This morning we flew to Wellington for a gathering of special magnificence: Wellingmoot. This was to be the first-ever gathering of Kiwi members of TheOneRing.net.Apart from the ones who live in Wellington, most people arrived in the evening, but we decided to make a relaxed day of it. We got into Wellington at 10:30 a.m., and it was one of the beautiful days that Wellington can turn on when it feels like it: mild, calm and dazzlingly sunny. Wellington has a beautiful harbour setting, and with the sun sparkling on the water it’s delightful.
We used air points to fly there and back, and I got a good Internet deal on the hotel. It was a comfortable, pleasant hotel with a nice outlook over the water.
We checked in and then went wandering. We had lunch at a nice café we’ve gone to before, roamed around the shops (I bought a scarf clip and a diamanté kilt pin), then went to Te Papa. We go there whenever we get to Wellington, and it never fails to please. Today we went to the “Golden Days” exhibition, a special favourite, and to the Geology and Botany/Zoology sections.
By then it was time to think about the evening ahead. We popped into a supermarket to get some sushi for an early dinner, and some salmon and wine to take around to our very own Kiwi TORn Friday Fiesta, then returned to the hotel.
It was a beautiful evening. The waxing moon shone over the harbour, and the distant hills were like a water colour background.
After scoffing the sushi, we caught a cab out to the home of Leggylass, our hostess for the evening. All the moot attendees were there:
- Ataahua
- Choice of Luthien
- Delyth
- Estelwyn, the prime mover of the weekend
- Kerewyn
- Leggylass
- Milk
- Smokering
- Tehanu, one of the founders of TORn
- Mr Tehanu
- Me
- Mr Kimi
I’d previously met the Tehanus, Ataahua and Estelwyn, but the rest were all new to me. We had a wonderful time. There’d been talk of “ice breaker” activities, but there was no need. We just talked and talked and talked all evening, pausing only to sample the yummy things everyone had brought along to eat. It was close to midnight when we left.
I did have one tiny problem, though: partway through the evening my eye had become quite painful. I’d thought I had an eyelash in it, and had tried surreptitiously to remove the stray lash. It kept getting worse, though. I finally managed to sneak a look in a bathroom mirror, and it looked horrible: red, bloodshot and with a sort of blister on the surface. I think I must have had a nasty reaction to something I’d encountered that day. When we got back to the hotel I flushed it with water, but it still felt gritty and painful. A very small price to pay for a fun evening, though.
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