National Tour for 2003 State Winners – Lions Youth of
the Year Quest
The
major prize for State Winners in the Lions Youth of the
Year Quest is a 35 day trip around Australia. This
occurs in the summer holiday following the national
final.
This year, the trip began on December 27th
2003 and finished on 31st January 2004. .
The
“mechanics” of the tour include:
·
the
group is flown to all states, visiting the home town” of
each contestant and if possible, all capital cities.
·
the
group member from each state acts as the “host” for
their time in that state
·
group members are billeted by Lions families from the
State Winner’s sponsoring club while in each state
·
the
group enjoys many different organised and spontaneous
activities, including sight seeing, attending some
informal Lions Club gatherings (Lions are proud and
welcoming hosts) and being entertained by the Quest
sponsor, the National Australia Bank. There is also
considerable free time.
What a tour it was! The opportunity to travel around
Australia, stopping for 4 –7 days in each state, is
beyond the wildest imaginings of most people. Yet this
is what these young people did, Tobias, Rachel, Scott,
Laura, Ann and Michael.
First stop, Tasmania! The group had met for the
National Final in Hobart in May, so this time the
emphasis was on the North and North East – the Tamar
River area, many attractive country towns including a
town of murals, a theme park of hedge mazes, the cities
of Launceston and Devonport, water skiing, etc., etc.
etc. No time to rest!
From Tassie to Adelaide, just in time to celebrate New
Year’s Eve at Glenelg. They explored the Adelaide,
Hills, including the fascinating town of Hahndorf, the
Murray mouth, Victor Harbor and the Giant Rocking
Horse. Here the group became radio stars, recording an
interview on Community radio station, RPH Adelaide,
about the Youth of the Year Quest and their tour. They
also met and enjoyed the company of three delightful
Japanese girls, in Adelaide for Youth Exchange.
Next came Perth! Again, it was “all go!” From cruising
around the beautiful canals of Mandurah, to Fremantle –
a fascinating city in its own right - to a night time
Ghost tour of Fremantle Jail, (watch out for falling
bodies), to bike riding around Rottnest Island, viewing
the unique W.A. quokas. All very tiring but so
exhilarating.
Perth to Darwin – none of the group actually came from
Darwin, but it’s such a great place, it’s included in
the tour, if possible. The welcome was warm, the
activities as different as the city. A visit to a
crocodile and wildlife farm to see the crocs, ostriches,
kangaroos, and emus – eating a tasty sample of each of
them, too. Parliament House, Adelaide River War
Cemetery and lunch at a pub where “Charlie”, the buffalo
from the film “Crocodile Dundee” lives.
Next, to Cairns – the Queensland contestant’s home
area. Such a range of things here, too numerous to
mention in detail – the Kuranda Skyrail, the Atherton
Tablelands, visits to water falls, a dairy centre, wind
farm, sugar mill, mango packing shed, and to top it all
off, a day on the Great Barrier Reef and at Port
Douglas.
Off
to New South Wales! Woy Woy, the home of the NSW
winner, provided lots of water activities; kayaking,
sailing, knee-boarding. After a brief rest, the group
went to Sydney for a Bridge climb, jet boating around
the harbour, visiting the magnificent complex of Darling
Harbour, a night cruise on the Harbour on a vessel with
a different form of live entertainment on each of its
four levels. The beaches of Manly and Bondi were
compulsory visits too. The days went too quickly.
And
finally to Melbourne. Group members attended the
Australian Open Tennis, the Victoria Markets, the Queen
rock musical, “We Will Rock You” and finally took a trip
along the beautiful Great Ocean Road to see the Twelve
Apostles and do the Otway Canopy Walk. Finally, the
trip ended, on 31st January 2004, all six
winners hardly able to believe it had finished so soon.
In
almost every city, the State Winners were regally
welcomed and entertained at receptions by our sponsor,
the National Australia Bank, who recognises the value of
the Quest for all participants. It was the Bank’s
initiative to acknowledge the State Winners in this way
and the group members appreciated the generosity of
their gesture.
A
similar experience awaits all young people who take part
in the Lions Youth of the Year Quest and are amongst the
lucky final six who become their State’s Winners. And
you never know! It could just be YOU. None of those
who went on the tour last year ever imagined THEY would
be spending January as they did.
To
paraphrase a well known phrase that promotes the
Northern Territory: “You’ll never, never know if you
never have a go!”
On the 5th of
January 2004 the six State Winners of the Lions Youth of
The Year Quest (YOTY’s) Arrived in Western Australia on
their National Tour.
They were Ann
Boyapati (Victoria), Rachael Cain (South Australia).
Scott Forbes (Queensland), Laura Mineo (New South Wales
and National Public Speaking Winner), Michael Owens
(Tasmania) and Tobias (Toby) Young of Western Australia
who is also this years National Winner of Youth of The
Year.
Their organized and
chaperoned thirty five day National Tour which commenced
on December 27th includes visits to all States. While
the quest is a project of the Lions Clubs of Australia
it is largely sponsored by the National Australia Bank.
The qualities that
the quest looks for are leadership, personality, general
knowledge, sportsmanship, citizenship academic
excellence, evidence of community involvement and
ability in the area of public speaking. These young
people exhibit all of these qualities and they represent
the very best that each State has to offer. They are
also fit, healthy and adventurous 17 and 18 year olds as
we were soon to discover. Their energy levels peak at
110% all the time and I was glad that we had organized a
full program for their visit.
The first day was
devoted to settling in with host families, sight seeing
and shopping in the city centre. A family barbeque in
Ivy Watson playground in Kings Park marked the first
evening and representatives from many Lions Clubs joined
in the festivities. After the barbeque they boarded the
minibus for a tour of Kings Park, the city lights and
Northbridge after dark..
Tuesday was spent
at Mandurah as guests of the Mandurah Leos and Mandurah
Lions Club.
Lion John Walker
and his wife Kay made their beautiful home and boat
available to us for the day and a great time was had by
all. That evening they enjoyed a picnic tea on the beach
at Hillarys and watched the sun set over the ocean, a
first for most of the East Coasters.
Wednesday we had
morning tea with our sponsors at the National Australia
Bank before going to Fremantle for lunch. We had a two
hour fully guided tour of the new Maritime Museum before
engaging in a little scooter riding and dinner at
Cicerello’s.
We finished off our
day in Fremantle with the Ghost tour at the Old
Fremantle Prison (Well worth a scare or two and most
entertaining)
The next day, we
did ‘Rotto’. This is where the bike hire, sponsored by
the Lions Club of Canning City, was great.
The bikes were
booked, paid for and organized onto the boat in advance,
so we had a minimum of things to worry about on the day.
We had three Lions
who made the bike tour of the island with the YOTY’s
while Peter and myself manned the base camp and looked
after all the belongings.
The weather was
fantastic every day they were here. Even the
Queenslander was impressed.
Thursday night they
all spent the evening at Toby Young’s house together
with their host families before packing for the trip to
Darwin next morning.
Peter made each of
them a CD with all of the Photos he had taken during
their stay and we gave them a 2004 calendar of Perth
tourist spots to remember us by.
Great kids, a great
tour and great support from the host club Ocean Reef and
also Canning City and Mandurah Lions and Mandurah Leos.
Well done all.
Cheers
everyone, keep up the good work and let’s get another
winner for WA
