It was a very cold evening, but the weather didn’t stop 21 members and 12 guests attend our monthly Dinner Meeting last Thursday.
Our guest speaker scheduled to talk was James Palmer, but unfortunately, at very short notice, he was required to self-isolate and with less than 12 hours’ notice, this could have been an issue, but as detailed in the Presidents' message above, this was not the case. Penny was immediately on the phone to her younger “Bro”, Roger, knowing that he always has a good story to tell. She was not wrong and we were treated to an excellent talk by Roger McGarry, but more of that below.
Our Co-presidents’ Leslie and Penny presented club notices and we were all reminded that the updated speakers list always appears in the weekly Bulletin along with a complete list of upcoming events and planned activities. Over the next month or two there is plenty planned, so please do be sure to stay up to date with the planned club activities and ensure that you have these in your diary.
Penny then introduced Roger and passed on the club's sincere thanks to him for coming to her aid at such short notice. Roger was described by Penny as the boy who never grew up, the guy that never says no, and even though he may have felt that he had been thrown under the bus, he stood up to the request and said sure! Among many other interesting experiences he has had over the last 20 odd years, Roger has been fortunate enough to visit Antarctica twice and it was these experiences that he chose to talk about to St. Johns Rotary. His first visit came about when he was in the Territorials 20 plus years ago, Roger has always had a fascination with the frozen continent and has never been afraid of the ice, snow and cold and he managed to convince the New Zealand Antarctica Scientific Society, that there was a breed of “Scuas”, (sea birds), that live there and survive by inflicting significant damage to the “Adelie Penguin” Colony, by eating the eggs and the un-protected chicks. His mission was to count the Scuas, something that had never been done before. Before he knew it, his proposal was accepted and he was on a 9.5 hour journey in a very noisy and aging US Airforce Hercules aircraft to Scott Base which is where the New Zealand Antarctic base is located.
Twenty years later in a much newer aircraft and taking only 4.5 hours in a US Globemaster aircraft, he was on his way back to again count the Scuas'!! As you would expect, two visits to the Antarctica resulted in some very interesting stories and a collection of photographs, from the highest, driest, coldest and the most beautiful continent in the world, which Roger shared with us over the next 30 minutes
Many thanks again Roger, not only for sharing your time with us, but at such short notice. Very much appreciated.