Things I Love About Living in Wellington (and New Zealand).

1. GO Wellington - local bus company with tons of attitude and fantastic service. The drivers chat with the passengers and are helpful, the passengers usually shout out 'Thank you driver' as they hop off, and if you happen to be waiting to cross the road as a bus is approaching, the bus will come to a screeching halt to let you get over safely!

2. TradeMe - fantastic, brilliant local online auction site where you can buy and sell absolutely anything at all. It's the go-to place when you want to rent a flat, buy a bed or a book or a budgie, or sell that weird ornament your great aunt left you in her will - and there'll be a buyer for it, have no fear!

3. It's all local. From our place in Kilbirnie, it's a two-minute walk to the local dairy (cafe), bus stop, football club, aquatic centre, Presbyterian church and osteopath. Five minutes will get you across the park to the seafront, where you can follow the path in either direction - back into town through the la-di-da suburb of Oriental Bay, or out along Cobham drive and into Miramar. Five minutes in the other direction will get you to the library, chemist, video store, grocery retail and wholesaler, bar, more dairies, shoe stores, banks, etc etc etc. Ten minutes on the bus and you're either in the city centre (and that will be a post all of it's own) OR you're at Wellington International Airport.

4. Recycling. The Wellington City Council supplies medium-sized turquoise tubs which you fill with all your recyclable paper, plastic, tins and bottles, then on garbage collection day, you simply put it out next to your waste. It's brilliant and has converted me to a recycler quite painlessly. Back in SA, I never quite got around to it, simply because finding a place to take my recycling to was such a mission!

5. EFTPOS: best thing since money was invented. Works like this: you open a bank account. Stick your money in it. Get your ATM card. Then, when you're shopping, you present your ATM card to the vendor who runs it through his EFTPOS machine, you punch in your PIN and voila, payment is made. I can use it to pay for a plane ticket or for a piece of chewing gum - no difference and no fees. That's it. Hardly anyone pays cash for anything. It's all EFTPOS!

6. Wellington Public Libraries are marvellous! They have great opening hours including Saturday afternoons and Sundays, they carry a HUGE range of books of all types both old and new, there is no limit to the amount you can take out at any one time, plus you get to keep them for four weeks! You can return books from another library (for a fee), you can request books (for a fee) and you can use the internet (for a fee). All the libraries I have been in so far are light and bright and modern and spacious and very welcoming!

7. Multiculturalism: SA might lay claim to being the rainbow nation, but in Wellington it's for real. At work my one boss is British, the other one Welsh. My co-managers are Samoan and Kiwi. My staff are British, Kiwi, Fijian, Samoan, Tongan, Zimbabwean, Indian, Filipina and Chinese. Language can be an issue but you learn to really start listening with more than just ears - you have to really focus fully on someone when they speak and to hear the intent as well as the words - and that can make for really good working relationships.

8. Community spirit: We saw this in operation at the Cuba Street Carnival Night Parade. There were clubs and groups in the parade representing all kinds of activities and communities, from belly dancers to stilt walkers to fireman to sports clubs to old car enthusiasts to transvestites to ballet schools and corporate teams. The crowd of 150,00 was happily squashed up against barrier rails but within the press there was support and caring. Someone near me dropped a mobile phone, so we all made way for her to get it again. Kids got handed up and over to their dad a few rows behind. It was very cool!

9. Emergency preparedness: Not only do all public places carry notices and have programs for disaster preparedness, but every single building seems to have a fire alarm and an evacuation plan in place. Our first night in Welly saw us down on the street at 4.30 am following an alarm (turned out to be a melted lamp which the hunky fire guys soon dowsed!) At work, we've had so many false alarms that we're now on first name terms with the firemen!

I'm sure I'll think of more ... Welly and NZ are great!