Issue 9 APR / MAY 2011

The Netherland Society Rotorua Inc.

GEYSER NEWS

Neil Hunt Park, Tarawera Road, Rotorua, P.O. Box 1526

www.DutchClubRotorua.blogspot.com

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Douwe Visser President 345 9383 Anneke Meerkerk Vice President & Caterer 357 4273 Frans Schaeffers Treasurer 347 0194 Jo Harvey Secretary 348 2280 Alie Visser Custodian & 345 9383 Membership administrator. Tom Kessels Magazine Editor 348 9357 kessels40@gmail.com Chris Bos Committee 357 2138 Piet Elmiger Committee 343 6769 Maintenance Dick Bos 357 2138 Douwe Visser 345 9383 Marius Kruiniger 345 6002 Ton Kessels 348 9357

Committee 2010-2011

New Committee forms at AGM September 2011

Membership

$20 Single

$30 Couple

Venue for Hire

The Netherland Society Hall is the perfect choice for your next function or

special occasion.

Phone Alie Visser on 345 9383

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Dates for your Diary

April Tuesday 5th 10am-12noon Coffee Morning (First Tue. every month) Saturday 16th Pot Luck Dinner. Plus dance Wednesday 20th Bingo MAY Tuesday 3rd 10am-12noon Coffee Morning (First Tue. every month) Saturday 7th Market Day Saturday 14th AFTERNON FILM SHOW 2pm

Regular hall bookings: Coffee Morning:First Tuesday of every month 10am-12pm Bingo: Third Wednesday of the month 2pm Lynmore W.I.: Second Wednesday every month 1pm—3.30pm

Tai Chi: Every Tuesday 10am-11.30pm

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Letter from the President

We have had a beautiful summer with plenty of

activities in the club, e.g. the car rally, the market day

and the walking festival.

As you know our club does the catering for the

international walking festival, but due to all sorts of cir-

cumstances, the number of people participating had

declined sharply.

However there was a group of about 30 Dutchies from

Holland who were very surprised and delighted that

they could order a croquette and drinks in Dutch.

The kitchen in the club building got a facelift and re-

ceived a new coat of paint. The ZIP hot water boilers

have been removed because they were not used any-

more and the oven had a good clean.

The bar fridge broke down and was beyond repair, so

we bought a new second hand one for $900.- and it

worked well during the walking festival. Also two new flag poles were installed in front of the building, one for the New Zealand flag and one for the Dutch flag and they both were put to good use during the walking festival. The foyer, the kitchen and the bar got new lino, be-cause the old stuff had came undone at some places causing

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some people to fall. The bill was over $5000.- so we

have been spending large sums of your money.

The roof is still leaking, so we have to finish replacing

all the roof nails. We have replaced on third of a total of

about 1200 nails already, so there are still a few more

to go.

Fortunately we have a keen gardener in the club who

keeps the lawns tidy and the weeds manageable and

brings colour to the garden with new plants to fit the

season.

I hope you realise and appreciate that there is a lot of

ongoing work to be done to keep the building and the

gardens in a mint condition.

Some of us went to Tauranga to celebrate Piet van der

Werf’s 70th Birthday. Piet is suffering from cancer, our

visit was well appreciated.

Are you aware that we play Bingo in the club every

third Wednesday afternoon of the month? You are

welcome to join in on 20th April at 1.30pm.

Douwe Visser

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Can’t stop I’m on a

CAR PUZZLE TOUR !

An other successful day to remember. At 10 o’clock in the morning we started the day with coffee or thee and cake. After departing at two minutes interval nobody had trouble in finding their way to the lunch area. (Have to make this a bit more difficult next time). The Lunch was very enjoyable with great food and non alcoholic drinks !! It took one and three quarters of an hour to complete. Many willing hands helped to load chairs and tables. Than the second part of the rally started. It took one hour and half for the first rally drivers to arrive at the Dutch club. While the counting was done people gathered in the clubhouse with a drink or two awaiting the results, which where as follow: first place “The Supersonics”. Maryke Cooper ,Helen & Mathew Heller.

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Second place : “The 3 G’s” Margret, Jo & Diana. Third place :Young, Younger and Youngest.

Cris Thompson, Andrew Thompson and Wendy Heinstman. The ladies catered for the salads. They were all very yummy. The BBQ was a combined affort from the men. We also had the pleasure of the company from Christchurch earthquake victims. Koos and Truus Brasser’s daughter and two children spent some time in Rotorua, because there house was badly damaged in the latest quake. We hope to see you all again next car puzzle day. Ted, Ton & Annie

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The Netherlands Society: Let us go back to 1980! The time when we arrived in Wellington and left for Rotorua. So, while exploring our new environment we were approached by a couple who told us, that there is a Dutch club and that some members were coming at the women’s bowling club and if we liked we could come as well. So we did, not knowing there was a meeting I was then asked to become the next secretary. My answer was no, for the reason that I needed some time to settle, get the children to school, get acquainted to my new environment etc. However that was disregarded as no other was available and that other members would assist me when needed. Soon we had our first meeting at my home and I found out that a Dutch clubhouse was on the cards. Several meetings followed until an agree-ment was reached. The council offered the club a section at Neil Hunt Park and the rest you know. Jan Splinter, a builder by trade, became responsi-ble for building the clubhouse. Approx.16 volun-teers helped with this enormous task inclusive turning the section in to a concrete block building.

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Something to say….? We love to hear your news. If you have a story you’d like to share, please pass it on or email your feature for consideration to our Editor, Ton Kessels, email: kessels40@gmail.com

Recently it became known to me, that our suppliers gave us help full discounts so that the club house final cost was approx. $32,000.00 . Another committee member, Nel, was our treasurer. A job well done. Theo Spijkerbos “sparky “ took part in provid-ing electricity for the building. How lucky we were to have so many tradesmen in our club to give so much of their time. Lastly, the paint-ing of the outside building was by Jan given in the hands of the Baxters, who lived at 24 Hil-ton road at that time. It cost us a week with the weather on our side to complete. Thanks again to the committee at that time and I like to thank all those volunteers who gave so much of their spare time to take part in this project. Coby van Leeuwen became the editor of the newsletter. At her request I assisted her at her place In Okerake.

Gina

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MARKET DAY

Saturday 7th May

10am—1pm Join us at the club,

enjoy and experience a variety of stalls including Herring,

Oliebollen, Smoked Eels, Krokets and lots of

goodies in the Dutch shop...

Relax, chat in a friendly atmosphere with music

All stalls are free of charge.

If you would like to run a stall, please contact Douwe Visser 3459383.

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Graag nodigen wij u uit voor een bezoek aan onze nieuwe website. U kunt op www.dutch.co.nz onderandere het volgende vinden: Nederlandse kranten; Online Shop met Nederlandse producten; Een overzicht van winkels met Nederlandse

producten in uw buurt; Links met Nederlands georienteerde websites;

Neem gerust contact met ons op via het contact formulier voor suggesties en vragen. Het Dutch ‘n’ Deli Team

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QUEENS BIRTHDAY

Pot luck dinner DANCE

SATURDAY 16TH APRIL

All welcome to our Pot Luck Dinner with

the Queens Birthday Dance to follow.

Bar open from 6pm

Bring your favourite dish

Dawson Insurance Brokers (Rotorua) Ltd 1174 Amohia Street PO Box 949 Rotorua Ph: 348 0479

Member of BROKERNET New Zealand Ltd

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WALKING FESTIVAL 18th,19th & 20th March

The 2 Day International Walk Although the numbers of participants were well down, the same exciting and happy atmosphere was still the same. All went according to plan. The sausages, croquets and all the other goodies were as popu-lar as ever. The bar had lots of visitors after every walk. People from years and years walking met again at this venue. Nothing beats the walks in the unbe-lievable redwood forest. Some participants have taken part 18 times and told us “we will be back next year” We look forward to seeing them all back next year on this International Walking festival.

from the editor

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FILM SHOWING

At the club rooms

1hour SHOWING:

DELTA WORKS

DAM THE DELTA

Short life of Anne Frank

ALL WELCOME

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

14TH MAY AT 2pm

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