Current Location: Wellington, New Zealand

Welcome. This is the chronicle of the voyages of Ceol Mor and the Wilson family. Our adventure began on October 27, 2009, and our goal is to complete a circumnavigation.  [Above: Cal on Day One of the Routeburn Track; Below: Our current location, our new home, Cal and William in their Scots College uniforms, and the Wilsons at the start of the Routeburn Track.]

NEW ZEALAND UPDATE: Life on land continues to move along at a brisk clip.  Since last we provided an update, much has happened: our apartment appeared prominently in the Wellington newspaper as “earthquake prone” and we decided to move (new address and a photo below); we completed three of New Zealand’s nine “Great Walks;” the boys met most of the Hurricane players and now have the autographs of about ten All Blacks (more exciting for Jim than for the boys); Ceol Mor is safely out of the water in Opua; Jim had a quick trip to Auckland to get additional pages put in his passport (the Embassy in Wellington couldn’t tape pages into a passport -- Jim’s Foreign Service mother is appalled and we agree!); the NZ Pipe Band Championship was cancelled and the top bands put on a terrific concert in Wellington (great to see lots of old friends); Heather started helping the Wellington Ronald MacDonald House raise funds for a new building; the boys have started playing tennis at Thorndon Tennis & Squash Club; we have had a few sets of cruising friends visit (Ben & Annemieke from Blauwe Pinguin, Ed & Cornelia from A Capella, Jeff and Hayley from Avalon, Caspar & Maud from Sueno Azul); Jim became obsessed with Wellington’s annual documentary festival; we attended a fantastic Christchurch fundraiser cricket match at the Basin Reserve and got to see Tana Umaga hit two sixes off the bowling of Shane Warne (best part was entering through the John Reid Gate . . . Jim played cricket on the Scots First XI with John Reid and his son Richard, both famous N.Z. players); Jim spent four days in Australia for goddaughter Ellie Cook’s 21st (highlights were the party, an ’82 Grange, Bryan Brown at the Sydney Theater Company in Zebra, breakfast at Bathers’ Pavilion, and a dinner with friends at Royal Sydney Golf Club); Heather had a great time at the Pencarrow Lodge wedding of old Scots friend Robert Cross and his lovely bride Karen (Jim was in Oz having previously committed to Ellie’s 21st); Jim got to sit next to All Black hooker Andrew Hore at a dinner (you may detect a sense of child-like excitement in Jim where All Black rugby is concerned); and we have visited some great vineyards in Martinborough and in Central Otago.

New Address: 2.24 28 Waterloo Quay, Wellington, New Zealand

Home: 04.499.2039 (If calling from outside NZ: 64.4.499.2039)

JCW Cell: 022.0919.359

HW Cell: 022.0919.315

Jim: jamescwilson@mac.com

Heather: heatherawilson@mac.com

Photos of the Wilsons?  Click Here

Above: Our new home -- an old woolshed on the Wellington waterfront . . . great location, a fantastic building (that’s The Beehive, NZ’s Capitol-equivalent -- behind the top right corner) and a big change from Ceol Mor.  Below: William and Cal in their Scots College uniforms, and Wilsons at the start of the  Routeburn Track.