Yes, I do spend time in Wellington...

Seems like nearly all of my posts have been about traveling, so I thought I would share a little more about life in Wellington -

Starting with where I live -

My room - I affectionately refer to it as "the pumpkin." I will never have an orange room in my future house/apartment. This room is actually a converted dining room, which means it has a couple bonuses, but no closet!

Bonus #1 - the built-in hutch. The top middle drawer has built in cutlery dividers, perfect for socks and underwear!
Bonus #2 - the built-in wine closet on the left - pretty much only good for holding wine.

Our driveway/the house across the street. All the houses in this area are really nice. Andy (flatmate) and Erik like to call ours the worst house on the nicest block -
And we are real classy - Andy and Erik dragged the couch out to the driveway to show off their guitar skills.
We would have hung out in the backyard, but as you can see, the Wellington Motorway is cramping our style (ours is the one-story white house).
Everyday tasks

I forgot to mention in my NZ Observations post that most people in NZ do not use clothes dryers, so it's the old-fashioned, environmentally friendly clothesline for us. This is a pain when the weather is not cooperating because then we have to hang the clothes up all over the house... with so many people, space becomes a premium.
Birthday Party!

Here is a picture of me with Susan and Corey. Corey is Sarah's older brother, and Susan is another friend of Corey's. We all went to a Japanese restaurant for Corey's birthday, then hit the dance floor for a few hours - it was a ton of fun. Mount Victoria (Wellington)

Mt Vic is one of the city neighborhoods, and it is located "above" Oriental Parade (OP is right along the harbor - a put up some pictures of that area when I first arrived). One weekend Erik and I decided to take the time to hike up to the lookout... it was a gorgeous day and the views were amazing. It was the first time I had seen the harbor from the other side.

Here I am consulting my trusty map to make sure we are on the right course -

This is the view from Mt Vic towards the Pacific Ocean - if you look carefully, the Wellington airport is nestled in on this little strip of land. Given that Wellington, NZ is also known as the windy city and there isn't much shelter from the elements in this spot, it is no wonder that plane landings can be rough!

Some sailboats out enjoying the beautiful weather. On a clear day, I have been able to see the snow on the Rimataka mountains in the background.



A more current update...

I am actually in Queenstown, NZ at the moment. Erik and I just got back from a week in Queensland, Australia seeing the tropical rainforest and Great Barrier Reef (updates to follow). We have a couple weeks to tour the south island before heading home for the holidays. Then it is back to Wellington for a few more months in 2008!

Christchurch (part II)

Picking up where I left off... (Sunday & Monday, 21-22 Oct)

Erik and I hitched ride with Mona to town to do some sightseeing on Sunday.

We started at the Arts Centre, which was actually the same area where we went to see the Glass Menagerie. During the day on Sundays there is a nice outdoor market with food and arts/crafts. They also had some live music in one of the courtyards -

And here is a statue that I really liked - if I had written this entry more timely, then I would remember what it symbolized or paid tribute to... however I do know that it is a Maori sculpture. Erik and I hope to take some time to visit some of the Maori heritage sites in the future.
After the market we made our way towards the city center - this is a picture of the Avon River, which runs through town.
Naturally, we couldn't go to Christchurch without seeing the church - here is Cathedral Square with the Christchurch Cathedral (built in 1865).
And one of my favorite stained-glass windows:
After spending the afternoon in the city sight-seeing, we walked over to our rental car agency. It wasn't too far of a walk, but it was really nice to see some more of the city. Everyone around here says that Christchurch is the "most British" area of New Zealand. I definitely agree. These buildings reminded me of London, however there were significantly fewer people on the street!
Since we picked up the car somewhat late, we decided to keep close to Jorgen and Mona's so we could be on time for dinner with Aunt Charlotte. We were also a bit tired from our busy day on Saturday (Jorgen really wore us out!) ... so we decided to take the gondola up to Mt. Cavendish Reserve.
I took this picture from the gondola - it reminded me of the Rimutaka Hill road that we took on our first weekend trip, except this road has a straight portion AND a guardrail! I also took this picture because I loved the scenery beyond the curve (which is the estuary of the Avon and Heathcote Rivers).
The views from Mt. Cavendish were amazing - this is Lyttelton Harbor. The harbor used to be a crater lake which eventually eroded until it joined the ocean. Hard to imagine that the entire area is the result of a volcano.
Oh, and this is me at the gondola gift shop - I was bored... but had no problem entertaining myself!
A picture of us in with Lyttelton Bay in the background -
And on a hike along part of the Crater Rim walkway -
Here is a photo of looking down towards Christchurch - those are the Southern Alps in the way background. And don't miss the cyclists coming up the mountain - I see people riding like this all over New Zealand. It's amazing how fit some of these athletes are - I recommend the gondola.

Monday we headed over to the Banks Peninsula... for those of you that are somewhat familiar with NZ, the Banks Peninsula is the little bump on the east coast of the South Island. Like I mentioned earlier, this entire area was formed by two giant volcanic eruptions. This is a photo of the map at the gondola gift shop - hopefully it helps give you a feel for what I am talking about...

Note - The "You are here" is the gondola shop at Mt. Cavendish, which overlooks Lyttleton Harbour.

Note - The large blue bay at the bottom of the map is Akaroa.

Before driving down into Akaroa Harbour we spent some time on the summit road there - and look at what I found! I just love these little lambs.
Here are a couple pictures of Akaroa Harbour - everything was very blue, but I think this picture looks a little too blue, but believe me, it was gorgeous!
(I love all the hillsides here...)

Our plan for the day was to take the catamaran cruise out into the bay... things were up in the air for awhile since it was really windy, but we had a nice time walking around town. Akaroa is actually the site of the first French settlement in NZ - I'd say they picked a good spot (in fact, if not for some quick thinking by the British to plant their flag in Akaroa just before the French arrived, the South Island may have ended up as a French colony).
Thankfully the wind died down a little bit - emphasis on little - and we were able to do the cruise. The cruise was a couple hours long and took us from the dock to the harbour entrance, and back.

This is the photo while we were on our way out towards the Pacific Ocean. The trip was great when we were moving along, but when the captain stopped, it was less than pleasant for me. He let us bob up and down (and up and down) while everyone scrambled to take pictures of Hector dolphins and fur seals. The wildlife was really cool, but once I had seen it, I was ready to fire up the engine again and get moving. Instead, we stuck around... I think this is one of the last photos I took the rest of the day - which means that I really must not have been feeling very well because I love to take pictures. I know that the water does not look very rough, but I was feeling every wave...
See? Even though I am smiling, I am very uncomfortable here.
At this point I went to the back of the boat and down the steps and tried to relax... by the time we made it back to Jorgen and Mona's (which included an hour-long nap in the car) I was feeling better. Sorry, no pictures of the ocean wildlife from me - but I am sure there will be others in the future.

Take care everyone!