Wellington

When I got to Wellington, I was feeling quite homesick and unsettled. It took me several weeks to shake myself out of it, but when I did, I started to have a really good time here.

As soon as I got to Wellington, I went to a few temping agencies to look for a job. I went to the same one I was with in Auckland and they managed to find me work pretty much all the time I’ve been here which has been a relief. I also got a library card which has been great as books over here are SOOO expensive!

The first weekend, Katy and me went on a nature walk a short bus ride away from the CBD. It was nice to go and see lots of greenery and it’s weird it’s so close to the city! But it was really nice and informative. I also managed to have a few days work a week at the hostel as well changing the beds and doing the vaccing which helps with my rent a bit.

The next few weeks passed. I was doing data entry work at Victoria Uni for 3 weeks, then moved over to the department of corrections for a couple of weeks, updating links on their websites and having to learn all about html speak which I never knew before. Went to the cinema a few times, went to see Inception - I liked it a lot but it made my head hurt. Spent most of my time reading and being generally boring.

After 3 or 4 weeks I started to perk up again. Got to know the people in the hostel better and started having fun. Since then I've been going out and sampling the local night life and surprising myself that I haven't forgotten how to party which was what I was fearing, and have boogied several nights away, including an all nigher, 24 hour drinking-fest a few weeks ago which was very fun, ending in going to the water front to watch the sunrise at about 6.30 in the morning and then stopping off at the farmers market on the way back to buy our veggies for the week at around 7. The rest of the day was spent doing the beds and the vaccing and watching movies (one about cheerleaders and I spent the couple of hours after that when I was doing the beds with cheerleading chants from 'bring it on' going round my head!, and later on, Con Air - loving Nicholas Cage's accent), playing 'who am I' and generally chilling out. It was most fun.

Last week, we went to the cinema to watch a kiwi film called 'Predicament'. I'm not quite sure what to say about that film apart from it was random! And the lead character looked like a cross between Harry Potter and Where's Wally. On the friday night, we all had a big party and ended up out boogying and drinking really yummy sangria until about 5 in the morning. That was the night the big earthquake struck Christchurch. Some people in Wellington felt it apparently and were woken up, but I was still dancing at that point, and didn't feel it.

That Saturday that the earthquake happened was the same day the poor plane in the Fox glacier went up in flames, killing everyone inside it. Scary stuff. That's where I did my sky dive a few months ago.

That afternoon, I went on a little adventure to Island bay, about 20 minutes bus ride out of the CBD. It was lovely to be by the beach and have a walk along the coast. It's really pretty round there. Lots of jagged rocks in the water and big waves crashing over them looking very spectacular. I could sit and watch the sea when it's like that all day. I was there for a couple of hours walking along the coast. It was a lovely afternoon and I could see the south island mountains across the cook straight, it was really nice.

That evening, we were all a bit knackered from the night before so it was a quiet one!

That takes me up to this week, my last week in Wellington for the time being. I'll be sad to leave. It's taken me a while to get into it but now I have, I dont want to go! But I'm sure Milford Sound next week will be great! Ive got the week off work this week, so when the weathers nice, I'll be out and about. But it's so changeable at the moment with lots of wind and rain, I can't really plan anything too much!