I have not run anything on the forum for a long time so it is time to dust of the organizational skills and see what mischief we can come up with.
Centered in the upper part of the delightful Waitaki Valley I have obtained, for the forums use, as Winery and Vineyard. The Vineyard is sufficiently large to swallow a whole forum worth of tents, or there is accommodation locally. You can sleep in the factory if you want to, we will have the run of the place.
We will have the use of the cafe/restaurant and kitchen and just for fun my wife will fire up the restaurant for a grand feast for all attendees. The restaurant will take somewhere between 80-120 people. I would like this to be something of a gathering for everyone. A sort of forum general meeting if you will. It is a pretty neat facility in a great location for a big forum get together, with the added bonus that it is completely free.
This is in the spirit of the first ever forum gathering. Way back in I can't remember when. Took me forever to retrieve this image. That is a few girlfriends ago and I have no idea where that cat came from, but this is the first ever forum BBQ in New Zealand's history (North Islanders will claim they were first of course). Back in those days one did not just meet people from the internet unless one was a pervert, so we all sat around wondering (openly) which one of us was a psycho-killer. It was the start of many good meet ups and after a few drinks and a feed (venison) we went inside and spent the rest of the night on MapToaster (cutting edge technology) looking at hunting spots. Might have been 2004?
The only conditions are that some of you buy some wine, and that we show the general manager a good time and take him hunting. He is from Uruguay and has only been hunting once in NZ, so he is keen. There will be a cost of some sort, which will go to paying for dinner. We will also stock the restaurant bar specifically for the event.
I have yet to begin finding hunting, but the winery is located at Kurow and backs onto the Waitaki River, so we should be able to come up with some options. It will be available after Easter and a forum duck shoot could be a lot of fun. I can get a lot of people onto decent water and we have 50 duck limits and serious numbers.
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