8 Sep 2008
Day Twenty-two - Mana to Wellington
I looked out the window of my hotel room this morning and liked what I saw, a sunny day. An early start out to St Patrick’s College in Silverstream for assembly was an emotional beginning.
Kathy Turner had arranged for me to receive a cheque from both St Pats and HIBS high schools. I spoke to the boys and we played a montage to the song “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol. It is in memory of my sister and it is on YouTube if you would like to view it. It chokes me up every time I see it and I had to gather myself a bit before talking to the school.
After the school visit it was back to the hotel to get Selwyn to tape up my feet but the clouds were brewing up outside and rain was in the air! Shell Mana was the start point and Marc Ellis was there to join me for today’s leg. He committed to this a while back and good to see he was a man of his word! He was however a little concerned by the anticipated pace that I walk at and repeatedly kept saying it wasn’t his fault that his mother had made him so vertically challenged. He adopted a new strategy of running ahead of me by a few Km’s then walking at a leisurely rate until i caught up. When this failed he would exit to a pub for a swift pint then rejoin us some theory minutes later! Thanks for giving up your time Macca, brilliant.
It was pretty much rain all the way in to Wellington and the 25km’s was quite tough today. A lonely figure with an umbrella approached me about 5km’s out from the Westpac Stadium and what I thought was a crazy man out walking in the rain turned out to be Harry Duynhoven, Minister of Transport Safety.
Harry walked David and I in and we were then met by Ministers Annette King, Marion Hobbs and Marion Streets. I was very flattered to have such a ministerial presence at my Wellington destination and all joined me along with many others as we headed up to Parliament to be greeted by the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark.
The PM has been a supporter of our organization from day one and as always she was in great spirits and invited me up to her office for a cup of tea. We had a great chat and the PM reconfirmed her support of what we are doing and I’m grateful to her for giving me such a chunk of her valuable time.
From there it was a race to Shell for a function and some kind words at the head office hosted by Chairman Rob Jager then up to the Wellesley Club for a cocktail evening with Steven Fleming, Jacob Oram and Marc Ellis. Trustee Kevin Ramshaw ran the evening beautifully and for a Monday night I have to say all who attended were royally entertained.
It has been a long day but a massive milestone to have completed the north island. The mainland beckons tomorrow and it looks good for a pleasant cook staright crossing on the Interislander.
CC
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