I'm back

After about two weeks away I'm now back home. It was good to catch up with family in Auckland. Auckland is still mad and still the home of the leaky home (passed by a few in my travels). I managed to see Oliver for the first time, and decided that Scott must have found him in the cabbage patch, for he is too cute to be Scott's. On the night of the first storm struck I drove over the bridge to see friends who live on the North Shore. The Harbour Bridge swayed in the wind which made the journey across interesting. The fire service was out in force due to flooding and uprooted trees but I had no problems finding my way there and back safely.

For a day trip I went down to Coromandal. There is a private small gauge railway which goes up the side of the hill. At the top it looks over the harbour and you can see Rangitoto Island if you strain real hard. It was made by a local potter who bought the land and wanted to build a railway for something to do. Five times he said that he would go no further and five times he continued on. Now 40,000 people per year travel the line to the top of the hill.

On the way back I stopped off to do some skiing on Ruapehu. It had been more than 15 years, but I found I could still do the basics. I had planned to take some more lessons on my second day but the second storm struck so I went to the Wiaouru Military museum instead.

Returning to Wellington the next day I saw the damage the storm had wrought. Trees, signs, roofs all knocked over; signs of flooding and storm damage everywhere. But Wellington was relatively unscathed. And my place was all dry and in one piece. Now back to work. Sigh . . .