Social programme

How to register

• complete online registration form and then pay on our booking and payment page

OR

• download registration form, complete it and either send it with payment to:
  
  RGC3 Conference
  C/- Encore Events Management
  13a Charles St, Westshore, Napier
  New Zealand
  
  or fax the completed form to +64-6-835-9549 with full credit card details.

Friday, 17 March 2006, 10.30 am – 4.00 pm

Visit to HortResearch, Mt Albert, Auckland

(More information on this will be available soon)

Cost:  NZ$10.00 per person – numbers are limited

Friday 17 March – Sunday 18 March 2006

Pre-Conference Tour

Cost:   NZ$600.00 single     NZ$450.00 twin/share per person

Numbers for this tour are limited with the itinerary for the Tour as follows:

17 March

One night’s accommodation at Copthorne Hotel, Anzac Ave, Auckland (breakfast included)

18 March

8.00 am depart hotel

Travel to Rotorua, stopping in Huntly for morning tea (own cost)

11.30 am arrive in Rotoura and visit Agrodome which includes sheep shearing demonstration, woollen mill, chocolate factory

1.00 pm lunch at Agrodome Café or Restaurant (own cost)

2.00 pm visit Rainbow Springs and see native birds, rainbow trout etc

3.00 pm drive through Government Gardens

3.30 pm arrive at Te Puia for introduction to Maori culture, boiling mud pools, famous Pohutu Geyser.

5.00 pm transfer to Park Heritage Rotorua Hotel (breakfast included)

6.30 pm Evening Maori hangi and concert experience at Tamaki Maori Village

19 March

8.00 am depart hotel

9.00 am view Huka Falls

9.40 am morning tea in Taupo (own cost)

10.10 am depart Taupo

12.30 pm arrive Napier, in time to participate in visit to Research Orchard.

Sunday 19 March 2006, 7.00 – 9.30 pm

Opening & Welcome Function – War Memorial Conference Centre, Marine Parade, Napier

Enjoy the opportunity to renew past acquaintances and make new friends at a barbecue on the beach overlooking the Pacific Ocean. This function is included in the fee for both delegates and accompanying persons.

Monday 20 March 2006, 7.00 – 11.00 pm

Harbour Cruise – numbers are limited

Cost:  NZ$60.00 and cash bar will be available

Relax at the end of a busy day on the Hawke’s Bay Wine Country Cat and enjoy the sights of Hawke’s Bay from the sea.  You will be welcomed aboard with a glass of wine followed by a delicious buffet meal.  Transfers from the conference accommodation to and from the vessel will be provided.

Tuesday 21 March, 7.00 – 12.00 pm

Conference Dinner

This function will be held at the Mission Estate Restaurant located in the upgraded seminary building at the Mission – New Zealand’s oldest winery.  The evening, including transfers from the accommodation and entertainment, is included in the registration fee for delegates and accompanying persons.

Thursday 23 March and Friday 24 March 2006, 10.30 am – 4.00 pm

HortResearch Palmerston North

Research activities located at the Palmerston North Research Centre include: plant gene mapping (apple, Prunus, and raspberry) for pest/disease resistance traits, fruit quality and dwarfing.  Anonymous markers identified using our high throughput technology and candidate genes selected from the EST database on the basis of sequence homologies and expression studies carried out at Mt Albert are mapped as microsatellites, SNPs or SCARs.  We will demonstrate the automated DNA extraction system developed here. This mapping team carries out all the MAS screens for the pipfruit breeders.  Other PN researchers working on  Rosaceae genomics are studying the reduction of generation time in apple, architectural modelling, flavour chemistry, antioxidants as health compounds as well as the development and use of monoclonal antibodies.

Cost:  NZ$10.00 per person – numbers are limited

Friday 24 March 2006, 10.30 am – 4.00 pm

HortResearch Nelson

The visit to the HortResearch centre in Motueka near Nelson will cover the breeding and applied genetics programmes of four crops each with their own specific breeding objectives:

• Hop (seedless triploid cultivars of high alpha types with good bittering properties, and aroma types with good flavour characteristics)
• Berryfruit (pest- and disease-resistant low chill raspberries and boysenberries with high quality fruit for the fresh market or for processing)
• Pear (new types that have crisp and juicy flesh textures with novel flavours and a long storage and shelf life by combining European, Japanese (Nashi) and Chinese pear)
• Kiwifruit (green-fleshed and yellow-fleshed cultivars, and some novel types including some with edible (hairless) coloured skin)

Cost:  NZ$10.00 per person – numbers are limited