(I wrote this on Thursday, August 30)
The trip:
I left Cincinnati on Thursday arrived in Wellington on Saturday morning (so much for Friday!). Thankfully, the trip went very smoothly. There was some major weather in Chicago - in fact, they evacuated the air traffic control towers while we were waiting in line for takeoff. (It was amazing how fast the storm moved in.) Our pilot assured us that our plane (a 777) was fine and he told us we should be "grateful we are not in one of those small planes - would you look at that?" I can only assume he was referring to the other planes we could sort of see through the rain that were rocking back and forth in the wind. But given the strong wind (80 knots, which meant nothing to me until our pilot told us that was the speed some small planes reach during take off), the storm passed quickly and then I was on my to SFO.
The trip from SFO to Auckland was not half as bad as I expected. 13 hours (although more like 14 since we sat on the runway again) sounds a bit daunting at first. Fortunately I hadn't slept on any of my flights yet, so I was able to sleep for over 9 hours. I was awake for dinner, breakfast, and one movie.
Auckland to Wellington was going to be a catnap, but I was seated with an older gentleman and another girl my age, and the gentleman kept us all talking the entire time. At some points, he did some unnecessary translating - such as the time he was describing to me how rough plane landings in Wellington can be, or how many times the planes cannot land and have to turn back to wherever they came from (due to high winds...) I said something along the lines of, "Sounds like Wellington is not a very plane-friendly airport." To which he responded, "Here we would say 'Wellington is not conducive to landing airplanes.' Tell me miss, I am curious, would you hyphenate plane-friendly?" Thankfully the girl next to me chimed in and said that he must be a literature professor - which he is. He also informed the other girl that the word "Right" means "Yes" in America. We all laughed at that one.
Arrival and first weekend
Erik was waiting for me at the gate - so from that point on, all travel worries ceased to exist. It has been great seeing him again. Our weekend was spent sleeping and walking around town. We also hit up a few restaurants for some delicious Indian food and fish. Going out to eat seems a bit more expensive here; we plan on having most of our meals at home.
Here is a picture of us during our walk around the harbor (yes, it's posed, but until this point I only had pictures of the skyline and boats)
Wellington seems to be a nice little city. You can certainly see a lot more sky, hillsides, etc than I am used to in the States. I am pleased to report that the weather has been very nice, although it is quite a change from the high 90s (100 even) that we had in the Midwest. The temperature has hovered around the mid-50s (perhaps 60 at midday) since I have been here and lots of sun.
Here is a picture of Oriental Bay taken from the waterfront of downtown Wellington. If you look carefully, you can see my favorite house - it's green, with white trim and an orange roof.
Getting down to business
One last thing before I sign off, the job hunt. I had an interview yesterday (Wednesday) with a recruiter. Since I am only here for a few months, I am looking for contract work. While the interview went well, it may be difficult to find a job given the short time frame. While this is certainly what I expected, they sounded pretty optimistic that something would turn up. I may be doing accounts payable reconciliations for the board of education, but a job is a job, and I need some income so I can afford to do some traveling! I'll keep you all posted.
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