Shopping

Yesterday we went to explore some of Wellington’s retail opportunities. Earlier this year, the first farmer’s market was set up in Hill Street, so we went along to that, and bought some fresh produce and cheese from the suppliers there. Maybe it was because we were quite late getting there, and raining, but it didn’t seem particularly busy. Perhaps there are more stalls, and more interest generally, in the summer.

After that, we strolled down Lambton Quay, which is one of the main thoroughfares of the city, then headed towards Courtenay Place for rather more prosaic shopping – some necessary bits and pieces for the flat. We don’t want to acquire too much stuff here, as all our kitchen equipment etc. will be arriving from the UK in (we hope) fairly short order. We also went shopping for our housewarming party, which we’re holding on Sunday. We’ve invited all the people we know in Wellington – admittedly not very many so far, but that will change in time.

In the evening, we ate stuffed squid and watched the All Blacks beat the Wallabies again 20-10 – a much closer matcher than last week’s, but increasing their unbeaten Bledisloe Cup run to 9 games, and securing the 2010 cup.

The Health Issue

I went to see the doctor yesterday, and got the results of my blood tests. And it’s official – I am 100% healthy! The liver function tests, which in the UK had been – to  use the medical terminology – “mildly deranged”, are now back inside the normal parameters. I took the forms round to Malcolm Pacific, together with the immigration forms – one for a work visa, and one for residence based on family. So the immigration process is now properly under way for me, and should take about 4 weeks, according to our immigration advisor…which is just as well, as I have an interview on Tuesday, and I’ll need to be able to tell them when I will be available to start work.

To celebrate, we went out and got riotously drunk.

In other news, Nicola’s cello turned up yesterday – it was air freighted from the UK. It’ll need to be retuned, and possibly restrung. We’re taking it down to a music shop today to find out. 

Home Blog

Yes, this is the first blog that I’ve actually been able to post from the comfort of my own home! Telstra have finally connected us to the telephone and internetworks, so no more USB sticks and internet cafés for me!

As a consequence of this, I ordered food off the internet for the first time here. The websites and ordering process aren’t as slick as UK online grocery sites – in many respects, technology and internet stuff seems to lag behind by a few years here. I’ll see how good they are at not substituting items, and delivering on time (2.5 hour delivery slots! Sheesh! You don’t know how spoilt you are with your ocado.com!) when it arrives on Monday.

Technology: they’re just about starting to do television broadcasts in HD. Sky, who usually lead in these things, won’t be broadcasting full HD until next year, apparently. And we might be getting DAB radio next year as well.

They Do Things Differently Here

For a country that is one of the largest dairy producers in the world, the range of cheese on offer is disappointing. Cheese seems to come in 4 flavours: Edam, Swiss, Colby, and Tasty. After that you have to go looking for expensive handmade cheeses, or imported cheese, so far as I can tell. I shall have to investigate further.

Quiz Night

On our exploration of the harbourside at the weekend, we’d noticed that one of the bars ran a quiz night on Wednesdays, so last night we went out to check it out. When we got there we asked the barman about it:

“Hi, is the quiz happening tonight?” I asked, looking around the almost empty pub.
“Begorrah, to be sure, the weather’s keeping everyone away, an’ all” he replied.
“You’re not from round here, are you?”
“To be sure, begorrah, what gave me away?”

It seems that the Wellingtonians are fair-weather quizzers. It had been raining all day, but when did a bit of rain ever hurt anyone? We stayed in the pub and had dinner there, including the quiz night special, even though there was no quiz; played a game of pool, then came back home. Next week, we’re going to try quizzing in another bar. Hopefully they won’t cancel it.

Medical Mayhem

When Nicola originally applied for a visa to come and live in New Zealand, we both went for medicals as part of the visa application process. Unfortunately, medical certificates only last for 3 months, so I have to be re-evaluated, and have a new chest x-ray and blood tests.

At the behest of Malcolm Pacific, our immigration consultants, I went along to the INZ-approved doctor yesterday. The good news is that my weight, blood pressure and cholesterol are all down – I reckon it’s all the walking around hilly Wellington. This morning I went to get the blood tests done, and should have the results when I go back to the doctor on Friday. I’ll then be able to get my application properly underway.

Weather Forecasting

Despite what the weathermen keep predicting on the news every evening, for the last two days it’s “turned out nice again, guv” – so much so that I was walking around yesterday morning in t-shirt, jumper, scarf and leather jacket, but by mid-afternoon was feeling distinctly uncomfortable and had to shed the scarf and jacket! The wind has dropped to the default setting of a gentle breeze (I’m not sure that it’s ever completely still here) and it’s really quite pleasant out in the sunshine.

Weather Report

Yesterday, Wellington finally (for me) began to live up to its nickname of “windy Wellington” as the good weather of the past few days was blown away by gale force winds and rain. As we sat in our temporary apartment on Sunday morning, we noticed something: a strange feeling of movement. Yes, the building is actually swaying in the wind, and you can feel and see the movement up here on the seventeenth floor. It’s quite unnerving really, and I think we’ll be glad to be returning to ground level. The bad weather seems to have blown away overnight; we’re promised more of the same for the middle of the week, although the weather forecasting here seems to be as reliable as the UK’s.


Back in the flat, the carpet is being relaid today. This will take most of the day (there’s an amount of cleaning that also needs to be done at the same time), and we will be able to move the furniture back and finally start getting on with making the place a bit more habitable. The telephone and broadband were supposed to be connected today, but Telstra failed to do so. They’re now predicting Thursday. I hope their forecasting is more accurate than the weather.

We have the television working, after a fashion – i.e. we can receive all the terrestrial broadcast channels. I’m going to explore the freeview and satellite possibilities once we have a working internet at home. Blogs may be a bit intermittent until then.

The Bledisloe Cup

Today’s exploration was down to the harbour, where the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa, is located. As Wellington’s, and indeed New Zealand’s, main museum, it is enormous and contains loads of interesting stuff. We managed to get through about half a floor’s worth of interesting artifacts before we started to suffer from museum fatigue, and retired to a harbourside bar, Mac’s Brewery http://www.macs.co.nz/home/ for a bit of lunch. I sampled the Mac’s Black beer, a dark beer but without the head you normally get on Guinness or similar. I suspect that I’ll be back to try all the other beers on offer – purely in the interests of research, you understand!

In the afternoon, we headed down to Cuba and Courtenay Place to explore further and familiarise ourselves with the area, as they will be just around the corner when we move back into our flat on The Terrace. Around the corner and down a bloody steep hill…which is all well and good when you’re going there, but somewhat daunting when you’re coming home. Ah well, the exercise will do us good.

The Bledisloe Cup

Or the Bledisloe Clup as I keep calling it, kicked off last night in Melbourne. An 8 o’clock kickoff meant 10pm here, so we stayed up to watch it. The All Blacks stuffed the Wallabies fairly comprehensively 49-28, continuing a run of 8 games unbeaten now. It was a good game, with lots of tries and open play. Quite frightening to watch, having seen England play in the last 6 Nations tournament – frankly I don’t think they’d stand a chance against an All Blacks (or indeed Wallabies) team playing like they did last night. The next match is on home turf in Christchurch, next Saturday.