It feels like so long since I last wrote a blog post but in reality our time in Wellington has gone quite fast! When I wrote about our time in Europe and Auckland I wrote them near the end of our visits, so with Wellington I decided to do the same. We will be leaving Wellington after 4 months on Sunday 14th to take a camper van around the North Island. Here is my best attempt at a summary of our time here!
We left Auckland on the over-night bus, the best bus service we had been on in our travels. We were given a cookie and a bottle of water, and a first for any bus we’d been on…this bus had hammocks! Of course we didn’t have a hammock as we went for the cheaper chair option; if you ever get an overnight bus from Auckland to Wellington – definitely get the hammock! Our first point of call was setting up a bank account, getting our tax numbers for employment and checking into our last shared bed hostel which in our opinion was definitely the worst (I don’t know if it was actually the worst but after 6 weeks of shared bed hostels we had had enough and was looking forward to not sharing a room with 14 strangers). We have both decided that now we have experienced hostels, we never want to experience it again! Eleanor had found a room for rent in a flat online which we looked around on our first evening and jumped at the chance. We had our move in date! Settled at last!
The most bizarre thing about December in the southern hemisphere is Christmas. Listening to “Let it snow” and “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas” whilst experiencing 25 degree heat and getting sun burn (more on that later) is something I will never get over. On Christmas Day itself the weather was grey, cooler and wet, it felt just like home. Eleanor cooked a lovely Christmas dinner, we watched many Christmas films and pretty much had the flat to ourselves. As vegetarians we discovered “Tofurky”, it was delicious and I’ve been very disappointed that I haven’t seen it in shops since!
Jobs – unfortunately money doesn’t last forever so we needed jobs! We pretty much signed up to every recruitment company in Wellington. Eleanor got a job first as a temporary executive coordinator in the Ministry of Primary Industries so for two weeks I was by myself! I didn’t enjoy the time difference meaning that most of the day I had no one to talk to from home and after being with Eleanor full time for 6 weeks this was a bit of a culture shock! Multiple people had told us that finding a temporary job before Christmas would be nearly impossible but fortunately Lauren from Madison recruitment found me a job within the same government department as Eleanor! We could meet for lunch and get paid over the Christmas break. Win! The Sunday before I started work it was a glorious day so we went to the beach. As I had developed a serious farmer tan I wanted to even out the back (vain I know). 30 minutes lying on my front caused the biggest burn I have ever experienced! All of this came to the pass when sitting in a meeting during my first week feeling like my back was on fire with itchiness. Trying not to draw attention to myself I was squirming like crazy sitting on my hands trying not to scratch and drink as much water as possible. After the meeting I ran from the building to buy after sun and jumped into the company shower with the water on freezing! Not a great start to my new job…
I’ll leave Part 1 of Wellington with pictures taken around the city. We saw the Greatest Showman singalong at the Roxy Cinema, an old art deco cinema a short bus ride away, took the Wellington cable car up to the free and beautiful Botanical gardens on new years eve, celebrated new years being one of the first in the world to do so and taking in the beauty of Wellington.
