day 1 down under / on the fringe of heaven

Cindy, Jason and I arrived at the crack-of-buttocks today in Auckland, landing in a pea-soup fog so thick that it impressed even the imperturbable Tim Gregory (who is, as it turns out, 6’7” - something that deeply impressed the IWRTW team).

The flight was remarkably easy - we slept like babies and arrived on the other side of the world (if that isn’t a kind of magic, I don’t know what is).

For the next 14 days we are on these fair Western shores, working mano-a-mano, toe-to-toe with Tim to plug IWRTW into a vibrant civic culture in and around Auckland.

Let the games begin!

A little scene-setting:  I am writing this from Titrangi, in a B&B that perches in the wooded cliffs overlooking Wood (or French) Bay Harbor - Fringe of Heaven it is called, and indeed it is.  The fog is still socked in - it looks like we are living in a cloud.  The house is a flat, angular ranging thing on a bluff - Frank Lloyd Wright inspired.  There are outdoor tubs & an outdoor japanese bath, plus unexpected porches & balconies on which ducks come by to nap, mate, bustle.  I am right now sitting in the wide-open kitchen/dining/living space that boasts a fireplace you could cook a healthy-sized pig in - Cindy and Jason and working just over there and the proprietress is making breakfast & chatting.  It smells lightly of woodsmoke from the wood stove behind me.

It is indescribably beautiful.  I may be losing my heart.

falling fast,

ø

)