Our trip to Wellington

On Friday, May 30 Carrie and I drove to Auckland and there got on a plane and flew to Wellington. Wellington is the capital of New Zealand. It is a swell place. In contrast to Hamilton, which I conceive of as being a modestly large town, Wellington, with a population of around 400,000 people in the immediate area, is a city. It has a number of buildings that only Superman can leap in a single bound, whereas Hamilton has only a few of these, and is much hillier and scenic with lots of interesting architecture. We had a wonderful dinner - fish chowder and Tuna cooked with a Miso sauce, and a yummy creme brule (sp?). Our hotel was in the downtown area, and there were two very nice small museums near by - one with a show focusing on a tribute to New Zealanders who were Viet Nam veterans - the government had only just recently made a formal apology to these vets - as they were apparently reviled upon returning from tours of duty in Nam. The other had a number of interesting displays, including one we could not quite figure out how it was done but there was a small stage with various furniture on it and then there appeared a woman and a man who looked very real though very small - some type of hologram - for they would disappear behind things some times and come closer at times. We also went to another museum, Te Papa, which is like a natural history museum combined with art galleries but our stay there was cut short by a false fire alarm as we had to evacuate the building which is better than evacuating in your pants which might have happened had there been a real fire. On Sunday we took a tour, with four other people, in a small van piloted by a knowledgeable chap who gave us some of the town's history and took us to see various sights, including the largest wooden building in New Zealand, a lovely wooden church, and some incredible views of the city from nearby high points of land. I am not capturing the charm or attractiveness of this city very well, but we really liked it and look forward to going back some day. We had placed the children with friends and they had a pretty good time (Joseph got to see the new Indiana Jones movie)and the dog at a nearby kennel where she got pretty dirty but enjoyed the company of many, many barky dogs. This was a trip to celebrate Carrie's 50th and our anniversary. She continued her birthday celebration with a small party at one of our favorite pub/restaurants, The Cook. We provided some beer, wine and snacks including kumara chips (fried sweet potatoes) and visitors (some anyway) provided company and gifts. A happy occasion. We are looking forward to a visit from a Topeka family, coming in July. The weather has turned cold but sunny. Thank you for reading this. Our best to all of you. Manford