics and the means for accessing oil in the rock.

Roger informed us that engineering calculations are made to determine the size of a field and this information is sent to the oil exploration accountants who determine the economic viability of a potential well. He went on to say that coal, oil and gas deposits contain unwanted components including mercury, hydrogen sulphide, sulphur, cadmium, and carbon dioxide.

Roger spoke about renewable energy resources and related that NZ’s energy supply is close to 80% renewable energy, 13.2% gas, 7.6% wind farms, 0.45% solar energy, and 0.07% coal plus small amounts of bio-energy. He also explained the ‘pump storage’ process as proposed for Lake Onslow to store surplus power.

Roger concluded with electric vehicles (EV’s), their advantages and disadvantages. He related that research is ongoing with new battery technology ahead re battery weight, the life of each charge, and battery life span. He also informed us about the potential of Hydrogen as a fuel with its much higher energy (power) level i.e. x2.5 that of petrol and x3.0 that of diesel.

SHANE BINNS - GUEST SPEAKER 29 AUGUST

Shane, a Geographical Information Systems (GIS) specialist, was our speaker this week.

Shane, born a kiwi, moved to Perth with his parents where he attended the Curtin University of Technology, Perth. There he qualified with an Applied Science degree majoring in Surveying, Geology, GIS and Mathematics. Shane now works as a consultant to business and local government and is currently working with QLDC.

Shane explained GIS, a system that creates, manages, analyses and maps all types of data then connects this data to a map. GIS began in Canada in 1963 and became a commercially available system in 1981 that everyone could utilise.

There are 10 key industries using GIS technology today, the 3 biggest players being Agriculture, Oil & Gas, and Architecture, Engineering & Construction.

Shane moved on to Artificial Intelligence (AI) – ‘the simulation of human intelligence’ and its uses. He provided an example of forestry where AI is used in the classification of trees. This enables improved efficiency of plant assessment to determine optimal harvest time that will provide maximum yield for the grower. In future, local Govt, using AI, will be able to make land information available to ratepayers and the public will be able to report faults and issues e.g. potholes as well as view repairs, and more.

BLUE LIGHT LIFE SKILLS - GEORGIA BOULTON

We sponsored Georgia Boulton to Blue Light Life Skills in May. Here is her thank you to Rotary.

Dear Rotary

First of all I just want to say a huge thank you for my scholarship for the Bluelight Camp that I attended a few weeks ago.

The camp went really well, I really enjoyed everything about it. It was a great trip and a very eye opening experience. This was a great experience for me with what I would like to do when I get older with the Navy. I got experience from all aspects of the forces.

At the end of the camp we had a graduation. We had 28 at the start and for graduation we left with 28. This is very rare for the camp to leave with all the people that started at the beginning.

In the graduation I got my certificate of graduating the course but I also got an excellence award for my syndicate, which meant I was the most improved best listener etc for my group.

Thank you

Georgia Boulton

ANDREW WILSON, SALVATION ARMY - GUEST SPEAKER 8 AUGUST

Lieutenant Andrew Wilson - Corps Officer and Community Ministries Directors of Queenstown

Andrew was one of 3 boys raised by a solo Mum. When he was 8 years old, his mother had an accident that resulted in a badly broken ankle. The church came to their home to help including meals for the family. This was Andrew’s first-hand experience with the difference that the church can make for a family facing difficulties. They brought meals and but also ensured that the boys did their share of the work e.g. cleaning the house. All of this taught a young boy important life lessons.

The Queenstown Salvation Army helps families who need assistance including providing food.

Supermarkets, Kiwi Harvest and the public contribute food to their Foodbank which feeds approx 50 people/families per day to ease their daily financial strain.

The team also work with clients to get to the root of their issues and to help with budgeting. Support is also available for those in the probation system as well as those going through the courts. They also provide an advocate or support person to sit around the family violence table.

The money that Queenstown Rotary donated after COVID provided a huge financial boost to the Salvation Army in Queenstown and helped enable a new program that focuses on self-awareness, grief etc. which helps families to reclaim their lives. A person has been able to be employed to assist with the ‘SPACE’ program that offers support and parenting education for new parents that are often alone and uninformed. This situation can be stressful and often results in relationship breakdowns. ‘SPACE’ helps these people to make positive life choices as well as young Mums to develop as parents.

The new building project in Pin Oaks Drive, Remarkables Park, will be home to a Family Store, a Workshop, a Meeting Room and to a 150-seat Auditorium. It is located in their new Community Centre located behind Wakatipu High School and is due to open in November. This facility will help the Salvation Army to grow and develop their services. The facility will also be available for local groups and clubs to hire, provide aid and hold events. The Gorge Road shop will remain open.

A Dawn Ceremony will be held on 11 November - we are welcome to attend,or visit the centre at any time where Andrew will be happy to show us around.

2023-24 CHANGEOVER NIGHT

Awards Presented

Paul Harris Double Sapphire Pin - Tony Fleming

President's Appreciation Cup - Tim Wilshire

Pauline Hazelmore Award - Stuart Maclean

Certificate of Appreciation - Richard Bowman

Certificate of Appreciation - Keith & Heather McIntosh

Past President Grant Rees, Tim Wilshire, Tony Fleming, Stuart Maclean, President Neil Boniface

New Member Induction - Roger Marsh

Wine Auction

Bruce and Pat Jefford's successful bid of $376 for Lot 1

A bottle of Georges De Latour, 1995, Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from Beaulieu Vineyard, Napa Valley. Approx RRP $632

Rare 4.4* Rating. Among the top 1% in the world.

CYCLONE GABRIELLE FUNDRAISER 2023

Give it back to Gabrielle- Queenstown Events Centre Frankton - Sunday 26 March.

This was part of a joint fundraising event initiated by Lions with Altrusa and our own Rotary Club of Queenstown. The event was a family day and raised $10,000. Our silent auction was a great success, thankyou to all that contributed to this.

Nell Hunter, one of the Rotarian volunteers of the day with her children, Alfred and Penelope Hunter enjoying the face painting on offer.

We even made the Mountain Scene with Grant, Cora and David.

CYCLONE GABRIELLE - INSURANCE ASSESSMENT

Ashley Adams, in his role as an Insurance Adjuster, presented to the club a glimpse of the nature and extent of storm damage by Cyclone Gabrielle. Ashley showed an array of photos of the damaged roading infrastructure (particularly bridges) in Hawkes Bay and damage to a secondary school in Esk Valley from floodwater and silt arising from the Cyclone. In the Hawkes Bay district eleven bridges were destroyed requiring total replacement, and up to one hundred bridges were damaged, some able to be re-instated with minor repairs others requiring major repairs. Ashley's role was to assess the damage and provide costs to the insurance companies and district councils. The concern for all is the secondment of trained bridge and road builders to complete the works in a reasonable time.

ROTARY FROM THE PAST

From the Editor:

On reading the Mountain Scene, I came across the article below. This is but one of the projects in which the Rotary Club of Queenstown has contributed in the past to our District. Lets be inspired to be people of action for our District now. NB I have overwritten the article so the words can be easily read.

HOME SHOW FUNDRAISER 2023

A late call by the organisers of the Queenstown Home Show saw Queenstown Rotary leap into action to provide carparking Friday 17 to Sunday 19 February.

Queenstown Rotary was also provided an opportunity to have an exhibit. We took the opportunity to feature ‘Shelterbox’ and seek donations given the recent high demand in Turkey, Syria and Ukraine to temporally house homeless families. Queenstown Rotary, a regular Shelterbox supporter, hope to provide sufficient funding for 2-3 boxes at $1500 each.

Shelterbox was started by a Rotary club in Cornwall in 2000 but is now an independent organisation. Rotary remain a partner with the Shelterbox organisation in providing emergency housing to disasters around the world. Shelterboxes are assembled and dispatched from international locations along with a set up team.

For more information about ‘Shelterbox’ including videos, google Shelterbox. About Us - ShelterBox

RYLA - JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023

Last Sunday, 29 January, 31 young people from across the South Island and Wellington met as strangers at Lakeland Park Camp, Kelvin Heights and left as friends.

They had endured a very hot week of relentless speakers and activities, from 6am through till 9.30pm, some nights till 10pm. They capped it off and let their hair down at the Gala awards night on Thursday before, for some, a tearful farewell on Friday.

Exhausted but with a deep sense of personal and collective satisfaction, they went their separate ways knowing they had made life-long new friends, new vocational contacts and that they also have left their legacy at the camp. The Gully Project working bee and the Camp Project (a GPS Geo-caching project) proves the value of this leadership programme on the community and for themselves.

If you haven’t yet been involved in some way, or haven’t visited the camp, you are missing out. They really are inspirational young people as the visitors to the Rotary BBQ Dinner on Tuesday witnessed as well as at the Gala Awards Dinner evening. I really do hope you can come along next year to see what the ‘RYLA magic’ is.