First Flight

Well, MY first flight, as Joseph has made the even bigger flight to the South Island, but refuses to comment on it, or much of anything else...

I (Carrie) flew to Wellington yesterday, for a meeting with all the other clinical psychology programmes in the country (there are five others. Like my Commonwealth spelling?). Wellington is the capital, at the south end of the North Island; it is supposed to be a very nice city, built into the hills and harbours, but renowned for its bad weather. When we arrived (a little after 8 in the morning, a 65-minute flight from Hamilton), it was beautiful. Unfortunately, I didn't have a window seat and didn't get much of a view of the city on the way in--the side of the plane I was on and could see looked out over a range of small but pointy hills, very green. I saw a few houses built into the hills, and around the airport there were some, but we never really got to see the city, as we went straight to the meeting at a small psychology clinic somewhere (I have no idea where) toward the city, and met, and then the storm came in, and the rain started going sideways, and we went straight back to the airport and were happy to get an early plane out, just a little bumpy going up, then over the clouds the whole way, and home by 5...I had heard that landing in Wellington can be "thrilling," and was unsure whether I really wanted to experience that. It is often very windy, and weather reports did forecase "gale force" winds yesterday...

Back in Hamilton, we have living room furniture, and it all fits and is very cozy. I will try to take more pictures tonight. Manford has discovered it is an easy walk to the cheese shop up the road from our house, and they have bread delivered on Fridays--we may have to watch his cheese habit...Emily is enjoying her drama lessons, at a church just up the street. She is going to be a pirate named Nancy, I think...I am charged with finding a pirate scarf. Joseph went for his first overnight at a friend's house, also walking distance away--it sure is nice to live near the kids' schools. And we discovered that they have "spook at the zoo" for Halloween, with bobbing for apples and "lollie scrambles" and whatever--so we do not have to figure out which of the neighbors is keen on trick-or-treaters; we can just go to the zoo. Halloween is not big here. It exists, but not the American way. We'll see...I am wearing my Halloween socks at least once a week in October, just to express my cultural heritage.

"Lollie," by the way, is a general term for candy, just as "pudding" is a general term for dessert. So if you come to our house for pudding, you might just get cake. Or we might even "shout" you for pudding at the local bakery...that means we pay...more reasons to come visit...

Carrie