Five weeks without a post ...

... my bad. And all I have to say is that today, Wellington is living up to its reputation of delivering four seasons in one day!

Woke up round 3am with the house shaking - not from an earthquake, but from the gale force winds and the wild squalls of rain battering down hard on us! Yet five hours later, the bay was calm, peaceful early morning sunlight glinting off roof tops and windows, and only the faintest of breezes.

It's now just gone 1pm and the temp is a balmy 17 C - which is definitely the highest it's been in months and months. But the breeze is picking up and clouds are looming in the east and accuweather.com promises rain again by 5pm. In fact, here's the icon they're using for today:



Cute, huh? And totally Wellington! I absolutely LOVE this city - and it's people - and it's possibilities - and our life here!!

I'll do a more constructive post this weekend, promise! ;-)

Southern Walkway

Today the weather was absolutely beautiful, for the first time in ages and ages. Clear skies, almost no wind at all and lots of slightly warm sunshine! Seeing as I had a day off and Liv was back at school after a lazy two-week vacation, it was definitely time for a Proper Walk!

Seeing as we live just below Mt Albert, the obvious choice was the Southern Walkway - a route that runs from Oriental Bay in the city all the way all down(not really down, more like up-and-down-and up-and-down again) to Island Bay on the far south coast.

Enlarge the map and you'll see Kilbirnie about half way down.

So with sandwiches, water and warm woolies in a backpack, I set off around 1.30pm. The whole walkway is around 11km, but I hit the path just after the Mt Vic lookout point and went from there all the way down to Island Bay. With lots of photostops, and a lunch break, and one detour down a horrid, muddy wrong turn, it only took me about two hours. The views were sensational and despite being able to see the city sprawl and hear the distant hum of traffic and aircraft, it really felt as if I was quite far out in the country at times ...



Looking back toward Kilbirnie - the edge of Kilbirnie Park can be seen at the bottom of the picture and you can see just how big our 'bay' really is!


Then on towards the Mt Albert section - recognize the 'LOTR' look of the place - where the hobbits have to "get off the road, quick!" and the Black Rider comes sniffing, sniffing ...?


This is above the Melrose / Berhampore section of the walkway - I missed a lot of photos in the section before this because I got talking to a friendly American who was out with his two dogs. We went past quite a lot of places that I'll need to go back to again soon ... but it was nice having company for part of the way!



From the lookout above Island Bay, I could see the Interislander far out at sea and far above and beyond it, almost hidden by the haze, are the snow-capped peaks of the South Island - and that is definitely on the cards for my next expedition - a day trip on the ferry over to Picton / Nelson on South Island.



Looking back towards Miramar from the same lookout point.



Finally arrived at Houghton Bay, where three intrepid young men were about to plunge into the icy oceans with their surfboards - squealing like little girls, they were, but in they went! And at this stage, the wind chill had turned my fingers white from cold, so how they managed it, I have no idea!


The the last stretch along the ocean towards Island Bay itself - and along the way I spotted a very original house: it is perched on a few spikes, it seems - the homeowners had just ridden their small funicular up the rail to the front porch, but I was too late to get a picture of that!

And then back home on the next available bus! :-)

The streets of downtown Wellington

In the middle of the city there's a place where it seems all the emo kids, skateboarders and other youthful types hang out, kicking footballs about and scaring old ladies (I'm not really up on the demographics or politics of it ...) Lately, there's been a big To Do about it because despite much protest and campaigning, the City Council voted to turn it from a pedestrian mall into a bus lane!

The video below is an emo ode to the demise of Manners Mall, but the reason I'm sharing it here is because it gives my far-flung family and friends a chance to see what it's like on the streets of Wellington - you'll see the famous Go Wellington buses, Lambton Quay and various other bits and pieces. It's also pretty funny in places, so hoping you enjoy it!!



Happy Sunday!

Snow!!!

The last few days have been beautiful, weather-wise. It's been cool, but not cold; the winds fresh and chilly even, but invigorating. Today I came out of work and walked home (my new commitment to keeping the weight off ...) and it was definitely colder than it's been in a while.

An hour later, I glanced out of the lounge window and spotted this:




... the first snows of winter dusting the tops of the Rimataku Mountains on the far side of the bay!!! A quick check on Accuweather told us that the temp was around 6C with a real feel (ie including the wind chill factor) of minus 4!! We also learned later that the roads over there got closed due to heavy snowfalls .. from Kilbirnie, we can just seeing the outer edges of the snow falls. The road between Upper Hutt and the Wairarapa (Highway 2) was closed for several hours in the middle of the day - this is what it looked like when it opened again:

Maybe this weekend we'll take a short trip ... :-)

Viva La Boxes!!!

On 12th January, we said goodbye to four tea-chests and three book boxes and sent them off with Seven Seas.

On 22nd April, they arrived in port in Wellington, and two days ago, on Friday 8th May, they were finally delivered to our new home here in Kilbirnie!!

Whooo Hooo Hooo!!

It was a very cold, wet, windy, rainy night in Welly but we were toasty warm inside and very happy, unpacking all our 'stuff'!

A treasure trove of nostalgia and practicality ...

Some dearly loved old friends survived the 126 day journey intact ...

Armed to the teeth ... what the well-prepared woman brings with her to the New World!

How much more?!?! Do we really need all this &*^%$ ???

Oh yes!! My best beloved books ... a huge down-filled duvet ... and a precious persian carpet ... Welly, bring on your worst winter weather, I'm ready now!

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!

Day Two It Rained!

And that was a Good Thing!

We woke up yesterday morning (after all the fire shenanigans at 4am) to low gray clouds which eventually turned into light drizzly rain. It hung around most of the day and seeing as we'd packed mainly for the glorious Wellington summer we'd been hearing about, we ended up spending most of the day at the apartment, getting busy on the phone and booking times to go meet my new bosses up at Sprott House, to have Livi assessed at WHS and finally, to view our first potential apartment here in Welly which we did last night at six (more on that below).

Mid-afternoon, I grabbed a gap in the weather and speed-walked two blocks down to Cuba Street Mall which is one of the oldest thoroughfares in Welly, and which features a fascinating and funky collection of shops, cafes, bookstores - in fact, anything you could possibly want you'll probably find there. I went to Farmers, a house-and-garden kind of store where I bought an umbrella, pair of closed shoes and a beautiful warm autumn jacket!

At 6pm, we walked down - no first, we walked UP then down! - to 126 The Terrace, where we saw a teeny, tiny apartment on the third floor. Although it was reasonably priced, fully furnished and within walking distance of Lambton Quay, the cable car and the waterfront, we both had an instinctive NO to it: it was a dismally soulless place and looked out onto nothing but other tall apartment buildings. Welly has so much to offer and we are still so new to it - I think we'll probably look at a LOT of places before we find the one that says YES! :-)

OK, now piccy update. A lot of you have asked for Welly pix, so here are a few random shots, mainly from where we are staying now, which is on the corner of Willis and Ghuznee.

Looking down Ghuznee Str - on the left, a high rise apartment building, on the right a beautiful old church with a parking space set aside for the Vicar!


Looking back up Ghuznee - a cool mix of high rises and small houses ...

Close up of some of those houses ....

Inside the apartment ... sleeping on Day One!

This is the link to the ad for the apartment we viewed yesterday - it's on TradeMe, which is THE online shopping site for Kiwis - just like Gumtree and Craigslist, but (imho) even better! I now have a watchlist of about twelve other potential rentals which I need to start pursuing today .. so watch this space for updates!

Love to everyone back home and elsewhere!
L&L