A Day in Pictures

Yesterday (Saturday) we went to the Botanic Gardens, which are high above the city, connected by the Cable Car. The weather called for showers in the afternoon, so we headed out in the morning with a picnic backpack to enjoy the sun while it lasted. And it truly was beautiful before the storm from the South rolled in.




The pictures represent only a small portion of the Gardens - we traveled the paved road (pink on the map) from the Cable Car entrance past the Australian garden, down to the Treehouse Visitor Centre (which was closed) then to the Main Entrance, where we turned around and went back up the hill/mountain. When we got back up near the Observatory, we went down a side road (#17) that was gravel/dirt through a more wooded area, then back up to the Cable Car.




















Fortunately, the rain cleared later that evening in time for an amazing sunset:

A Kiwi Christmas

So, first, I will tell you about our xmas holiday. Since we do not have our container, we do not have any of our Christmas decorations.

To have some sort of festive spirit in the house, Darren went to the Warehouse (NZ version of WalMart, minus the evil) and bought a little 13 inch tree with fiber-optic lights. We put it on the windowsill next to Fred and our presents below on the floor.
The big present is from work (it turned out to be a platter). We "trimmed" the tree with the decorations Darren bought, as well as the "trim" Heather and Amy gave us at my wedding shower. What else would we do with trim?


On Christmas Eve day, we went to a special showing of Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (extended version) at the Embassy Theater , where the movie originally premiered. The Embassy is a beautiful old 1920's cinema that was refurbished for the premier. The seats are very comfortable, and the sound is amazing! And because most of the residents of Wellington disappear over the Christmas/New Year's holiday, the theater was practically empty.

The only trouble with most of Wellington shutting down for the holiday, is that most restaurants also close down between Christmas Eve and the 3rd of January. Part of that is also due to the new law that mandates higher wages for employees on public holidays. So, we went home and scrounged for food.

The next morning, we opened our gifts and ate breakfast. That took up about 10 minutes! No worries, as Darrel was arriving late morning to take us back to his house for Christmas dinner. When we arrived, the table was already set according to Merrin's theme this year - silver, white and blue.

We chatted with her brother and mom, and once Darrel's parents arrived, we sat down to a dinner of turkey and ham, tons of vegetables and really yummy bread. Dessert was a very fancy chocolate fountain with fruits and marshmallows for dipping.

Once we were all fat and happy, we sat down to chat some more and play Cranium. I had never played before, but it didn't take long to get the hang of it. Of course, we had a bit of trouble, as it was not an American version (one of the questions had Darren drawing something to do with Cricket - I had no idea what the hell I was looking at!). And forget trying to spell anything backwards or forwards after three glasses of wine!

That evening at home, we looked out on the city, and noted that fog was covering a good portion of the buildings. Due to the city lights, the fog had a glow, almost like the reflection of a thick blanket of snow...it felt like Christmas.

Maybe next year we'll do a traditional Kiwi Christmas on the beach....and/or a BBQ.

One whole month!

Can you believe it? Don’t know what it feels like there, but it feels like we have been here for ages. Could be due to the super long days, or the fact that the move went to smoothly (well, except for our container – will get to that in a minute), but the transition has been fairly easy here.

I suggest for anyone moving over that they do it around the same time we did. I think it’s easier to go from Winter to Spring/Summer, and all the good sales on any replacement items are happening now. Not to mention the cities plan all sorts of outside activities/festivals in January-March, which is a great way to get out and meet people.

Now for an update on the movers: after I demanded our money back (and got an answer of “no”), they suggested that they arrange for rented furniture so that we could live in the apartment we signed a lease for, and some money back for the aggravation of it all. Sounds like a reasonable compromise, considering the boat could very well arrive later than February 1st. We won’t know the true estimated arrival date until our container is loaded onto the connecting boat in Singapore on January 5th. Could very well turn up early! HA!

I know that I am way behind on our adventures here, and I hope to remedy that with the time I have off for ‘holiday’….

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays!

We have an apartment!

We woke up to rain and intense wind this morning, and I thought "wind+rain=Dawn updating blog". Of course, as this is Wellington, the rain and the wind have stopped and the sun is trying valiently to break through the clouds. Who knows what will happen next?

Before we go out and see the new James Bond movie again (yes again), I will tell you about the apartment that ended our search for an unfurnished place to live. Of course I'll update about last weekend's fun (and Bond) later.

It does feel like we have been here weeks and searching madly for a place. In reality, we've been here about 2 1/2 weeks, and only Darren has been searching madly for a place, when he isn't wildly searching for a job. Since we have grown partial to the convenience of living in Mt. Victoria(we are on Hawker Street), we decided to look there first. Mt. Victoria is an older section of the city. We love that we can walk down the street and never see two houses that look the same - a Victorian will be next to a modern house, which is next to a Cape Cod. Oriental Parade is very much the same, and right around the corner. Of course Oriental is more expensive because it is right on the beach/water, but we looked there too.

When it seemed it was going to be too expensive to live anywhere near the city, we started to consider living outside the city in nearby suburbs like Brooklyn (which has a Central Park!) and Hataitai, where Darrel and Merrin live. While the map shows that these suburbs are seemingly close to the city - maybe even walking distance - the reality is that they are both over large hills (or what I would consider a freaking mountain). We discovered, too, that grocery stores are not within walking distance of the apartments we were considering, and we would need a car if we lived in those areas.


Ok! Back to Mt. Vic, then. Instead of limiting the search to the internet and the paper, Darren started walking down the streets where we would like to live, and looking for "To Let" signs - and that is how he found our current place. He viewed it first and took the pictures below. I was almost completely convinced just looking at the pictures, but was sold once I saw the place for myself. Best yet? It is just down the hill from our current place!




The feel is very similar to our condo in Columbia, in that it is a two bedroom apt on two levels. The bedrooms are really small, so we will have to be creative with the furniture placement, but there is lots of storage and a garage space. There is also a "1/2 bath" downstairs. I love that the living room and kitchen are open, and that we have two large decks that let in lots of sunlight.


The living room also has one entire wall of a built-in bookcase.
Since most of the bookcases we brought fold completely flat, we can easily store them and put everything in the built-in.

The kitchen is right in the center of everything, and even has a breakfast bar with a red top - perfect for our Director's chairs. The refrigerator is behind cabinet doors, and there is even a special metal cabinet to enclose/hide the microwave!








The first balcony is right off the living room/dining room. While the view isn't as stunning as the one we have now, it still is better than looking onto Columbia Road.









Up the stairs, you'll find the main bathroom












and "master" bedroom on the left (it's actually smaller than the 2nd bedroom on the right!)








Luckily, we have this giant closet in the 2nd bedroom, in addition to large closets in the first bedroom:










Oh, yeah! I should mention that while we have already signed the lease, we don't get the keys until January 12th. Considering that is at least a week before our container arrives (unless it arrives early - are you listening ALLIED?), we will need to make-do with borrowed items for a little bit. Of course, Darrel and Merrin have graciously offered for us to stay with them, but we're hoping we don't have to impose on them.

Our first weekend

Before we went car shopping, Darren and I ate at a little diner near our apt. While there, we perused the local paper, The Dominion Post, and saw a review of the movie The Nativity Story by Graeme Tuckett. Some excerpts:

"Already guaranteed to rake in squillions from the Bible Belt yahoos, the makers of Nativity are now gunning for us; the average, non-church-going, couldn't-give-a-snuff-really Kiwis, just looking to be entertained for a couple of hours over the holidays."

"And it's gratifying to see a 'Bible film' featuring an authentically dark-skinned cast. At least till baby Jesus shows up, looking as pale as the Milky Bar Kid. Oh, well."

I just love the forthrightness of the reviewer. We have found a that many ads on TV, as well as TV morning show hosts and radio djs have the same sort of attitude. Love it!

On Saturday, Darrel and Merrin picked us up and took us over to Island Bay to eat lunch at The Bach [pronounced "batch"]Cafe. Click here for a definition of a Bach.

The food was really good, and the view stunning:



After lunch, we went for a short walk down the beach a bit, then back to the car. I am still stunned that seemingly no matter where I look here, there is beautiful land or water to see. We also went into town to a store called Kathmandu, where Darrel and Merrin shopped for their upcoming holiday in the South Island over New Years. Even 50% off, fleece pullovers were $70! How we miss Old Navy

I honestly can't recall what we did for the rest of the weekend, but it may have included laundry, watching tv and looking for apartments (none of which were what we were looking for). So, then, here is a picture of the house we are staying in from the outside. Our awesome picture window is the top rectangular one.

How long have we been here?

It seems like ages. I know I’m about a week behind on the blog now, having ended our second weekend here, but my memory of our first few days has already faded. Maybe it’s because I have learned so many new things, I have lost other memories?

In any case, after the crazy storm that first week, I stopped in my new workplace to make sure I knew where I was going, and to meet some of the people I had talked to on the phone or via email. The people were nice enough, and I remembered almost none of them by the time I started on Monday. Haha!

The next night, the sky looked a bit scary, and I was afraid the storm was back! Luckily it was not...


On Friday that week, we decided we needed to look at cars. We started at the Nissan place, as we had seen the cute Micra all over town.
The coolest feature of this car is that entry is truly keyless – as long as you have the remote in your pocket or purse, you can just open the door and start the car! To lock the car, all you need to do is push any of the buttons on the door handles or the trunk hatch.

Next was the Toyota dealership, where we looked at the Yaris.
It was even cooler than the Nissan Micra! The back seats fold completely flat – the bottom of the seat moves forward, and then the top part folds down. There were also tons of secret compartments and cup holders. Handy, but a bit more expensive (unless we were to buy a used one).

Of course we also had to check out the Honda Jazz, which is known as the Fit in the US.

As a professed “Honda girl”, I know I can always trust the value and gas mileage of a Honda. The Jazz has some very cool features – not only do the back seats fold completely flat, but the seat part can also fold up against the back.
And it was very simple and fast to do! Oh, how I love Hondas. Not to mention the gas efficiency equivalent is approximately 63mpg! And the price of the car reflected all these things – it was by far the most expensive car we had seen that day (and the one we loved the most). Ah, did I mention that the Honda allows for standard driving without the need for a clutch?

We decided finding a place is a bit more important, and depending on the price we end up paying for an apartment, we will then decide how much we can spend on a car. (Well, that and Darren’s test drives.) Used cars are quite popular here, and relatively inexpensive compared to new cars. From what we are told, it is rare for a Kiwi to buy a new car, as buying a used car is easy and hassle-free. All used cars are also held to certain standards by the NZ government.

Windy Welly

Our second day in New Zealand, we woke up very very early. It gets light here before 6 am, and after all the sleep, it was quite easy to get up and going that early! I unpacked all my things and put them away, and we then put all the suitcases away to make us feel a bit more settled. And yet, we…well, I still feel like I’m on vacation…

After breakfast, we headed into town again determined to get information on internet service, cell phones and basic info on living here in Wellington and New Zealand. We made our way to the “Information Center”, but found all the information was for visitors, and that we had many of the brochures already in the welcome pack Darrel and Merrin had given us the day before. We did try to ask one of the employees about getting a tax ID and figuring out the bus system – she was of some help, but in the end told us that she is late for everything, and doesn’t understand the bus system herself! Hmm...maybe she should work somewhere else? Still, we couldn’t be angry because she was just so nice about her confusion.

We did manage to figure out what kind of pass I would need if I ever wanted to take the bus, and then picked up a pass good for 10 one-way trips. Unfortunately, busses to our suburb don’t run very often or very late, but it’s still a good option on rainy days.

We also found an internet café and hooked up Appleseed (our laptop) to the somewhat slow broadband. As most internet café’s charge $4 an hour, we thought it would be best to find another alternative. We were quickly shocked at the cost of internet, considering how wired New Zealand is. Many broadband plans (which we can’t get until we have our own place anyway) are fairly expensive and are priced by amount of usage. There are no unlimited plans, as far as we could tell. And because this country is so wired, every single ad for broadband and dial-up refer you to their web address for more information! We even asked Darrel for dial-up suggestions, and the first thing out of his mouth was a web address. Haha! Our next trip to the internet café was fruitful, and we signed up for a dial-up account called “Slingshot”, which is actually quite fast. Yay!

On the way down to the city earlier that day, we passed a restaurant called “Sandwiches”. (www.sandwiches.co.nz) There was an ad for jazz on Wednesday nights, so we made mental plans to come back and check it out.


However, as we made our way home that evening, we noted the sky was getting quite dark. As we sat from our perch on top of Mt. Victoria, we saw the storm roll in over the hills across the way. The winds were much stronger than what we had experienced, well, anywhere, and started to rattle the doors and windows.

With increasing frequency, the giant picture window in the living room would bend !



We saw the waves in the bay were quite high, and several times the wind just blew the water to the shore. At the time, we thought “at least it’s not raining!”



Then it started to rain…no, POUR. It rained and rained - seemingly from every direction! Darren said he saw plants ripped out of flower pots and thrown down the hill. And wouldn’t you believe, there were still people f’ing jogging up the hill in that weather! Sheesh these people are crazy!


When the house itself started to shake, I went to bed.