Teams A and B

Day 32 marked the final day of our Tasmanian adventure and what a great day it was!

The boys' team began by returning at dawn to Dove Lake in Cradle Mountain National Park.

The temptation for a long overdue sleep-in proved no match for our desire to rekindle the magic of yesterday’s adventure, this time better equipped to capture it on camera…

Meanwhile the girls' team had gotten the ball rolling with fabulous complimentary hot chocolate at the Anvers Chocolate Factory. They were delighted to be joined by their lovely host from the previous night, Shirley Hartnett. Shirley really went out of her way to look after the girls, taking all seven of them into her home for the night and cooking them a gourmet three-course meal. They were truly touched by her kindness and sweetness.

From this point on, the teams were to merge beginning with a splendid reception hosted by the Trowunna Wildlife Park in Mole Creek and co-ordinated by Meander Valley Council.

Unfortunately, due to some suspect navigating by the 'national co-ordinator', the boys' team arrived over an hour late. In the interim the other runners enjoyed the opportunity to acquaint themselves with ‘Elsie’ the Wombat, ‘Menai’ the 12-month-old Tasmanian Devil and a host of other furry friends.

When the proceedings finally got underway, we were treated to a beautiful original song performed by Patrick Gambles, the Community Development Officer for the council.

We then talked a little about the Run and played our usual game in which we invite the audience to guess the nationality of all our international runners – often the guesses can be quite funny, especially when the nationality of Runar, our six-foot-four, blonde, Icelandic half-runner-half-viking, is for some unknown reason continually suggested as being Chinese!

Following this, we were thrilled to present the Torch-Bearer Award to two upstanding members of the local community, namely Marjanne Pugh

and Lindsay Swain.

Marjanne has served the needy in her community with great selflessness and humility, never seeking recognition and always willing to assist those experiencing difficult times. Lindsay is a stalwart volunteer who has worked extensively in establishing and maintaining crisis support and health and well being centres in the region. We salute them both.

To close proceedings, Bob Loone, the Deputy Mayor, offered some heartfelt words and tidings for a safe and successful journey.

Students from Mole Creek Primary School then presented each runner with a jar of local honey, and the wildlife park kindly offered us each the choice of a soft toy memento from their gift shop (the wombats were, not surprisingly, very popular). Thank you to everyone who made it such a great ceremony.

We were then given a tour of the Tasmanian Devils being fed, and we saw exactly why they are given the name they have...

Next up was Hill Crest Primary School in Devonport.

Unfortunately, our detour from earlier in the morning had a flow on effect and we were very late in arriving at the school. Invariably, this happens from time to time, but we always feel bad when we keep people waiting. In this instance, the whole school had waited for over an hour in freezing and wet conditions, forming a guard of honour through which the team could run.

When we finally arrived we were escorted by a group of selected students as we ran along high-fiving almost every kid in school – it was a great feeling! Two students presented us with a certificate of appreciation and all the children with whom we spoke were so mature and polite. We left the school still buzzing with excitement, but a little sad that we had not been able to offer them as much as they had offered us. Thank you Hill Crest Primary School.

Our final ceremony for the day took us to Devonport Library, where the Devonport City Council had graciously organised an extensive reception for us.

Present were many children from the local primary school, teachers, parents, members of the community, reporters from the local newspaper and council staff. It was great!

Alderman Bill Wilson from the Devonport City Council was master of ceremonies, a role he carried out with distinction. We were treated to performances by the girls' choir and also a cleansing song and dance by the Goondooloo Aboriginal Cultural Dancers.

The kids were great. They had lots of insightful, or funny, or obscure, yet always endearing questions for the international team members, and really came into their own when we gave them each the chance to hold the torch.

Kids really do give us a lot of joy. To finish, Marcus Lee presented us with pins from the Devonport City Council which we proudly affixed to our team uniforms. Thank you to all who were involved.

During the Devonport function, the message of Harmony was also presented in sign language. There was a signer present for the entire time, relaying the songs and much of the conversation. Although, she was reduced to laughing and shrugging when the runners started to speak in their own language. This may be the first time that a ceremony has been interpreted in sign language and it certainly added to the spirit of oneness.

So ends our stay in Tasmania. To the people of Tasmania, we are all gratitude. Thank you for receiving us with such warmth and appreciation. We look forward to visiting you again in 2009 ☺

 – Christopher Willis (Australia)

A very, very, special thanks to Audrey for her tireless efforts to arrange and accompany us throughout the whole of Tasmania – great job!

– Prabhakar Street (Canada)

If you would like to place a link or a write a story about the World Harmony Run on your website, click here to Link to Us. We'll be happy to place a reciprocal link and list you on our Friends Online page.

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Team Members:
Prabhakar Street (Canada), Edi Serban (Romania), Sandro Zincarini (Italy), Runar Gigja (Iceland), Dima Lehonkov (Ukraine), Colm Magee (Ireland), Christopher Willis (Australia), Prachar Stegemann (Australia), Audrey Ward (Australia), Lucy Monro (Australia), Kate Volkhardt (Australia), Nataliya Lehonkova (Ukraine), Friederike Makowka (Switzerland), Angela Muhs (Germany), Kylie Williams (Australia)

Harmonemail:
You can send a message to the runners or read the messages.

Gallery: See more images!

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