June Event Dinner Maitland, South Australia, Australia
By Pirate Parrots on 06-Jun-09. Waypoint GC1Q8G7

All gone

time to put this one to bed ??????

Yes it is.

This years event

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=8a3c02eb-be33-41c7-a4ae-5e1bded7843e

Great meal!!!

A company of Parrots attended the dinner. Organising the event was always going to be a challenge with numbers increasing every year and this year looked like we would reach 150. When we reached 135 people the hotel began to panic and so we held numbers at that point which was disappointing as I knew people would have to be knocked back. However on the night the hotel staff were more confident that they could cater for the 150 and so efforts were made for everyone to attend. I very much enjoy organising an opportunity for people to get together and have some fun and so standing in the middle of the room and seeing people laughing and chatting and kids playing together brought a smile to my face. We thank Martha and her staff for the nice food and great service. Next year’s organisers will have a challenge to find a venue to cater for 150 plus people, my suggestion is to hire a big shed and get Postie Girl to make fried egg and cheese sandwiches, and of course plenty of red wine.
Mrs Pirate Parrot.

Mr Parrot would like to say a big thank you to Mrs Parrot and SA_Mystery Inc for making this all possible.
Mrs Parrot did all the ringing around to find a venue that could house us all and organising the meal arrangements with Martha. Tara did the spreadsheet and kept track of attendance whist we were away the month before the event. A great job by mum and daughter with very little input from me this year.
Then on the night Martha and her staff did an absolutely brilliant job of serving us all. Over 150 people in a small country pub and all fed in a couple of hours what a fantastic job.
Lots of food. Great company. What more can you ask.

We were there too! Great company and great food.

Well done to all the staff for their fantastic work in catering so well for such a big crowd.

Nice food... good company... lots of well fed geokids... well done to the pub for handling the difficult crowd. Kudos to the bartender who made perfectly separated "Fruit Cups" for the kids (which turned to a brown mess within 2 minutes).

What a fantastic yummy meal. Thanks to Martha and all the staff.

We ate what shonky ate. Didn't quite take the food out of his mouth
... But almost !

I was very impressed with the venue and the organisation of feeding all us hungry Geocachers. The food was outstanding, despite the numbers the quality and variety of mains and salads was excellent. Could not have been catered for better!!

I came home to a shed party!! So much for trying to have an early night!! hehe. Thanks PG for organising the shed party, it was a hoot, wouldn't have it any other way.

While the fuse blew we held a mini mystery event....."no it wasn't a climbers chalk bag!" Mini Zyth. Well done to Freddo and Zytheran for a correct guess of the contents/elements.

Here's the link for all the interested ladies/ parties!! LOL

http://www.traveljohn.com.au/traveljohn_urinal.htm

Cheers Josie

P.S. ear plugs a total necessity if camping in the Shed! ( or nearby)

WOW!!! What a feast of delicious food!!!

Thanks for organising this one guys!!

What can we say......................YUM!
"Thanks so much to Martha who coped with catering for the Keeper's allergy with ALL THE PEOPLE!!!"

A special bug and coin dined too!

Amazing effort by the caterers to put on such a great meal for so many people at once. Well done.

Oh yeah, I attended too.

We came, we saw, we ate. Then we attended the pg shed after-party which in our opinion, should have been listed as a separate event . As we weren't invited to this, this *technically* made us gate-crashers. There must have been something in the provided snacks, though, as Mr O was suffering from some strange form of food poisoning the next day, although funnily enough, this was gone by lunchtime

Good food and good company, and all at a great price. Thanks for organising a great night out.

Our first Event Dinner- a really great evening with fabulous food & meeting so many great folks & catching up with old friends.Crane 2's collection of geocoins was amazing! Thanks to all who organisd it.

This was our first event dinner, and it was great! The staff at the pub did a terrific job! Great to meet so many caching identitys and see Crane 2's amazing collections of geocoins and pathtags.

Had a great time, can't wait for the next one!

Exellent dinner, even if we had to eat it in the front bar because we were too slack to decide if we were going or not. Good feed and good company. Thanks

Was really looking forward to a nice meal and we weren't disappointed..... Thanks to the Yorke Valley Hotel for a fantastic meal which I am assured was enjoyed by all...... It was good to catch up on some caching stories while enjoying our meal and a drink with it.... Thanks to all

We weren't sure if we would actually make it up to the dinner after our disasterous day of car problems, but we braved the road in our loan car more commonly known as "The Tank" and had a great evening! Managed to protect the geogem from PG, did some trades, shared my Pathtag and coin albums, enjoyed the food and the company! Cache #409. Congrats to PG on conning her own geogem out of another (hopping) cacher!

I haven't been to the Yorke since I lived over here twenty years ago when I came here with Rocky Glen Grom mum, so it was great to be back! What a surprise it was to see Martha formerly of the Riverland as the publican there! Despite it being such a huge night for the pub, they all did a fantastic job!

Very glad we got our booking in time to enjoy the dinner. Full credit to the pub for serving a great three course meal to 120+ people in under 2 hours!! I've been to pub lunches where the pub can't serve me a bowl of wedges in that time, but we won't talk about that....
Lovely to catch up with everyone, and make an appearance at Postiegirl's shed party afterwards.

An excellent meal for a great price. Very impressed with how the venue catered for everyone in good time. And they came and offered for you to go back for seconds. Have been to pricier dinners where you are only just getting your main meal at 9pm.
Thanks for organising the dinner Deb. A very successful event.

00:49 Found on our June Long Weekend YP mud slide!

Another great event. If only these guys could do our pub lunches.

We were worried at first that everything would be all over the shop, but it was really the opposite. A very well run ship, with plenty of food, drink, and time for a laugh along the way. We left with full bellies, which was great as there was caching to be done.

Highlight of the evening would have to be Lee-Anne checking that the mens toilets were safe by accident. Why do the womens toilets have urinals Lee-Anne? Ah well she found the right room eventually, but not until after we all roared with laughter.

Thanks for the well organised yummy meal, the staff were great.

Good food, good friends and good social lubricant. What more could one want.

Passing through my new Event geocoin.

Thanks to Parrot & Freddo for wonderful organising the event.

We were late booking, so couldn't be there for the meal, but we dropped in for a short time to say hello after eating delicious pizza from the local diner.

This entry was edited by goingtheredoingthat on Saturday, 13 August 2011 at 23:47:57 UTC.

will attend

Really enjoyed the meal and the company.

Thanks Parrots for organising this.

The pub did a great job getting us all fed in a reasonable time & the food & bar service was excellent also.
Why dont we move the Pub Lunches to here [:o)]

This was an impressive piece of catering for such a huge number. Many, many places in the big smoke couldn't do what they did here.
And the food was mighty good too.

A really nice dinner where I got to catch up with some old faces and some new ones aswell.
A well done to the organiser and a well done to the pub for coping with all of us.

Mr Parrot would like to say a big thank you to Mrs Parrot and SA_Mystery Inc for making this all possible.
Mrs Parrot did all the ringing around to find a venue that could house us all and organising the meal arrangements with Martha. Tara did the spreadsheet and kept track of attendance whist we were away the month before the event. A great job by mum and daughter with very little input from me this year.
Then on the night Martha and her staff did an absolutely brilliant job of serving us all. Over 150 people in a small country pub and all fed in a couple of hours what a fantastic job.
Lots of food. Great company. What more can you ask.

As soon as I arrived our table was next in line, the food was great and I even got ice cream with fruit for my dessert
thanks Mrs parrithead for a great evening

Passing a TB through

A great night to catch up with fellow cachers, and meet some of the newbies also.
Dinner was great, with smiley service.
Thanks to the Parrots for organising such an event on such a scale.
Thanks

What a great night, the food was fantastic, i was surprised how good the service was for a small town with so many people

Excellent meal. Great company. Well done to everyone involved.

I ate food. I drank wine. I think I also offered to adopt Ermies' kids temporarily. That would make the number up to 5 I think, although Chizbekis may have enquired also, so 7. Oh dear. Please no one tell Marty.

Anyway, 'twas a fine evening. Bravo to the staff for feeding us all.

Thanks to Parrothead and Freddo for organising this, the food and the service were fantastic, they coped really well with such a big group of us. The kids had a fantastic time meeting one another and making new friends. See you all next year.

Had a lovely time meeting new cachers, meal great, Thanks to all.

Find# 525
28th find of the day.
A magnificent job by the hotel staff in feeding the huge gathering of cachers.
The smorgasbord choices were great and the sweets superb.

A great night, and a good warm up for the shed party afterwards.

The hotel staff did a superb job coping with the huge turnout, the food was good and there was plenty on offer. We all tucked in, building up our strength for the gruelling competition on the next day...

Thanks Pirate Parrots for organising the dinner!

What can I say - for a little town in the middle of nowhere, they can certainly look after 150 hungry cachers.

Thanks for the Hotel, Parrotheads and Freddo for a great night and a chance to meet some new cachers.

I had to forgo the shed party afterwards though to take in some night caching around Moonta.

Great meal Great company what more can one ask for.

Beautiful dinner - ended up very full and had to walk it off. Staff were exceptional and were still smiling at the end of the night. We returned the next night.

What a fantastic meal and brilliant service, the hotel owners went out of their way to make us feel welcome. We were even on the last table to collect our main courses and there was still so much food. Katy has a special diet and the hotel host Martha, went over and above to look after her, Absolutely fantastic. Great Choice of venue Andrew, well done and thank you again for all your work and efforts.

Food stuff is good stuff, and the company was nice too,
I'm sure Maitland loved the huge patronage they got over the weekend
Thanks for putting it together

Well that was a fitting end to a big day out. The staff did a marvellous job and the food was tasty. There seemed to be lots of caching talk. I wonder if we could go here for a pub lunch every month.

After some consternation that we would have to sit out in the street with a cold pork pie, we were pleased to discover that they could cater for us after all. In the end, it was one of the best dinners we had had in a long time with plenty of food – so much so I couldn’t even fit dessert in .

Great company & great food. Cheers all .

Excellent event commendations to all involved in organising it and to the pub for surviving it.

Attended by Team GeoCoopers.
As we missed out on the initial booking, we ventured up the road to the next pub... Which was also booked out.
We ventured a little further up the road and found a quiet little cafe. After a lovely dinner, and terriffic Mars Bar cheese cake for dessert we returned to the event at the pub.
We had a few drinks before Angus the newest addition to our team, at only 6 weeks old wanted a drink of a different kind back in the comfort of the motel.
Thanks Pirate Parrots.

After being there for less than 5 minutes, I was drinking Alex's wine. Then there was the 1 thousand carat diamond trackable. You had to be there.

Clear skies and a big thanx to the organizers.

What a great night!

Caught up with some cachers that we knew and met some new cachers.

Great Meal, Great Atmosphere, Great Service.

Thanks to Parrothead and Freddo for organising the event.

We drank,we ate and we were just plain silly and then we got to witness numerous proposals with a million $ diamond !!!! The best bit was PG 's shed party after though - sorry to those who sms' us to be quiet - you should have joined us LOL A great time had by all and a lot of hangovers about on Sunday for the Event - Love It ! TFTDC

Found @ 18:31. Planning on having another great night, in the company of the usual suspects. Thanks as usual goes to the Parrots and the Freddo for their hard work in organising. Let the games begin.

Edited my Will Attend log, changed 3 attendees to 2.

[B]For those of you without a dinner booking.[B]

We have been in touch with the Owner of the Dinner Venue to identify possible further dining options for cachers who missed out on a seat at the dinner.

There is a beer garden that is not yet finished and therefore is not undercover and would be very cold, and if it rains-wet. However for those who want to brave this area you can request a seat out there for the night. Check with the hotel prior to the night if you want to do this to see what meal options are available.

Also there are a couple of small tables in the front bar so meals can be purchased from the bar and eaten there.

We can't guarantee these options will be available. It is first come first serve on these which includes the locals.

Once dinner has finished in the dining room management are happy for those people who missed out on dinner to come and join in for socialising if they would like to.

Parrots

Hi. We have a good friend who is a local and I asked him whether there was any where he would recommend for people who can't be fitted in to the dinner at the Yorke. (Not us )
The thought of people banging on the windows and begging for scraps...I've pasted his response hope it helps some of the late comers.
___________________________________________________
[blue]Hi, there is also the Maitland Hotel, and the Maitland Copper Kettle
does excellent takeaway; I highly recommend their chicken fillet burger!
Both are in the main street, north of the Yorke Valley and on the
opposite side.[/blue]

Thankfully Shonky included spaces for me in his posting. He couldn't remember when I spoke to him on the phone the other night. I was worried that he was gonna make me do all the work, but not feed me . Looking forward to seeing everyone there.

I was away all last week and never got around to posting a "Will Attend" . Sorry 'bout that. If it's not too late to notify, Auzee and I will be there

Or perhaps not.... I wrote the above straight after opening the page, and before I had bothered to read all the logs. Bugger .

[This entry was edited by Nibs on Monday, June 01, 2009 at 3:32:06 AM.]

2 adults for dinner please.

The note about the dinner has scrolled off the page so I will update the cache listing so it is more visible.
This event reached capacity on May 29th and we can no longer accept requests to attend.

Hmm looks like we are heading to Vinnie for fish and chips at the Sister in laws establishment. Maybe we should set up an alternative event "the caching dinner you have when you cant make up your mind in time". Have a good night everyone we will be getting plenty of sleep so we can dominate the competition on Sunday

Guess I'll see you in the front bar (...love toasted sandwiches....)

See you in the front bar Astro, save Brooke and I us a couple of seats and a spot for the pram .

We'll wave to everyone through the front window! Mrs gtdt took too long to make up her mind if she was going to be there. Vegemite sandwiches on the footpath will have to do.

If you see 4 people doing this strange walk outside, then that will be us. (walking like a geocacher)

Hi All
All seats for the dinner are now full.

I have been advised by the venue they cannot take anymore. As it is with the numbers we have it will be a tight fit.

Please advise if you need to cancel so that I can let the venue know.

Cancelled spots will not be filled.

Those on the list as of today will receive a team token to identify attendance and number of meals that is to be presented to the cashier on the night.
Cheers
Mrs Parrothead

I wish Mrs Parrot would make up her mind.

Looks like it's going to be a tight fit.

We have had two different limits set by the venue.
I dont think they believed we could fill their hotel.

Probably 3 adults, I'll assume the kids will be hungry.

5 adult meals for TWDG please.

Two adults and three kids thanks.

In that case, can you squeeze in one more adult please?

Room for 6 more please?
4 adults, 2 children

Bugger...

*** Important note ****

The venue where we are holding the event can seat 150 people.

We have now recieved bookings for the 150 seat limit of the hotel.

This was unexpected as with previous June events we have never exceed a venues capacity.

The only other possibility at this time for those who havent booked will be to find seats at the front bar on the night.

We will create a reservation list from e-mails we recieve and offer seats to those at the top of the list if vacancies become available.

If you are not able to attend and have booked please free up your seats for other geocachers.

We will be issuing dinner event slips for those who have booked at event registration and you will need to present them to be seated at this event.

I sincerely hope everyone who wants to attend this event has already booked.

We are sorry if some people miss out on attending as being over booked for an event is a first for us.

**************************************************************

Count us in, 2 adults, that act like big kids most of the time

5 adults 1 child for Team Supachick

Thanks Andrew remind me. I will attend.

crane2 will attend, 2 adults.

I will be attending thanks - 1 adult possibly 2 children - one over 12. Thanks

Orange Angels will be there with 2 adults & 3 kids. Aged 11, 9 & 2

Hi Guys
Please book us for 2 adults, 4 children (10, 7, 5 and 5yo).
Thanks!

I'll be there, at this stage, by myself,
Could someone tell me when it starts, as unfortunately i wont be able to attend the entire weekend

2 adults please.

Anything that gets Jenny out of cooking a meal - we will be there.

2 Adults and 2 kids ....

Three Adults pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeese!!!

3 Adults and 2 kids. (Allergies noted by Martha, thanks Parrotfrogs...a new species?? hee hee!)

I will be there for the Dinner.

Count us in too! That will be 2 adults and 3 kids please (aged 9, 7 and 2).

1 adult and 2 children

GInger Ninja and I will be there

Barry and Beryl will attend 2 places please

Yep put me down for 1. Really looking forward to catching up with other cachers