First Week in New Zealand

Well we have been here for a week now – and to be honest we haven’t stopped! How can I describe Wellington? Well we think that it is very much like Halifax in Nova Scotia where we used to live in Canada. It has the same feel to it that Halifax had and the people and their attitudes are all very similar. The landscape though is very different! If you have ever seen pictures of San Francisco then you will have a good idea of how hilly Wellington is, the architecture is very much the same with clapboard houses.

Robb has acquired a new car, he is now the proud owner of a 2001 2ltr Mitsubishi Gallant. As of yet Nigel and I haven’t bought a car – we are allowed to use his! It feels strange going back to driving an automatic, I drove it today and kept wanting to change gear.

Until our visa’s come through we are loathe to look at houses although we have been driving round the different suburbs trying to get a feel of the neighbourhoods. We are still trying to get our heads around living on top of a volcano and fault lines – we are amazed at how their homes hang of the edges of cliffs. One bl**dy good quake and they are all going to slide down the mountainside. We went into the ‘quake demonstrator’ today to show newcomers what it feels like– holy crap not looking forward to the first one – feels like walking on jelly! Most people wire their appliances to the walls – saves them flying across the room in a quake – I guess the problem comes when the wall comes flying across the room with the fridge freezer attached to it! Wellington averages at least one a week!

On Saturday we went for a 14km hike to ‘Worlds End Beach’ – there’s nothing between you and the South Pole – bar a few penguins! The wind comes straight up from the Antarctic – Chilly! The beach was full of Paua shells – so beautiful! the locals make jewellery from them. Talking of penguins – the road to the airport is full of signs telling you to be aware of Blue Penguins crossing. They come ashore and nest under people’s house across the road, I’m sure some of you must have seen them on the TV.

I can’t not mention the ‘All Blacks’ – Ben would never forgive me! We are hoping to get tickets to the Wallabies versus the All Blacks (Aus v NZ) – a bit like watching England play Scotland. They are playing at the Cake Tin on the 19th September just down the road from where Steph lives – so if we do photos will follow no doubt Ben!

The photographs are the view from Steph’s balcony, a view from Worlds End Beach across to the snow tipped mountains on the South Island – no penguin ones yet!