A Day With Yvonne

Sunday was a very very full and happy day! We went to a local church meeting at 10:30 am and met some really lovely people! There was Yvonne Chisholm, who we had previously been in touch with via email...and a number of other interesting folks. Yvonne offered to take us around Wellington in her car after morning tea, and so we set out after lunch to see the sights!

Before we move to the tour of Wellington, we will mention some of those in our morning church meeting....There was Kay, who is an industrial assistant for the NZ Council of Trade Unions. She has a love of information! We also met Ed, who is from the US and has lived here about three years. He is a volunteer fireman and loves metal music. Andrew is Kay's son and was very excited to light the candles for the meeting. An American ex-patriate named Susie was there for the first time, and we commiserated over the lack of dill pickles in Wellington. Her husband works as a nurse in a surgery center, and she works for the mayor's office. We sent extra Goo Goo clusters home with her for her sons.

Yvonne is such a kind person, with a background in teaching, guidance couseling, and policy development. She was very enthusiastic about driving around sightseeing! First we went to Wright's Hill by car, climbed a few flights of steps, and took in the view from this summit. It seems like you can see forever from here....In the distance we saw the windmill on top of Brooklyn, and Yvonne said we would go to the top of that as well. You can really get a sense of the whole city and surrounding suburbs, mountains, islands, and landmarks from this view. You can even see the expansive fence surrounding the Karori Wildlife Reserve, which keeps predators at bay...it evidently contains lots of birds.

Now it just so happens that Yvonne loves cemetaries as much as we do (she even helps to find families of some of the interred) and so we went to a very large and unbelievable cemetary. We marvelled at how it was physically possible to bury someone on the hilly terrain! I took photos so that all could see this place!

After eating lunch at the cafe in the Penthouse Cinema in Brooklyn, we drove up to the top of Brooklyn, where the famed windmill stands. It generates power from the wind and is so massive! It makes a whirring noise that was louder than what we expected. It was designed by the Danish and shuts down automatically with winds over 80 km/hr, although it supposed to be able to withstand winds up to 200 km/hour!

Finally, we drove around the coastline, and enjoyed the water and stunning views. Make sure to see the photos! If you put it on slideshow at the Flickr site, you will be able to see a plane land on the strip that juts out on the ocean...in a plane you feel lke you will land on the water!

Sadly, we had to get back by 5:30, since we had to drop off a video at "Video Tonite" to avoid overdue fees....It was such a great day. We hope to see Yvonne again!