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Published: March 14th 2014
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Hello from Wellington – capitol of New Zealand. We arrived bright and early today. The sky was clear all day and only a slight breeze for most of the time, so it was a comfortable temperature – probably around 70 for most of the day. They predict that the next couple of days on the Southern Island will actually be cooler, but we’ve been having such great weather that maybe we will be lucky enough to have it continue.
Janet’s knee is doing better, although fortunately we had an easy tour scheduled today. But we are hopeful that she is over that problem. The laptop is still working so we will continue publishing the blog.
We started this day (being a Friday in Lent) with a meatless breakfast in the Horizon Court. We then went down to the theater and joined our tour group. Today was a 3 hour bus tour of the city. We were about the last couple in this group, so most of the seats were taken already, however the whole back row was open. This actually gave us more room and we were only a few seconds later than the rest
when exiting the bus – so not too bad. J
Wellington originally was a reasonably small town, with practically everything stapled to the side of hills along the coast. They began an extensive project to reclaim land from the sea and now 4/5 of Wellington sits on reclaimed land. This is in contrast to Napier where most of the reclaimed land arose from the ground as a result of an earthquake. There are various plaques on the sidewalk which mark where the original shoreline was located. Much of the business district and hotels, all the government buildings, essentially all the port, and some of the residential areas all are on fairly flat terrain near the sea, on reclaimed land.
Our first stop was quick photo-op outside the government buildings. Their legislature operates from a place called the beehive. We then drove past the new St Paul’s Cathedral but stopped for a visit at the Old St Paul’s church. It is built entirely of wood and is quite impressive. It is inactive (no regular services) but can be rented for various kinds of special occasions. Janet was able to open the cabinet where their very
elaborately embroidered altar linens are stored (good thing each is covered with glass because she and another lady were almost drooling over them). Meanwhile David was very impressed with the wooden structure itself.
Back on the bus, we drove around the business districts and had lots of placed pointed out in case anyone wanted to stop and shop afterwards. We pretty much zig-zaged all through town, but it was informative. We then stopped for another photo-op along the edge of Oriental Bay, with views of Wellington across the water. We then drove up a steep, narrow, and twisting road to the top of Mt Victoria. This location gave panoramic views of all of Wellington and the harbor. David climbed the 70 steps to the top viewing platform, but Janet was content to see it from the top of the mountain. There is a monument to Richard Byrd who was the first person to do any exploration of the South Pole region.
Our next stop was at the New Zealand Botanical Garden, and in particular we visited the Lady Norwood Rose Garden. The roses are past their prime as Fall approaches this area, but it
was very picturesque nonetheless. There were still individual rose blossoms on the plants, just not large clusters across the plants in the garden. It reminded us that rose season will be coming to St Louis before too long and we will have our own bushes to tend soon. While we were there we visited the Peace Flame which was devoted to avoiding another nuclear detonation in a war (we didn’t see any flame but there was a nice fountain and pond).
The bus then drove back to the shopping district where David and several others left the tour. He had contacted a lady on the ship who gives shopping tips to the passengers. She had given him instructions where to find an electronics shop. It wasn’t there but others in that area gave him directions and eventually he found the store. David was able to buy a universal laptop charger to replace our own. The salesman said that it might not fix the problem, but that we could return it to their store in Port Chalmers in 2 days if necessary. Then it was just a matter of walking back to the ship
Janet
ate in the International Café and then started watching the movie (Philomena) on TV that she had wanted to watch but not under the stars last night. When David got back from shopping he went up to the buffet and has a plate full of jumbo shrimp and fried cheese sticks. Back in the cabin he tested the laptop. Bottom line is that the same error message occurred with the new charger. Next time it happens David will write down the message and maybe someone will have a suggestion what we need to do next.
After all that David went up to the pool for an afternoon swim. By later afternoon the winds had started picking up and blowing from the south (coming from the general direction of Antarctica), so it was just a bit too chilly for sitting on a deckchair in a wet swimming suit. It is a bit confusing to us to think that winds from the north are warm and from the south are cold.
The previous two ports we have seen large piles of cut tree trunks. One of the days our guide explained how they are working a
long term timber project and this is just the harvest of that crop. Here in Wellington the mound of trunks was the largest we had seen anywhere before (see picture). There are some trunks which have already been cut into large timbers (8x8, or 10x10, or even some 12x12, and all anywhere from 8 feet to 20 feet long). The woodworker in David is amazed at the enormous supply of high quality wood, but the tree-grower in David is saddened by the extraordinary number of trees that have been harvested. I guess he can’t have it both ways.
Before dinner we each had a glass of wine in the cabin. Then we were off to dine with Dallas and Val (the only other two to show up this evening at our oversized table). We both had the crabmeat pate with caviar appetizer. Janet had the chilled apple soup and David had Fish Chowder. For the entrée, she had Cheese Ravioli and David had Salmon filet. For dessert, Janet had a bombe of almond ice cream and David had strawberry soufflé.
This evening we went to the Vista Lounge to see an Irish comedian from
Branson Missouri. His name is George Casey. The show was hysterically funny, but unfortunately most of the humor would not be suitable for Grandchildren to read in the blog. It wasn’t dirty but it certainly had an adult flair. He is also scheduled to perform on St Patrick’s Day evening, so we may well see him again.
Well the chocolate candies are on the pillow and we will close down today’s events by sending the blog. See you tomorrow.
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