Well it had to happen......the final day of our whirlwind trip to New Zealand has arrived and it is with deep regret that we leave this wonderful country and return to our countries of origin. We have all been enriched by the experience and are astounded by the friendliness and generosity of our hosts. We have seen places that locals have never been to and we have covered a lot of area and a multitude of vocational visits.
Our District hosts and organisers have been superb and there is much for us to learn in terms of organizational GSE hosting arrangements in our area. I hope to recreate some of the structure here as a template for future GSE visits.
Its was a subdued team that drove to the Auckland International and presented our bags for acceptance on flight NZ 739 back to Brisbane. A final farewell to GSE Chair Bob Lang and we headed off to board the plane but before one minor hiccup when Rogen was extracted from the queue to have his hand luggage weighed. The scales responded with a 12.2kg reading so the offical reached for the phone for assistance. Fortunately we were able to convince her that Rogen had an extra bag because of Tania's early departure and in any case Kelly only had a handbag as carry on baggage so we transferred 4 kgs to Kelly and all was fine.
The flight to Brisbane was over within the space of one and half movies and we our goodbyes to Kelly who was met by her Mum.
Today we say goodbye to Rogen and on Friday Jennifer will be the last to head home.
We shall all have very fond memories of this trip and are most grateful to everyone within Rotary who have made this such a successful experience.