Two Days in Wellington

I’m in New Zealand for 11 days, travelling from Wellington to Invercargill to attend a family get together. So I’m Postkiwi rediscovering the Kiwi part of me. I recently saw a truck with the saying, “Life is like a book. People who don’t travel spend their lives on one page.” Being back in New Zealand is a bit like going back to read a chapter of life, seeing everything with fresh eyes, and discovering what has changed.

I flew from Brisbane to Wellington yesterday on Air New Zealand, the first time for a while I’ve been on the airline. It was an enjoyable experience. It was fascinating to see the Nothing To Hide safety announcement in action, featuring nude attendants struggling to keep straight faces as they talk about staying alive in the event of emergencies. Watched the latest Harry Potter movie on the personalised screen (missed it when it came out at the movies) and tried my hand at multiplayer Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.

Arriving in Wellington Airport reminded me of what I miss about living in New Zealand. Right from the start there’s a sense of welcome and love of nature expressed. Maybe it takes a Kiwi to recognise it. I don’t know. I’d forgotten about the stones on the airport floor. And the use of the Maori language everywhere.

And then the weather. You can tell a lot about the weather at a destination by the clothes people are wearing. The darker the clothes, the colder it’s likely to be. Wellington people are currently wearing very dark clothes. We had a warning over the plane’s intercom when we were told that Wellington was 12 degrees Celsius with rain and a southerly wind. Nine degrees colder than Brisbane. So this is definitely not the place to wear light cotton drill trousers. Jeans are in. And jackets. And a few layers for comfort.

Wellington is a place for good coffee. I’m aiming to sample Havana, Mojo, Fuel (Revolution) and People’s Coffee, and maybe Caffe L’Affare for the sake of the six years I spent working a few doors along in College St.

The hotel I’m staying in has only got dial up access in the room. No McCafe close by for free internet access. So I’m using iPlay Internet Cafe in Manners Mall, at $3 an hour on the laptop.

The news headlines here are distinctly NZ. There’s concern over the cattle rustling happening somewhere around Timaru. And there was the cheese which fell off a truck yesterday, flogged from a train it seems. Australia gets a bit of attention, in a way that New Zealand never does in Australia. There’s some heat here in Wellington over the proposal to allow buses access to Manners Mall, with petitions on both sides.

I enjoyed using a BNZ ATM with choices given on what language I was going to use, with a choice of English, Maori, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French and German. The BNZ machines have green security sleeves to prevent skimming.

Thanks to Allister Lane at St Johns in the City, for a decent coffee and conversation.

I called into the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand national office in Cuba Street to catch up with staff there. The staff numbers have diminished greatly since my time at Tory St, 1994 to 2000. Was good to meet up with Heather McKenzie (Complaints Officer & Book of Order Advisor), Katrina Graham (finance administrator who started work there as receptionist shortly before my 14 year old daughter was born), and Margaret Fawcett (senior finance administrator). Was good to meet up with personnel advisor Juliette Bowater to hear about the assessment process for ministers and parishes rolling out this coming week and of course to get my name on the list of people available for call. Was also helpful to compare notes with Carlton Johnson who recently took up the role of Youth Ministry Development Leader, a development of the role I used to have.