Wellington

Well we are firmly ensconced in city life and are enjoying what it has to offer.
Our engine squeal is still there but the mechanic here finally thinks he knows what is causing it and it is now just a matter of getting rid of it---oh we will be sooooo happy when it gets resolved. The dingy outboard is waiting some new seals and other than that we hope we have no new issues to deal with before we head back to Canada—the boat has taken its share of our money and we would like some left for us!!!!
The marina is in a corner of the harbour which leads to the bays I spent my youth at. It is also close to my mother’s house and with our car we are very mobile.
Life in the marina is interesting— the resident gulls provide entertainment when they show up in the hundreds each evening.
Sundays a group of elderly men bring their remote controlled sail boats down and spend hours playing with them—boys are never too old for their toys.
Now that school is back it seems that an elective for physed is dingy sailing. There are about a dozen boats and they are sailed by boys from about 8 years old. They have a great time as they try and ram each other and have water fights as they bail. If it is particularly windy, which is often the case, the thing to avoid is ending up against the log jam as it is difficult to sail off it. They do have a great time and I am sure they all envisage themselves as future America’s cup sailors.
We managed to get my brother and three nephews together to go fishing out into the Cook Strait a week ago. The forecast was for light winds and seas becoming glassy—what could be better for a fishing trip? We set off at 6 30 AM and motored the 14KM to the “spot” where the grouper are meant to be at 200 metres deep. Shortly after the lines went out the winds started to pick up—the other power boats around us all started to head back—a sign?????
Not to be a quitter Ken decided we would try and wait as surely the glassy seas would come---wrong!!! Finally as the winds were picking up towards 25-30knots he decided we should give it up only to have one of the lines get caught around the propeller. Oh well we are a sailboat and we do have wind so we tacked endlessly into the wind back through the heads. We then anchored in a shallow part of the harbour where the lines went out again and Ken dove under the boat and unwound the caught line ending up with a mass of tangled line on deck. We did manage to catch a few small fish and the boys all enjoyed the sailing. It makes me think those who sail against the “trade winds” are crazy as to tack your way around the world must be exhausting.
Wellington certainly deserves its reputation as a windy city but on a sunny day it is very beautiful and you forgive it the wind. It is also a city very close to nature and we have hiked up into the hills through the lovely bush with harbour views. We can do some lovely walks around the hills near the bays or along the river to the city centre of Lower Hutt. We had a beautiful dinner at a restaurant overlooking the beach for our wedding anniversary.
The whole country is sports crazy and we have had rugby, cricket, sailing and tennis continuously dominating the television. We had our fix last Saturday starting off watching a local cricket game in Wellington with my nephew Sven. It was a lovely day and everyone sits on the grass cheering on their local team. The game we went to was Wellington against Otago (the south of the South Island). They have developed watcher friendly matches which are a very much shortened version of the original matches and they are over in a about four hours. Unfortunately Otago was the much better team and the game was even shorter. It was fun though to sit in the sunshine.
It was also the weekend of the “Sevens” which is the world wide rugby tournament also developed for television watchers. It involves teams of seven players playing seven minute halve games of fast running rugby. This has become so popular that traditional non rugby playing nations are entering teams—Canada and USA had teams here. They play all over the world, Hong Kong used to have the largest tournament but Wellington has taken over and it brings 12 million dollars into the city over the two days. The tickets are $160 and are sold out in the first hour they are on sale. It has become popular to dress up and the costumes are amazing. It has become one huge party and the revelry spills all over the city. After we had got back to the boat from the cricket my niece phoned to say they had been there but after having driven from Auckland were tired and would we like to go for the rest of the day. It starts at 2pm and goes until 10pm. We jumped in the car and got there by 6 30pm. It was crazy with everyone drinking and partying. We were amongst the few people not in costume and I am not sure how much rugby is watched after the first hour. We saw Canada tie France and New Zealand beat Australia. The opening ceremonies were held while we were there and we loudly cheered Canada as they marched in.
We did not have the tickets for the next day when NZ was beaten in the finals by England. This was an upset although the tournament is viewed as a whole over the 20 different countries where it is played. NZ, South Africa and Fiji are the traditional favorites.
The next day we set off to the Wairarapa—a valley across a mountain range about an hour away to the Martinborough Fair which is billed as the largest of it’s kind in Australasia. Once again it was a lovely day and we enjoyed seeing all of the arts and crafts for sale.
Afterwards we went to a local winery, bought a bottle of wine and sat under the trees listening to the jazz band which was playing. We then drove to another winery which was hosting the university drama club putting on Henry V—this summer all of the works of Shakespeare are being put on outdoors somewhere in NZ. Once again we were not prepared for the NZ summer lifestyle which always has a picnic blanket and food in the car but were invited to share the food of a group of friends sitting near us, it was a lovely evening.
There are so many outdoor activities on all summer and we will attempt to pay attention and go to more of them.
We are hoping to have the boat and the weather ready for us to go across the Cook Strait to cruise the Marlborough Sounds at the end of the week for a few weeks.