It’s been 48 hours in the land of Canada and what a full on time it has been so far!!
We got picked up by Sean Hogan (District Governor) and his team from the airport and delivered to our motel (4 Points in Richmond).
From there we hit the local shopping mall for what seemed about a million choices of food to eat and a look around a few shops. Once we got a bit more courage we ventured on to the Skytrain which was our transportation in to the city (a Light Railway System). Stephen thinks there must be something wrong with one of their gates because he “leaned” on it and set off all the alarms in the train station!!!

We got off the train at the right place walked up the stairs on to the street and boom, there it was in your face, buildings and lights and people everywhere, was a eye opener that was for sure. The people are so cosy, no worries to point you in the right direction and help you out.

At the Vancouver Convention Centre there is an enormous world rotating in mid air. If you look closely you can see NZ.

The Canada Trail is a permanent exhibition on the waterfront which describes Canada’s history. A submarine and a navy vessel also happened to be in town…unfortunately we were too late to get tickets for the tour

Walking along the Canada trail

Dan taking a photo of me, taking a photo of him!!! How artistic!!!!

Vancouver is so beautiful

One of the gym’s has a great name for the female only gym

Art in Vancouver….’The Drop’

We have acquainted ourselves very well with the local McDonald’s drive-thru cashier, much to his dismay. Have had lots of laughs so far, some late nights, and awesome fellowship.

A scotch party on the 20th floor of an apartment building was a great way to meet members of the Delta club and we thank Elgin Duke for his hospitality. We also thank the train gods for making sure we made it to the station in time for the last train home and were able to meet some ‘interesting’ characters on the journey!

HI Leonie (Team Leader) here,

Arrived safely at Vancouver & a warm welcome received from District Governor Sean Hogan, Group Study Incoming Chair Rob Martin and Anne & Clive.

Had a ‘night on the town’ checking out the night life in Vancouver city.  No problems with the team!!!

Today we received our itinerary – Wow!!! It is jam packed full of activities – both vocational and vacational. To give you an idea we are going to visit the Boeing factory, Google and Microsoft!!! OMG!!! And that’s just SOME of the team activities! In addition to that we each have vocational activities lined up throughout the 6 weeks away that are specifically aligned to our professions.

What an amazing opportunity this is. There will be so much to take in and remember – The places we are going to…the people we are going to meet…the experiences we will have…all of this captured in the blog and remembered forever.

Those of us who live in Rotorua, will again have the pleasure of meeting up with the incoming GSE team from the other district tomorrow. They are already half way through their exchange…wow that’s gone fast!

Thursday we have our farewell – hosted by the wonderful people from the Matamata Rotary club.

Then on Friday we fly out…soooo exciting!

We all met yesterday to finalise our preparations. Thanks to Dan and his Opus office for letting us use their boardroom for our Rotorua meetings, it has proved an ideal venue.

Da Boys….

Our presentation is in a good state (just proofing and tweaking to do); uniforms complete for almost all the team and team photo done. Despite Bruce suffering a serious virus, he managed to make it over to Rotorua in time for the photo – thanks Bruce, you’re a trooper and we hope you recover quickly.

A huge thanks to Nadia and her husband Darren (co-owner of Speedy Signs and EmbroidMe Rotorua) who have provided us with superb embroidered polo shirts and awesome Rotary badges. Absolutely awesome work and we thank Darren for his patience and good ideas as we worked to get a logo that we were happy with.

The exchange team from District 5050 has arrived in NZ and is already having a great time!! Can’t wait to meet them when we head to Matamata later this month.

Picture of the boys in their uniforms…scrub up pretty good!!!

Just discovered an app for our blog…will be updating on the go now….