Following some requests for “more foties”

Here is a small selection taken today. These were taken outside our apartment building (the green one with the trees)

* if you click on the images you get a bigger picture.

This is across the street; the civic square area is preparing for the New Year celebrations

These are within 100 yds of the apartment

This is a littler further down the street.

We hope this gives you folks a little glimpse of our new surroundings… More later, time to go out and party (13 hours before you lot in UK!)

Happy New Year to everyone and hope 2006 is good to you.

P.S. Sorry for the photo formatting!

‘Twas The Night before Christmas…. (And it’s roasting…)

Well we’ve made it to Melbourne (upgraded to business class - Liz, having tasted it, now wants it every time we fly). We found our way to the suburbs, and yes it’s rather warm. The idea of Christmas and blazing sunshine is an unusual concept for us northerners.

We have survived Christmas day and associated events, going for walks in 35 degree heat, one observation; I’ve never seen so many pregnant women in one place in all my life. (Must have been a power cut or rubbish TV about 8/9 months ago.)

Liz is sitting out the back in tropical surroundings, sun hat & cream, in her element. Adam is enjoying the shade along with the rest of us. Richard has become a master of the barbecue, producing all sorts of concoctions from it.

Richard & Yvonne’s house is lovely, equipped with all the mod cons of suburban life.

Very different from the 27^th floor apartment in Melbourne CBD. Richard & Yvonne will be glad to get their house back to themselves for a while, until Sylvia & Tom roll in in February.

We fly back to NZ early tomorrow (Thursday) and will settle into a routine while we look for somewhere more permanent to live.

Peace Has Broken Out

A rash of calm and tranquillity has broken out around the Anderson family. After all the hustle and bustle of getting here, followed by the circus of getting some decent accommodation, we have finally moved into a nice apartment in the city centre. It’s in the old Dominion Post Newspaper building, very big and imposing. The whole building has been designed in the art deco style, the apartments have 20’ high ceilings, floor to ceiling windows and furnished in the art deco style, I keep expecting Hercule Poirot to knock on the door. These are a couple of shots of the apt, one of Liz navigating the dial-up email on the laptop and one of Adam ‘chilling’ as usual.


We are right across the street from the Wellington Central Library and joined yesterday, mountains of books, CD’s and DVD’s are available, a very impressive set-up. Having got ourselves settled, we are now in the process of preparing to jet off to Melbourne for Christmas. One of the good things is that we have a settled base to return to without having to start the search all over again when we get back. The weather has been very good; however people keep saying, “it’s not normally as sunny as this” which is a little disconcerting.

On the general administration front, we have managed to open bank accounts and Liz has been practicing the use of EFTPOS in the shops, which she is pleasantly surprised with, I believe. My ‘baby’ (the Jeep) has been sold and so as not to appear unfair here is a picture of Liz’s ‘baby’ which is also in the process of being sold.



It’s hard to believe that it’s Christmas, sun, barbeques and Christmas carols are a strange mix, however, we are here now and going to make a go of it for the next two years. We hope everyone has a good Christmas and we will do our best to keep in touch.

Well We've Arrived…

We have made it to the windy city. After an epic journey of god knows how many films, TV programmes, and music choices interspersed with bouts of eating and drinking we have fetched up on the shores of New Zealand. It will come as no surprise to learn that, as usual, most of what the travel agent and airlines tell you bears no resemblance to reality. i.e:

“Yes sir we will process your (200kgs worth) of baggage at Edinburgh and you won’t see it until you get to Wellington.” Except, of course when you have to collect it at Auckland and cart it around the Airport getting it past customs, then re-depositing it in the domestic flight Section.

“You can get extra leg room.” Ha! That’s a whole other story.

“You’ll have plenty time to get between terminals at Heathrow” Yea right!

“You’ll spend the two hour refuelling stop at LAX in the new fully equipped Transit lounge.” No, you spend most of the time being herded around like cattle, getting fingerprinted and photographed…then deposited in a small area, given crisps and apples whilst being constantly reminded to “maintain visual contact with your belongings at all times, failure to do so will….” But enough of the journey…

And so to Wellington. We have just spent our first full day here and are getting our bearings. We had an initial hiccup with the accommodation in Leeds St, (In dire need of cleaning). The company apologised for the problem and promptly moved us to better accommodation in Boulcott St. We currently have a two bedroomed apartment until Monday then we move into two one bedroomed apartments (Adam is delighted with that arrangement.)

http://www.whatsnew.co.nz/428.0.html

It will take a while to get used to things. i.e. summer weather combined with Christmas carols, Santa and festive decorations.

The next part of the ‘plan’ is to search out a more permanent rental situation for when we get back from Melbourne, But that’s Monday’s job, in the mean time it’s chill out weekend…….More later.