Rotary Meeting in Cromwell

Hello again everyone! The weekend that has just been, the 3rd and the 4th of December, was the last official Rotary Youth Exchange meeting before I leave on the 10th of January, 2017. The meeting was held in Cromwell at Doreen's (one of the Invercargill Rotary committee members) holiday home. This weekend was more relaxed than the previous meetings as we perfected our pavlova making skills and got to know the other exchange students in a more chilled environment. 

Clockwise: Myself (Jasmine), Alex, Jamie, Claire, Harry, Lili and Sarah

Once we arrived in Cromwell, we met Nick (the President of the Cromwell Rotary Club) and he showed us around Doreen's beautiful home. We had lunch and Nick talked to us about the last minute details of our exchange to make sure our exchange runs as smoothly as possible. We also got the chance to ask any last minute questions.

After this we decided to test out our skills with pavlova making, as it is pretty much guaranteed that we will need to make this repeatedly in our new host countries. We split off into two groups (Alex, Claire and I + Sarah, Lili, Jamie and Harry). Alex wanted to try to make a 'sugar free' pav using Stevia as a sugar substitute. Quite frankly I have to say it was a total disaster! It looked more like a pizza base than an actual pav. However the other team had more success so we enjoyed their pavlovas later in the day. 

From left to right: Myself (Jasmine), Claire and Alex

RYE students with decorated pavlovas

For the rest of the day we chilled out. After dinner we played 'Cards of Humanity' which was awesome... very, very, funny. We also got to hear wonderful stories about Nick's RYE exchange to Sweden, and it was really good to hear his highlights and the do's and don'ts of exchange life. 

The next day Craig, a member of the Cromwell Rotary Club took us to a steep Rotary made track to the 45th parallel. Although it was steep, and my legs burned when I reached the top it was definitely worth it.

During the walk down it started heating up and it was suggested that we go swimming and water-skiing. Everybody jumped at the idea. Jamie, Sarah and I jumped into the water from the wharf which was lots of fun while the others waited for Craig to bring his boat around. However, Craig soon realised that he had launched his boat without his keys!! Jamie grabbed a kayak and delivered his keys to him. Alex, Claire, Sarah and Lili went water skiing while Harry, Jamie and I stayed behind and chilled at the wharf.

After swimming and water-skiing we quickly ate the rest of the pavlova and cleaned the house. After a couple of group photos I headed back to Queenstown. 

That’s all for now  

Jasmine x