Bells 'n hills

Wow, what a night! Winds of 140 kph (87 mph) reported, though I reckon that we (our motorhome) was being subjected to even greater speeds than that due to its high position at the top of a slope. The motorhome was rocking and creaking and because we were parked at the top of a very steep slope, I was really worried that if the handbrake partially failed, we'd be going backwards into something or other at a significant speed. So at some early hour of the morning I got out of bed (neither of us had got to sleep anyway due to the noise and movement) to try and pull the handbrake on even harder.

I was also worried about the flagpole which was still up, but I wasn't convinced that I'd be able to keep my feet on the sloping ground, in the dark, and in the terrific winds, so that had to just fend for itself.

Eventually, the alarm went off at 7am, a bit earlier than usual as we needed to catch an early train into the centre of Wellington for Barbara to ring at the cathedral for the morning service.

Now that it was light and the winds had eased a bit, it seemed safer to venture out. I found the Union Jack windsock tangled in an adjacent hedge, nearly at ground level, and the pole looking as though it was half the length it should have been. But I unstrapped it and lo and behold, the pole was absolutely fine, but a couple of sections had just telescoped into each other as they're supposed to do, and the windsock was okay too, just its hook a bit bent. It looked as though the pole must have got blown right over until the windsock was nearly at ground level, and then it got tangled and eventually the hook gave way due to the tensions involved.

It was still wet and windy on the short walk to the station, so we were dressed appropriately. The train arrived nearly on time, and we had a comfortable ride into Wellington centre through all the suburbs.

A bit of detective work resulted us soon finding a big pink building:

which we concluded must be St. Paul's Cathedral, and Charlie even managed to locate another ringer who let us in the ringer's door at the side. There must be something about the look of a ringer that sets them apart from 'normal' people!

The cathedral has several unusual aspects to its bell tower. Firstly, visitors are actually encouraged to come up and watch:

And the access is via a lift:

And when you get into the tower, not only can you watch up to 14 ringers ringing:

But you can also see on a reasonably large screen TV, a really good live view of the bells moving in the chamber above, as the ringers pull on the ropes:

And for any ringers who might be reading the blog, here are the bell details (27¾ cwt tenor):

Then it was time to finish for the 10am service, the ropes were put away and a few ringers showed us the way between several high-rise buildings to Old St.Paul's Church.

What a beautiful church! Constructed all in wood, it's now so hemmed in by modern buildings and trees that it's difficult to photograph from the outside, but this drawing gives a good impression:

Inside it was just as lovely – all dark wood with slightly lighter pews. Also not easy to photograph as it was so dark, this photo was a ½ second exposure:

And the five ringers were equally difficult to photograph as the ringing chamber was tiny – no room for anyone else in there, but a gated doorway did allow a view in. Here's Barbara (very blurred due to the ½ second exposure again) and another ringer:

An interesting aspect of this ring was the perspex floor to the bell chamber allowing visitors to see the actual bells just above the ringers.

When the ringing was finished there, we were kindly invited to a coffee in the vestry, before we set off into town to be tourists. A very pleasant harbourside walk, especially as the rain had by now been replaced by bright warm sunshine, albeit with a bit of a breeze:

took us to Te Papa Museum which had all sorts of fun and interesting exhibits from Maori culture:

to other 'cultures':

Then we found our way to the famous old cable car, which started off underground, or so it seemed. Presumably built over by more high-rise buildings, but eventually climbed steeply out of the more commercial areas of Wellington, through residential areas for the wealthy, and up to the University and Botanic Gardens, where the views just got better and better:

The Botanic Gardens had a nice map showing where the cafe was (it was lunchtime and we'd skipped breakfast) and all the other good things to see.

It looked like a straightforward and pleasant walk to the far end of the park for lunch, so off we set. What we hadn't realised was that the map didn't include contours, and contours there were in abundance. Our knees were starting to protest by the time we found the delightful cafe, populated by friendly people and many sparrows.

Many nice flowers:

And interesting plants later:

We made our way back to St. Paul's Cathedral:

for a third ringing session. There were still lots of ropes:

and Charlie was by this time having difficulty staying awake, so as soon as it was finished, we made our way back to the station and back to Pukerua Bay, where Margaret had prepared another lovely meal for us.

Hopefully a quieter night tonight.

written by  Saros on May 17, 2009 from Pukerua Bay, New Zealand
from the travel blog: The Hairy Animal 2009 World Road Trip
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