We have safely arrived and begun to settle in Wellington! It is a great little city and we both anticipate that we will have a great time here. The population is approximately 180,000 but many more in the surrounding suburbs. You can walk across the city in about a half an hour, but there is also a good bus and train system. We have been so lucky to have a friend (Terri) whom I worked with at the Sturgeon Hospital in St. Albert for a year. She is originally from Invercargill (South Island, NZ), but is now living in Wellington. We stayed with her and her "flatmates" aka "flatties" for a week while we looked for a place to live. We now can say for sure, that Kiwis have Canadians beat in terms of friendliness! Everyone has been more than helpful, from people finding us a bed to giving us their phones to use! We are really amazed at the hospitality.
More about Wellington - It is a very young, hip and quirky city with so much to do. The small narrow streets are lined with pubs, restaurants and tons of cafes. Everyone is very laid back and their style is along the lines of bohemian with a huge 80's influence. Sometimes we feel like we are in the 80's, which is pretty cool. We are living in Mt. Victoria, which is really close to the downtown core. It's about a ten minute walk to the city centre, a 2 minute walk to Terri's flat, and 10 minutes to the beach (our favorite part). We are living with a Brazilian guy (Marcu) and a Fijian girl (Meenal). They are great! It is quite different here with living arrangements as many young professionals live together, as opposed to owning their own place. I guess 49% of Wellingtonians own their home (I'm turning into Factual Franny if you haven't noticed). Wellington is very hilly and we are certainly putting many miles in, which we also enjoy. The weather has been decent, but improving each day. It's been much cooler than we thought it would be. I didn't bring half enough clothes, so I've been wearing the same thing for the past few weeks! I've even gotten the nickname "Purps" for my purple sweater, which you will all become very familiar with in our photos. Clem isn't so bad..he packed a little better and is never cold.
Now that we are settled, we have been spending the days cruising around the city, going to the beach and planning some days trips out of Wellington. Our first one will be tomorrow or Friday (weather permitting) to Martinborough...one of NZ's many wine areas. We are going to take the train from Wellington to Featherston and then a 20 minute bus ride to Martinborough. We hope to rent bikes and tour the vineyards that way.
We will continue to update as regular as possible or when we have enough news that we think we should share. We are also keeping a journal of our daily/weekly activities and our expenses. We apologize if we haven't been able to get back to everyone on email, etc. We will try to get better at that and those of you who use skype, please log on so we can chat!! I've been trying to stay logged on as much as I can (when we are around the computer), so we'll try to catch you.
Until the next post...
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