April 12 - Brook - Up early this morning.... very early, for a breakfast Rotary meeting. It was another combine meeting, with about 3 different clubs present. It was very full with many interesting Rotarians to chat with after.

After this we were shuttled to Bombay where we met Rotarian Mark Tregidga who was our host for the day and was helped by Sarah another Rotarian from the Pukekohe club. Mark and Sarah took us to a "posh" diary farm called Enton farms. I had no idea how a fully automated dairy farm worked but it was truly amazing. The whole milking shed was designed with the "girls" (milking cows) comfort in mind as they are the most frequent user. The girls are very well treated and looked after as every effort is made to ensure they stay healthy, well fed and of course producing milk. The highlight of this tour for many of us was to watch a group of 150 girls being milked then go right outside to the storage tanks and taste a fresh glass of milk.... Amazing! If only getting milk for my two little boys bottles was this easy!

Then we went to a Greenstone or Jade museum and Factory in Te Kauwhata. Here we learned about the signifiance of greenstone in New Zealand and what some of the carving symbolized and their meaning. I was interested to learn that some of the greenstone sold here was from British Columbia, very close to where my parents live in the Yukon! It is a small world.

For the last part of our afternoon Mark took us back to his country home for a tour of his gardens and a wine tasting. Mark and his wife have worked very hard to have absolutely amazing gardens surrounding their home. I loved seeing the variety of flowers they are growing in the fall and winter - I wish!