Last full day in Auckland for a bit

Friday was our first early morning start of the trip as we arrived at a combined meeting of the North Harbour and Westhaven Rotary Clubs at 6:45 am. We were warmly welcomed into a large group of Rotarians for a wonderful breakfast, lively program and attentive audience for our presentation complete with banner exchange. Following the meeting we loaded all our luggage into the vehicles of our new host families from the Westhaven Club and were swept off to a meeting with Minister of Parliament Jonathan Coleman. He was a gracious host and took the time to share with us a detailed explanation of the inner workings of government in New Zealand. Also in the morning we were treated to a look at the Chelsea Sugar Refinery and the cottages which used to be home to refinery employees. The balance of the day was taken up with individual vocational visits that had been arranged as a response to contacts already made in our first week in New Zealand and settling in with our new families. Stay tuned for further updates of our weekend excursion to Rotorua including Hobbiton!