Govt House visit eye opener

Hastings Girls' High School principal Geraldine Travers with Governor-General Sir Jerry Mateparae.

When Hastings Girls' High School principal Geraldine Travers received a phone call inviting her to dinner at Government House, she told the caller she'd have to think about it.

"I was a bit daunted. But my husband informed me I wasn't likely to get asked a second time, so I decided that yes, it would be the chance of a lifetime."

Mrs Travers made the trip to Wellington last week to attend an investiture ceremony, in which she was one of 25 people receiving New Year's Honours awards. She received the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to education.

However, the dinner invitation, just 10 days before, was a surprise. "Each year, some of the people who have received honours are invited, along with their partners, to an investiture dinner at Government House. I was lucky enough to be one of this year's invited guests.

"The only briefing we received was about the standard of dress, and that we had to wear our awards. I'm not much of a big-noter, I prefer to get to work and get stuck in, so the idea of turning up with an award pinned to my chest felt very ostentatious. It was all right though -- we all had one."

In the end she needn't have felt daunted by the occasion.

"The Governor-General, Sir Jerry Mateparae and his wife, Lady Janine, were very warm and welcoming. They had gone to extraordinary lengths to make us feel at ease. At dinner we weren't seated with our partners. Instead we were seated next to people with whom we had something in common.

"I was told that Sir Jerry organises this himself. So on my right I had Dr Christopher Pugsley ONZM, New Zealand's foremost war historian -- history is my subject and of late I've been engrossed with military history.

"On my left was Brother Sir Patrick Lynch KNZM, QSO, a leading New Zealand educationalist. Also at the table was Pike River survivor Daniel Rockhouse, recipient of the New Zealand Bravery Medal for saving another miner after the explosion at the Pike River mine. "EIT's Dr Susan Jacobs MNZM was there as well, awarded for her service to nursing education. They were amazing people, everyone had a story. We could have talked all night."

Sir Jerry had made a speech before dinner. "He said that behind every successful person was a network of support, including family support, and he paid tribute to them."

The meal, "served on beautiful china, with crystal and silver", was fantastic, but the efficiency of the event had impressed her most.

She will share the experience with her students this week at assembly and hopes to take some of the "effortless efficiency and aplomb" she enjoyed at Government House to the running of the school's events.