19.2.11 – Water pistols and earthquakes

Emma, Luke and Tommy on the attack

The sound of bouncing grandchildren upstairs announced the arrival of another sunny day.  Meg, having managed to drag herself away from death’s door, became part of a family event, which involved Luke, Tommy and older sister Emma (8) filling immense water pistols in the paddling pool and firing them at the open balcony windows on the floor above, where grandparents, indigenous and visiting, were hiding.  The trick was to shut the windows just in time, or to throw buckets of water out onto the kids below.  Hard to say who won, but the children were certainly wetter than the adults.  Nothing daunted, they set off with mum and dad to a mud-sliding party.  The mind boggles.

Sue, Robin and family

Then a trip to Wellington – another large enclosed bay, with a huge harbour in which visiting cruise ship the Queen Elizabeth towered over every other vessel.  Wellington is the capital of New Zealand, with a mixture of rectangular glass fronted multi-blocks and earlier, art deco style buildings.  The parliament building is round, and was designed by the same architect as Coventry Cathedral, which is one of the most impressive buildings I have ever seen.  On the harbour front was the massive modern National Museum.  We went in, and studied exhibits on earthquakes.  New Zealand is on the Pacific Ring of Fire, and as such is prone to earthquakes, the last major one being in September 2010, in Christchurch, which is our next destination....  A computer game invited you to test your skills at protecting your house from excessive damage in a quake.  We achieved 2 out of a possible 7, so let us hope the fault lines remain intact till we have gone.

Studying New Zealand Tourist magazines is nothing if not illuminating.  One advertises a local beauty spot in the following terms ‘One of the most popular tours ..... (is to) Fossil Point, where old fossils expose themselves among the rocks’.  Old Fossil Bill is not planning to join them.

And so tomorrow it’s off on the Interislander ferry to South Island and then the train to Christchurch to join Bill’s cousin Ethel and husband Ronnie.  We’ll miss Sue, Robin and family though.