The long weekend

I've been away from wi fi access ever since we landed, so this will be a long update. We arrived safely after what we all agreed was a great flight. I've had a lot of conversations at 2am in my life, but none of them involved the question, "chicken or salmon?" until now. It was surprisingly good, but hard to muster up an appetite at that time in my body clock. We slept fairly well and watched a couple of movies each before they served breakfast and we landed.

We were met by our friend once we cleared customs. We picked up our slightly too small rental car and then drove about 20 minutes in light rain to their house. Anne did the driving and managed like a pro. The rest of us took turns praying and saying the rosary. It must have helped.

We later got the rest of the crew checked in to the Bucklands Beach Waterfront Chalet, which is pleasant. We grabbed a quick and dirty lunch of fish and chips at the combination fishery/Chinese take-out place around the corner. Anne and went to pick up the lunch for us all, and were faced with a lot of choices, almost none of which we understood. Good times. After lunch, Anne and I went back to the airport to board yet another plane.

We flew to Wellington (only an hour flight) to attend a Living Stones conference. We stayed with a lovely couple there in Wellington, who fed us a roast beef feast and tried to make conversation. Anne and I were so tired, we weren't much company. But, they understood, and so they sent us off to bed early in their guest house. It felt like a vacation within a vacation. We even had our own leisurely breakfast.

We spent the day meeting church leaders from different churches, and it was god to learn a bit about what issues are important to them. Much different than in the US. Between conference sessions, we wandered around Wellington, walking down to the beach to admire seashells and the gorgeous view, then walking through town. We both sort of fell in love with the quaintness and beauty of the town. I'll post pics later.

We wandered past a film crew at work, and saw a man covered in "blood" casually chatting on his phone between takes. Made us giggle a bit.

We ate a meat pie, which is quite popular here, but which makes me think of Sweeney Todd. After the conference we flew back to Auckland, ate more fish and chips at the airport, then caught up with the rest of our crew (who had a great day, except for getting terribly lost in the car) and we headed to bed early. Tomorrow we'll attend Botany Life Church, and possibly head to Rotorura in the afternoon. We'll keep you updated when we can.