Wellington, N.Z.

Wellington is a very up-and-down city, so of course it has a cable car. On Sunday, I took the cable car with three wives from the conference. Lori is in the middle, seated to the right, looking at the camera. Her husband is the conference organizer, and she took the other three of us around town, explaining her area of expertise, New Zealand government. I now know tons about their governmental system.

At the top of the cable car route is a cable car museum, a special-events restaurant (later the site of the conference dinner), and the top of the Botanical Garden. All around the top are homes from which people use the cable car for commuting down into the city -- the other end of the cable is in the middle of the combined shopping and government district. Unlike any other national capital I've seen, the commercial district is totally intermixed around the house of parliament, the ministries buildings, and some university buildings (site of the conference).

The cable car museum is very amusing, especially the video about houses that are built on such inaccessibly steep lots that the people have private cable cars. The video included several interviews where people explained their need to build a private cable car, and how they used them. Three out of four claimed that they had determined the need at the point when their dog could no longer make it up and down the steep path or immense stairway from the road to the house. They showed how the dogs jumped into the car, and even one dog who rode down all alone when it was time to go to doggie daycare. I don't know what to think of this.


Here is a photo from our walk in the Botanical Garden. It's a very beautiful garden, just in full blossom, as it's early summer here. The department store displays are nevertheless about Frosty the Snowman. I was amused to hear the song "It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas." It's about as un-Christmas-feeling as you can get. Roses!