Stephenville, Newfoundland (by Cate!)

Stephenville

After a great time was had in Charlottetown it was time to move onto Newfoundland!
With a flight in a teeny tiny plane to Halifax it was a swap to a slightly bigger plane for the journey to Deer Lake.


Flying into Deer Lake the scenery was amazing! So green and lush, must rain here!

We landed and found our Rotarians, Dave and Robyn pretty quickly, they were on the lookout for us and then proceeded to wedge our small(ish) amount of luggage into their large(ish) trucks. Now for the Moose hunt! With eyes peeled for the drive we were unable to find a moose anywhere not the happiest but hey, it happens, we have time people!

From the airport we went straight to a meeting with the Mayor Tom O’Brien who was able to tell us about the goings on in the town of Stephenville. The building that we met him in was amazing, an ex-U.S airforce building that had the thickest walls I have ever seen! Oh, and the coolest desk that I have ever sat at! With the Mayor bidding us farewell we were off to the fun that is the host parents for the night.

Dave kindly dropped Shannon, Suz and myself off at our hosts, Debbie and Dave’s house which will now be referred to as the party house!



Robert kindly let us in and showed us around the house and as he finished Debbie arrived home to say hello and get ready for the evening!

As the girls slept and got ready for the evenings festivities I found a documentary on the Iceland volcano that has been causing a few troubles and (for a change) got really excited and settled in to watch that, you can’t sleep when there is a good documentary to be seen!

Before to long Rotarians were arriving and I had to get ready to, pity it took me a little help to figure out how to work the shower, thankyou Debbie for the help, I will get this before I go home?!

The pot luck was amazing, they MUST be taken home with us! Lobster Lasagna, Moose Pie do I need to continue? It was super supper.

Moose Pie and Lobster Lasagne:
(mmmmmmmm!!!!!)

There was much frivolity for the team and the Stephenville Rotarians we all sung many a tune, some dancing was to be had and Colin, after talking up how tough our sportspeople are, had to show his manbrand and face the might of teenagers slapping pucks at him (he was fully kitted out in goalie gear I might add.


After being shirted by 10 year old Julia it was apparent that Colin needed to harden up!


The late night kicked on into the wee small hours of the morning and before we knew it, we were out the door for the day again!

After all meeting at the College we were off for a day of touring the Port Au Port Peninsula with June and Joanne. It was first stop, pretty amazing church, so amazing was the fact that it was built by ship builders, fisherman and farmers! Not a single builder of dwellings between them, it was a very cool building and when Suz played the piano it sounded amazing!


Forgive Colin, Father (Suz?!), for he has sinned:

We continued onto the fun that was the Alpaca farm! The alpaca’s make a very strange noise when they are concerned its like a whine and a note all jumbled together, their home, high above the ocean on a cliff edge was pretty precarious but they seemed to love it, the wind by now was up and blowing a gale but it was still ice cream weather so we indulged and it was good!


Some awesome chowder met us for lunch at the Inn at the Cape B&B. They had the biggest set of lobster claws I have ever seen hanging above one of the doorways inside the house, HUGE. The view from this house was spectacular. Lunch lulled us into a happy place as we set off for the boot which gave some pretty good views of the cliffs that we were on, the team did their usual of taking many many photos and I did my usual worrying that one of them would fall off the cliffs! But they are all good on their feet and made me less worried when we were all safe and sound back in the bus!



We headed back into town and Suz and Shannon headed to the Bay Expo, an expo which promoted the towns businesses, education opportunities and attractions. David, Colin and myself went looking at the new environmental sewage treatment works which I really feel we need in Australia. So easy and simple, yet so effective! Wetland reeds can really clean things up people!

After this it was home to pack and ready ourselves for a presentation. A lovely dinner was had by all and our presentation was well (?) received! From here it was bye bye Stephenville and Hello Corner Brook as we left Stephenville with super memories and happiness, a top place to say hi to! Many thanks to all in Stephenville for your hospitality we had a blast!



- Cate