Admission Day

Friday was another proud moment day for me as a Mum. Sharon was admitted into the Bar at the High Court in Wellington. It was a day steeped in tradition with the moving counsels and law clerks dressed in black gowns, white ties, and wigs. The judge gave a speech, the 20 or so clerks said a thank you, agreed to follow the law and signed the register. So, a bit of history before writing more about the day. Call to the Bar is a legal term - the bar refers to the wooden barrier which separates the public area at the rear from the space near the judges reserved for those having business with the Court. Barristers sit behind it and can use it as a table for their briefs. The call refers to the way the judge summons the lawyers to address them at a hearing. After the ceremony we went to lunch with David (first cousin once removed) and family.  David was also admitted and Jeremy (David's grandad and Sharon's great uncle) was Sharon's moving counsel.  The Wellesley club put on quite a nice lunch (I had mushroom rissoto balls). It is now a boutique hotel but once was a very famous club for 'prominent' men (hence one girls loo on the ground floor and another on the 3rd - both fairly new additions I think). It is named after Arthur Wellesley ie the Duke of Wellington, of Waterloo fame.  In 1891 when a group of Wellington businessmen decided to establish a gentlemen’s club, they chose the name Wellesley - I guess after the Duke.  A short time to Christmas shop and then we headed off to Sharon's law firm for drinks and celebratory speeches - more nice things said about our girl.  Michael arrived from Aussie after a short delay in Customers (red 'S' on immigration card means Search apparently).  We then headed off for dinner at a Japanese restaurant where eggs and rice were thrown and I wore a plastic bag on my lap just incase I didn't catch them.  Sharon had invited lots of her friends I hadn't seen for ages and so I enjoyed catching up with them and with Mike during his flying visit - the night went very quickly.

All that excitement and I almost forgot to mention - the glorious week weather wise we've had.  The southerly and northerly winds blew themselves out and its been calm, sunny and oh so warm.  One night during the week I met Harry at the Botanical Gardens and we spent a couple of hours, smelling the roses, listening to the pine cones crackling in the hot sunshine and waiting with tourists at the skyline view point to get that postcard photo of the cable car. The Lady Norwood Rose Garden is sheltered from the winds and the roses showed no ill effects from the blustery conditions of the few days before.  The garden has been around since 1872. Lady Norwood was the wife of Charles Norwood who was originally an Australian, but became an agent for the Morris car and later was elected as mayor of Wellington. He founded the Wellington Free Ambulance as a result of witnessing car accident on Lambton Quay where he had problems finding an ambulance for the victim. Presumably Lady Norwood was a very special lady but like so many good woman of that era nothing about her features in history.  On our walk around the gardens we saw a wonderful Mexican Hand Tree - deep red, five fingered and loved by the tuis and also some sculptures by Regan Gentry of the wharariki (flax), ti kouka (cabbage tree), pohutukawa and toetoe before continuing our walk.

We also went to Homewood - The British High Commission house in Karori was open to raise money for Save the Children.  Around the mid 1800's the first judge of the Supreme Court Henry Chapman bought a few acres of land in Karori - Homewood was built on a couple of them.  It was originally built and lived in by the Johnston family who were into business and also public affairs. It was sold to a few families over the years until it was sold to the British government for its high commission in 1958.  Since it is a pretty old  place, as buildings in New Zealand go, it is now looked after by NZ Historical Places Trust.  So, we wandered the gardens, looked through some of the rooms in the house and then spent a while sitting in the sun watching Morris Dancers, Barbershop Quartets and Pipers.  I also found a chocolate book which might come in handy for the birthday boy next week.