More Wellington

I have been having a great time in Wellington, and J’s training is going well. I have been to the Waterfront, to Mt Victoria, to Te Papa Museum, to the Parliament buildings, and up Oriental Parade (a beautiful street by the harbour). These things are all best saved for when I get home and can accompany them with pictures, but I will do what I can today.

I went down to the beach off Oriental Parade, and had a nice, relaxing walk. In addition, I found some lovely mementos, which I can take pictures of on my computer. First, I found two beautiful pieces of sea glass. I find it sad and irresponsible that so much broken glass ends up in the ocean, but amazingly poetic and comforting that it turns into something so beautiful. It’s like nature’s effort to soften and transform the harsher side of human nature.

Here are the two pieces that I chose to keep.

Next, I was astonished and thrilled to find a large, whole, stunning paua (abalone) shell, right there on the beach! They are coveted here, and therefore hard to find anywhere, but especially somewhere like Wellington.

This is the inside of the shell. The colours don’t show through well on the picture, and it should be polished, but it’s really pretty.

This is the outside of the shell. Apparently, you can sand/polish away the deposits on the outside, and then it will look just like the inside! I haven’t decided if I want to find a way to do that or not. We’ll have to see.

In other news, J and one of his colleagues and I went out to dinner at a Phô Vietnamese restaurant. In addition to being a nice place, it brought back great memories of all the Phô that we ate in Ottawa last year. We’d never had it until we moved there, and then J fell in love, and we ate at pretty much every Phô place in the city, which is quite an accomplishment. Anyway, it was a lovely time.

It was cold and rainy today, but it was still a good day. Also, I realized today that I missed our little house in Whanganui, which made me happy. It’s nice to have my own home to miss. J