Susan's visit - back in Wellington

Having missed out on the Beehive tour before, Susan and I got up early and got the bus into town, but yet again we were a little late so instead we went straight to Old St. Paul’s Cathedral. When we’d called in there the other day there was a lunchtime concert on, which we enjoyed for a while before having to leave. As a result we hadn’t seen the war display that is in the old church. This morning Susan and I spent some time there watching a video of people’s memories from war times.

We made sure to leave in time to get to the Beehive early for the next tour and finally were lucky enough to get on it. As the school holidays were still on there was a big group of about 30 of us and we had the same guide as Seán and I had previously. Once we’d finished we met Seán for lunch and carried on to the country’s main museum, Te Papa where we split up each going to see what we wanted, arranging to meet when it closed. It’s a massive museum so Seán and I were able to see parts that we had not seen before. The best bit about it is it’s free to go in, so you can come and go as you please and don’t have to see it all in one day.

The next morning we decided it was time to move on up the country, though with the pouring rain outside we weren’t even keen on leaving the house! When we finally got moving we drove up to Palmerstown North where we stopped for lunch and to finally meet Anne, a downriver paddler that Seán had been in touch with since we arrived but never managed to meet. She happens to be the only person in New Zealand who is doing downriver paddling at the moment. She was just back from the Worlds in Europe where she did pretty well and had met the Irish team. She and Seán talked non-stop for well over an hour and then it was time to hit the road again. We carried on to the town of Wanganui and got set up in a cabin at a campsite on the banks of the river, which we could tell was pretty swollen, even in the dark!