Not so much first as last

Preparing for Dragonboat racing

That is, my last day with J&B, though it was in the North Island not the South – in Wellington, to be precise.  We set off with a sort of plan of action, but that soon went by the board when Jackie spotted some temporary gazebos and clusters of people at the waterside.  It was dragon racing but despite being carried along by the atmosphere we still have no idea about the ins and outs of a dragonboating meet.  There was a lot else going on and I could have spent a lot in the craft market.

We had some culture then, going to the Museum, but as with all museums were quite mindblown before we had seen the smallest fraction.  We thought we might go back but hunger needed to be satisfied.

Then we found a microbrewery with something like 48 beers on tap – a number J&B found bewildering until some guy (possibly tipsy) said he’d go and find them a sample of the one he thought was best.  They thoroughly approved, so that was good.  As we left Jackie asked (the Irish) barman something about where to go to get high and he looked rather  taken aback until she clarified that she wanted an overall view of the city.

We took the cable car up to the Botanic Gardens, where the engineer in B got quite engrossed in the Cable Car Museum before we ambled about a bit before coming back.  In the gift shop we got into a short conversation with Peter Skellern.  Who’s old enough to remember him?  Well, any fans out there, he’s got a play opening  tonight for which he wrote music and lyrics and it’s a sell out.

Wellington from the Botanical Gardens

The human interface sundial. Yes, it was 4:00pm

Tomorrow it’s a train ride – a long one – to Aukland and J isn’t being altogether charitable about me having to check in somewhere round 7.00am.

So goodbye everyone.  I’ve had a wonderful time and have seen so much I can never remember everything in one session.  I’ve got a couple of days in Aukland and I might just spend one of them asleep!