We made it...

    There were some delays along the way that turned our 37-1/2-hour flight from Barcelona to Wellington into a 45-hour flight but we actually arrived safe, sound, exhausted and reasonably exultant in New Zealand late Monday afternoon.

    We flew British Airways from Barcelona to London then on to Singapore and, finally, Sydney where we switched to Qantas for the last 3-hour leg of the journey. I'm not a big fan of airline companies in general but I have to say that the BA folks took very good care of us on this trip. The food was very good, the drinks were free (I drank a lot of tomato juice because, well, the idea of getting drunk seven miles up in the air just terrifies me) and the flight attendants were friendly.

    Wellington was a bit of a shock... the airport was small, something that I didn't expect given the fact this is New Zealand's capital city. We got through customs with a minimum of hassle and found a cab for what turned out to be a 25-kilometer ride to our motel in Porirua, which is one of four cities that make up what's known as Greater Wellington. It's also where the hospital Elena will work out of is located. That cab ride cost us $80 NZ but the driver, a refugee from Sudan who has lived in Wellington for about 10 years, was friendly and helpful so it was probably worth the cost. He pointed out some local sites and gave us some information on how to take the train into Wellington's downtown ($6 NZ) rather than taxis.

    We left Spain at the beginning of summer but here in the Southern Hemisphere it's the beginning of winter. The skies are generally gray and there is a lot of rain as a result. According to the local weather report, we are also due to get hit by something called the Southerlies (very cold air coming up from Antarctica) sometime in the next few days and there is a very real possibility that we could get snow. Not Buffalo-type snow - maybe an inch or two instead of a foot or two - but enough of it to make headlines in the Dominion Post. Elena is having a little difficulty adjusting to the gray skies and wet weather but it seems okay to me, at least at this point. One advantage of the rain: We've seen some spectacular rainbows, including a double rainbow yesterday afternoon. (I tried to take a photo of it but I didn't do it justice...)

    We're starting to look for a house to rent and hope to find one within a few days. There are some very nice ones listed in the local papers so we have hopes of settling into a pleasant place. Pleasant or not, it needs to be big enough so that we can avoid bumping into each other all the time, something that will be especially important in a couple of weeks when Elena's 13-year-old son Josep and his cousin (also named Elena) arrive.

    I'm still a little jet-lagged so I'm going to have some hot soup and crash... there was a time when jet lag happened to other folks but these days... sigh... it happens to me.

A beautiful double rainbow... this photo really doesn't do it justice

The Sydney skyline as seen from the airport