	KIA ORA and GREETINGS from Warkworth NZ... Whow, it seems ages ago since I was there in Warkworth, England. My memories of that visit are quite vivid and I shall always appreciate everyones wonderful hospitality. I arrange Warkworth's Longest Dinner to which I cordially invite any local citizens that may be visiting New Zealand in February. The event is a fundraiser for the restoration of a 100 year old sailing scow and the local Kawau Coast Guard. The event is scheduled for Saturday 23rd February 2008 and I am expecting 1000 diners to sit down to a Riverside dining experience. Kindest regards Dave Parker Sister-Town Co-Ordinator Warkworth NZ
Click here to read all about it on the Warkworth, New Zealand website. Or to read how John Anderson Brown from Warkworth, Northumberland founded Warkworth New Zealand click here.

By the time you read this we may well be back from New Zealand and our visit to Warkworth on the "other side of the World". However in the next Pelican we hope to report on the Longest Dinner and the activity surrounding that event.

We have already been welcomed by a friends in Warkworth here, Dave Parker, who visited us last year in Northumberland included.

On our first evening we went to a charity "Opera in the Park" where there were some wonderful singers including a young man who had been trained by Pavarotti. We joined with the Warkworth Rotary and the Rodney District Council, met with Lockwood Smith the local MP and passed on good wishes from many who were known from friends in the UK. They certainly know how to raise money for good causes here.

Margaret is about to make contact with the local vicar and hopefully will be able to speak to the congregation here on 24th February before we leave. At some point we will be sharing the problems of the "North Wall" with people here. Already we have been able to pass on some of the Eco Bags from Edith Howliston and we are looking for a place to hang the panoramic view of Warkworth UK in the local information centre here.

Anyway, we shall write some more next month and perhaps be able to include some photographs of our Twin Town here in New Zealand.

John and Margaret Hobrough