Outing With Friendship Force

14 September 2014

Friendship Force exchange with New Zealand

Firstly, just a quick bit of information about Friendship Force. Friendship Force is an international organization which matches Clubs with other clubs for a 7 day exchange. On an exchange, your club of about 20 participants visits another club somewhere in the World. You stay in their home with them. It is not a house swap program. It is not an exact exchange either, as Kerry & I stayed with a family in Germany and another in Turkey in June this year but those people will not stay in our home.

There were 14 ambassadors from New Zealand who spent a week with the Murray Bridge Club. During that week, there were organized excursions and dinners. Some of the excursions included the Marne Olive Farm, Shell Hill, Black Hill, Civic reception with the Mayor and a visit to Swanport Harvest lettuce farm

On Sunday we organized to go to the horseradish farm at Langhorne Creek, then to Longview Wines at Macclesfield and from there on to Meadows Bakery for lunch. After lunch, we returned via Hahndorf. So, rather than use the everyday cars in which they had been travelling for the last few days, we thought it would be nice to use some classic cars to transport them. As a couple of the cars were open top cars I told the New Zealanders that Meadows is in the Adelaide Hills and advised them to wear a hat and a jacket as it can be cold in the hills.

As there were only 9 seats available and we had 14 guests they changed vehicle at every stop so they were able to enjoy a ride in a variety of vehicles.

The cars involved were Wayne & Viktoria Johns’ 1939 Packard, Howard & Myra Wright’s Mk ll Jaguar( people riding in these two cars thought they were royalty), Ian & Mary Rowley’s Ford Fairlane Compact, Ken & Anita Millsteed’s MGB and Mercedes 450SE convertible and Jerry & Kerry Wilson’s 1960 Corvette.

The New Zealanders really enjoyed the day and I think some of the chauffeurs for the day are planning a visit to New Zealand to see their new friends.

Report by Jerry Wilson