No official Cook Strait swim today, but we (Steve and I) did receive a phone call from Philip Rush last night.  Tomorrow, Monday, may be the day.  If not on Day 2, it looks good for Day 3.  However, in the 2 days that I've been in New Zealand particularly Wellington I've found the weather to be particularly unpredictable.  While this is relatively new to me everyone else says "You didn't know that".  Plus the winds can come from nowhere. 

We went to Te Papa for a quick look around and found the Maori heritage section.  In which we found a lot of the ceremonial instruments.  I quickly found the one that is meant to bring calm winds and continued to press the button over and over again so that the sound would play.  I of course am hoping that this brings the weather that we need.  It is a gourd flute thing.  Apparently the story behind it is that this god was upset at 2 brothers fighting, so she grabbed one of them and smothered him to her chest.  The muffled sound of his cries are apparently what this gourd is supposed to echo.  I thought it an odd story and I may have read the plaque wrong as we did go to the museum 30 minutes before closing.  We were doing a quick tour to see what we wanted to come back to.  I'll clarify the story and get back to you on this one.   I still think that the gourd music will help.

Yesterday on the beach, we met some local swimmers.  We got to talking and found out that there is a local open water swim today.  Donna even offered to pick us up and drive us over.   We of course accepted.  Steve and I may not be swimming Cook Strait today, but we are participating in the Eastbourne Wharf to Wharf swim which should be a lot of fun.  I should get going though as we are being picked up in 30 minutes and I don't want to be late

Post more soon.