First Day

Our first day in Wellington seemed endless, partly because of jet lag, partly because of what I've been calling "season lag".  Although we arrived early in the morning, it felt like early afternoon . . . and then the sun stayed up well into the evening.

The four of us barely managed to stay awake until bedtime.

Here are a few pictures of the day.

First, the view (through a dirty window) from our bedroom in Weir House, looking up the hill toward the top of the Wellington Cable Car line.

The tree with the red flowers is a pohutukawa, sometimes called the New Zealand Christmas Tree.  We were lucky to have arrived just as these were in full bloom.  The tree is native to these islands, but not to the Wellington area.  It's now common here, thanks to the efforts of an overenthusiastic gardener . . .

Just through the back door of Weir House is a small corner of Kelburn Park, cut off from the main body of the park by the cable car track.  The playground isn't much, but the girls enjoyed it.