{"id":836,"date":"2003-05-12T17:30:33","date_gmt":"2003-05-12T17:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacefold.com\/colin\/blog\/?p=836"},"modified":"2020-08-20T17:41:30","modified_gmt":"2020-08-20T17:41:30","slug":"nz-trip-day-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacefold.com\/colin\/blog\/2003\/05\/12\/nz-trip-day-1\/","title":{"rendered":"NZ Trip – Day 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The plane touched done on time, a very gentle landing. I tried to get out ahead of The Man With The Horrible Smell but end up in the exit line just in front of him. I pity the people behind me, who must have been sitting just in front of him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s 4:30 am, everything was shut in the duty free corridor….<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let it be noted: The Customs\/Passport man did *not* say, “Welcome Home”.\u00a0 I collected my bags and got through Customs without any trouble at all, even the little drug-sniffing beagle didn’t bother to sniff my luggage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walter and Zoe showed up almost immediately after I sat down with my bags. It’s nice to see them. Walter looks good; trim but not too thin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was wet and raining outside. Tragic. Oh, the humidity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walter drove us back to the North Shore, taking odd turns mostly by mistake. We get to drive down K’ Road, through Ponsonby, Newmarket, old haunts. Pity it was dark and wet outside, because I couldn’t enjoy it, and Zoe got a little carsick on the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We sneaked into the house and I plead to go straight to bed and maybe catch a little z’s before the rest of the house wakes up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve just spent about 2 hours helping Walter run Cat5 network cable around the basement. He really needs a crimping tool, and if things work out I’ll try and get him one tomorrow. (Ryan “helped” also. Mostly by climbing on the ladder to “stablise” it.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happened earlier this morning: I didn’t manage to catch any sleep but I made a valiant effort. I think I heard a cat eating kibble at 7:00am. I got up at 8:00 after not sleeping at all, and poked my head around the door of the kitchen. Ryan ran away. Zoe sat in her high-chair covering her face with a bib. Hilarity ensued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last night Walter’s car – the one I was hoping to borrow tomorrow – started showing a warning light indicating that the battery wasn’t being charged. So after breakfast, we drove past Cornerstone’s new digs to the nearby mechanics for them to take a look at it. They said they’d call back in about an hour and let him know what they found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, we spent the morning at CSL. Vinessa was there – she looks happy. Matt was there – he looks just the same, maybe just a little hairier and greyer around the temples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CSL have a little balcony out the back of the office that looks over some green area, with Pukekos stalking around (They’re dark blue with black heads and red beaks.) I took some pictures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Then Steve showed up. I had to rack my brains before I remembered him, sorry Steve. It took only a moment of talking to him and it all came back, and now I can’t think why I would have had a problem…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After that I drank Cornerstone coffee and got online to check email.  CSL’s new offices are great. Basically a rectangle shaped upstairs area, with a balcony out back, filled with half-cubicles nestled together around shelves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The car mechanic called back and said it was the alternator, and they’d maybe have it ready around 4:30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around lunchtime we ran next door in the torrential downpour to get some lunch. The “next door” place was a typical industrial park cafe\/bakery, with – PIES! Ah…. Ok. When the others had me upstairs talking about what I missed about NZ I could only admit to missing the people – nothing else really, not the climate or the food or anything. But I forgot to mention the pies. (Strangely it only takes one pie to cure this feeling. I guess I didn’t miss them that much!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Becky picked us up from CSL, then we dropped her off at Play Center. I got some photos of Ryan jumping around. I swear he looks just like his father at that age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Walter has just come in to inform me that there’s a pot of coffee ready in the kitchen. He’s making pasta dough (from scratch!) for lasagne. I’m impressed. Walter is singing, “Pasta Machine! pasta machine” in a funny accent in the kitchen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tonight we’re going to cousin Stuart & Tasha’s for a pot luck dinner – I guess that’s what the lasagne is for – and to meet up again with much of the Ellis clan, including cousin Mathew who is in Auckland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Stuart & Tasha’s house is beautiful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The plane touched done on time, a very gentle landing. I tried to get out ahead of The Man With The Horrible Smell but end up in the exit line just in front of him. I pity the people behind me, who must have been sitting just in front of him. It’s 4:30 am, everything […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diary","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacefold.com\/colin\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacefold.com\/colin\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacefold.com\/colin\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacefold.com\/colin\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacefold.com\/colin\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spacefold.com\/colin\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacefold.com\/colin\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacefold.com\/colin\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacefold.com\/colin\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}