Day Nine - Wellington

Today did not start well.  I had to be up early to wash my hair and decided to use one of Jackie's stylist hairbrushes (she said I could).  I managed to get a whole chunk of my hair caught up in it.  Just like children do.  Sigh.  I tried to untangle it; Jackie tried to untangle it and she was very patient and managed but in the end we had to cut it out.  Looks as if the fringe may have to go back in again now ...... sigh!

So we eventually left to go in town. Jackie's partner, Mal, was taking as in on his way to work so needless to say after the hairbrush debacle we were running

late.  Jackie and I went Sweet Mother's Kitchen for some breakfast.  Once again, it is funny going to these places that I have seen and heard about but never experienced.  I had a lovely breakfast and then we went up to where Jackie goes on a Monday morning.  It is a meeting place where women do craft activities.  Lovely bunch of women who made me most welcome and they did their craft thing and I read my University books.

After this finished we went to a lovely supermarket which was I guess a bit like Waitrose.  Such lovely fresh food but I am surprised about how expensive some

of the food is. We then went back to Cuba Street and had coffee and cake, even thought we had brought cheese and cake to eat later.  It can do for tomorrow.  We walked up and down Cuba Street, looking in the shops and having a good look around.  We found a lovely vintage shop where I was thinking about buying a hat but did not. It is OK buying it, it is the getting it home bit that is difficult.

The rest of the afternoon we spent walking around Wellington and taking

in the sights.  As you can see form the pictures there are many beautiful things to see here and the city itself, has a very laid back feel to it.  Also, Christmas is still not apparent here and I love it.  The odd shop has the odd Christmas decoration in the window, but you are not getting carols played morning, noon an night.  Also, it is very strange to see the word summer being used when in my mind it is winter.

Dotted around the city are the little houses made of wood.  It is so strange to see most of the property constructed this way. However, alongside these 

buildings you then see Art Deco style architecture.  It also amuses me how the New Zealanders and the Australians have an obsession with pies.  I saw this when I went to Australia and thought then it is like being back in Stoke. As a southerner I dod not understand the concept of eating a pie, just as pie. To me, it should be served with potatoes and vegetables.  But here in New Zealand, just like Australia and Stoke they like a pie!

We caught the bus back home and rush hour is really not a rush hour at all.  I did have to smile as there has been terrible news of a shooting of a taxi driver over a fare.  The driver is OK but apparently this never happens here and is most unusual.  Obviously, in London, it happens all the time and can only assume that it is because I have arrived here!  I have added some of the street art and interested things I found in Wellington today.

As always, with my love x

Day Eight - Wellington

Early start for a Sunday morning as Jackie and I caught the bus into the city to go to the local market. It is in two halves; food and food to eat.  We had look

Oriental Bay, Wellington

around the food to eat bit then went and brought some asparagus.  The price of food is rather expensive here and no one knows why.  For example, a pepper, that is one pepper is $1.50 which is around 85p. A cucumber is $2 which is around £1.08. The Farmer's market was good. We then went to get something to eat, I had paella and Jackie had a German sausage. We then went for coffee and sat in the sunshine albeit it very windy. Had my holiday ice cream treat of two fruits I have never heard of - boysenberries and frijoes. It was delicious. 

Back home and it was time to catch up on some chores.  Then out of the blue

you receive a message, a lovely message that just makes you feel meh!  Whilst communication can be a wonderful tool, it can also be a curse too!  Anyway, moving on ...........

Spent the afternoon planning the rest of my stay. It took quite a long time as both myself and Jackie's partner can be stubborn and whilst I appreciate people's generosity, I am also fiercely independent.  Also, it is generous enough them letting me stay with them whilst I am here let alone to pay for days away.  Finally, itinerary completed. On a completely different note, my face has caught the sun today and it is really warm. You really do not realise how fierce the sun is, especially with the wind too.  I will go and put some more moisturising on in a bit.  I was going to go for a walk along the beach but decided not too.  There is always tomorrow.

As always, with my love x

Day Seven - Wellington

No blue sky this morning. Very grey and windy and only 14 degrees. So it is back to the jeans and jumper. I spent some time this morning sorting out my suitcase.  I really did not bring much 'stuff' with me but it is surprising how messy it can all get when you are living out of a suitcase. I even found my samples of Marmite that had packed for Jackie.

This morning Jackie's partner, Mal, too us out I the car for a tour around

Wellington.  It was really good as it gave me a good perspective of what the city really looks like and all the different bays.  We went to Mount Victoria, I guess one of the highest points of the city and you could see all around; from the city itself right down to the airport.  Jackie lives near to the airport and I have to admit when I saw the runway, I could not believe how little it all looked.  You approach Wellington Airport from the sea; either from the

south if the wind is blowing that way - so that means the winds from Antartica; or you approach it from the north.  When I arrived I come in from the north and I could see from this height exactly how I had approached the city.

You could also see for miles all around the coastline.  It really is a beautiful place. We then drove around to all different towns and it was so strange when you actually saw a house made out of bricks and not wood.  We went to Zealandia a wildlife sanctuary for a drink and a bite to eat. I had to smile as I swear this is where that Kiwi bloke I went on a couple of dates with is from. Of course he is, I don't even know why I am thinking it.  We then drove back through the city centre and around other small suburbs.  It really is so quaint and I can see why Jackie thinks it looks like Toy Town.

Back home and once again, I had a terrible headache.  I seem to get one every

morning. Goodness knows why. However, the light here is very bright even on dull days.  I think I will just have to keep wearing my sunglasses as this really helps.  I decided to go for a walk.  I thought it would clear my head and also give Jackie and Mal some time together.  I appreciate them sharing their lovely home with me but I also appreciate that we all need some time alone.  So off I went, all on my own.  I had only got around the corner and a guy say hello.  You know me, chat to anyone and let's face it, he was easy on the eye.  We had a little chat and off I went.  There are more women than men in New Zealand, so my chances are not very high from the off.

I walked down to the beach and went on the sand and watched the kite surfers. Oh I would like to give this a go. It was brilliant. They skimmed the waves so fast and then would flip over. It as so good to watch.  The sea is very rough

today and it is so windy.  You can see why they call it Windy Welly.  I walked along the beach and had to smile as it was covered in Jelly Fish.  You remember Jelly Fish?  My ex. We called him that as he had no back bone.  I had to smile then had a miss you Meg moment.  I guess it had to come at some point.

Decided I would go to The Botanist (again) and had a coffee to warm up and to use the toilet as by now I was rather cold. Lovely coffee and it did the trick.  I walked up to the retail park and had a look around there and come home.  Mel was there but Jackie had gone to bed to see if she could clear her head.

Tonight Jackie and I went to the rugby in the City. I thought it should be done as NZ are famous for their rugby.  It was a lovely evening. There was a great

atmosphere about it all and it as good to see families come together to watch the match.  Both of us did not have clue what the rules were but we thought we would figure it out.  It started off with the NZ team doing the haka then the Fijian team singing and their voices were beautiful. The match was good and NZ did not deserve to win to be honest. I had to smile as there was a Fijian bloke sitting behind us swearing away, then apologises for his language.

We left just before the end as it as getting cold and we were hungry.  Unfortunately, there was not much open to get anything so it ended up with Jackie getting a sandwich and me a bag of crisps.  But it was a lovely evening and fond memories.

As always, with my love x

Day Six - Wellington

Bit cloudy today but still some blue skies up there.  Also, woke with a headache as I was dozing on and off for a few hours this morning. So will take more paracetamol before we go out. We caught the bus and went into Wellington City Centre. First impressions are that it is very hilly but very beautiful. It had a city

feel about it but not so much 'full on'. Very clean and modern but nestled in the buildings were buildings that were built in the 1930s. We went for a coffee (of course) and sat and watched people going by before we made our way to the Art Gallery where we went to see three art exhibitions. As always, some were more interesting and thought provoking than others, but it was a good place to be and I really enjoyed it.  The building itself was stunning but it is being closed for three months for refurbishment.  I hope they don't change it too much as it looked perfect to me.

We walked down to the waterfront and had a look along there.  There were some lovely unique shops and one in particular was selling some lovely clothes. Obviously I was tempted but not much would have fitted me properly anyway,

so that helped.  We went and found something to eat a place that sold mainly seafood, well crabs, and some fish. It was rather nice but we both ate far too much for a late lunch.  We continued our way around the town and what I do like about it is there are quite a few shops that cater for size 16 plus. It made a lovely change and most of these clothes were lovely, compared to the rubbish Pat Butcher stuff we saw the other day.  Scattered around the buildings are little gems of wonderful Art Deco architecture.  We went to Cuba Street and quite a few people had told me I would like it there.  It was OK, but not what I thought it would be but Jackie said there is another part of it which we will look at at another time. 

It is so lovely to be out in cropped summer trousers and shades and I am finding it difficult to get my head around the fact that it is November.  I have seen the odd Christmas tree but it is not 'in your

face' like it is back home.  I could put up with this to be honest every year if the is what Christmas is like here.

I also purchased some Topsy Turvy Christmas decorations such as a Santa in his swimming costume and some flip flops to hang on the tree that I do not have.

We sat and had another cup of coffee in Cuba Street before we caught the bus home.  On the buses here you an pay (unlike London) or you have a little toggle thing that you pre-pay just like my Oyster card.  Another observation is that the gutters in the road here are very, very deep.  In fact they are like a moat.  Jackie sad it is because when it rains, the water runs down the hills and the road cannot cope with it and that is why they have to have such deep gutters.  They really are quite deep and if you had a pram you would have to cross the road where there are driveways as they have part of the gutter filled in.

Oh it also turns out that I missed two earthquakes two nights ago.  I am not surprised as I have been so tired but it is crazy really as I do not sleep well at

home. I hope this is not it, as I would like to experience an earthquake just once in my life, we obviously I do not want to get hurt or die!  The houses here are reinforced to take an earthquake and this is why most of the houses in the suburbs are made from wood.  Recently, Jackie had her house reinforced with steel girders to ensure it remains safe if, or I should say, when, it happens.  Apparently, the are happening all the time, but are so small you do not always notice them.  It is strange really isn't it.

So I will leave you with some more photos of Wellington City Centre.

As always, with my love x

Day Five - Wellington

Everything now seems back to normal.  I was tired at 11.00pm last night and slept through to 6.30am this morning - my normal sleep pattern.  I am also OK now with my food and not feeling hungry at stupid o'clock.  I fee that I have 'adjusted'.  Lazy start to the day catching up on email, blogging, a quick video chat with Andy (I have to make sure he is OK) and then we ventured out.  Jackie had an hair appointment today in Kilbirnie so I told her she must go and I would keep myself amused.

So here I am in a cafe, hooked up to the free wifi typing this blog, whilst all my UK friends are now snuggled up in bed.  It is really Topsy Turvy Land.  Jackie is in the hairdressers and I am enjoying a rather lovely pot of peppermint tea.  The coffee here in New Zealand is good; I knew it would be.  When I was in Australia, their coffee was some of the best I have ever tasted. However, there is only so much coffee you can drink, hence the tea.  We have just been

'shopping' something I rarely do these days back in the UK.  I think it is because I never have anyone to go shopping with so it becomes a chore, something I have to do.  So today we went to a shop called Postie.  I won't lie, I thought it was the Post Office.  It is a clothes shop.  I bagged a bargain.  As it is summer here all the winter clothes are in the sale and I purchased a pair of jeans for $15 which is the pricey sum of £8. They also had some beautiful linen summer dresses for $25 which is around £13.09, the are very similar to something I almost had this year from Next.  Needless to say, I have had one of those too and treated Jackie to the same one.

I have always struggled in converting currency back to sterling but are managing OK here.  I half it the add a bit and I am normally fine with it.  I have just looked at the menu in this place and it is amazing.  You can have anything from fish and chips to to pasta, to kebabs to salad.  It is a right mixed bag.  So far being vegetarian has not been a problem and there seem to be plenty of vegan choices too, which is always good to see.  They do something called a SLAT which is smoked salmon with lettuce avocado and tomato or a BLAT which is bacon, lettuce avocado and tomato.  I think I am going to have the grilled hallow cheese stack which is served with garden salad, avocado, tomato, pesto, sough dough toast and balsamic all for $15 (£7.85).  Seriously, you would find it difficult to buy a cup of coffee and cake in London for that.  What I have noticed that most cafes also sell alcohol too.  It really is all mixed up.  

Food was lovely and we then went to look at some clothes. My oh my. Most of the clothes that I have seen to date appear to be made from nylon. Various

types of nylon. Which I cannot help thinking if I were to wear, would charge me up with so much static electricity I could light the town.  Yesterday I tried on an 'outfit' for a forthcoming wedding. We were pratting around but when I was getting changed back again, the assistant said to Jackie how lovely I had looked. It was so funny.  Jackie said a lot of the pattens have palm trees, brightly coloured flowers, exotic birds on them because the Pacific Islanders that make up some of the population, like this design.  I will let you make your own mind.  Personally, I call it the Pat Butcher look.  Needless to say, I did not buy it.

We walked home and the wind was really blowing, but this is normal and Wellington is known as windy Welly.  The roads are very

straight and they use the grid system. I will not mention too much about the architecture here as I will cover that another day, but I am taking plenty of photos of the housing as it is pretty unique.  It really is a beautiful place and I have been out today in summer clothes and just a thin cardigan (borrowed from Jackie) and I do have to keep reminding myself that it is November. 

Jackie was telling me that it is an expensive time of year for parents as the children break at Christmas for their summer holidays.  This means the parents have to buy Christmas presents, entertain the children for six weeks then buy school uniform, all within an eight week period.  So all you parents out there, never moan again about the cost of the summer holidays in the UK.  At least they do not fall at the same time as Christmas. 

I forgot to mention (give me a break I was tired) that at the airport they have a giant Smaug from Lord of the Rings, there waiting to greet you.  I know some of you have told me that you would like to visit New Zealand because of the Lord

of the Rings so here is a picture especially for you. Also, on the outside of the airport building it says 'Welcome to the middle of Middle Earth'.  Jackie's home is really new the airport. It is not a problem but I can lie in bed and see the planes take off over the sea.  My friend Lee (who lives in Stoke) would absolutely love it as he is an aeroplane geek. I must admit, I have enjoyed watching the Qantas and Air NZ planes come into land.  I will see if I can get a photo for you Lee.  

So off to bed now. I am sleeping well (for me) but I am probably still a bit jet lagged.  Oh I forgot to mention, apparently I have slept through an earthquake on Wednesday night.  I never felt a thing (have said that before ;)) I hope I have not missed my moment (said that before too lol).

As always, with my love x

Day Four - Wellington

It is so lovely to wake up to blue skies and to see the sea.  Lovely shower to get me stared and some coffee.  I still fill out of sync food wise as when I woke in the night I was quite hungry.  But fortunately I had some cereal bars in my case and had one of those and that was it, back off to the land of nod again.

So we finally got out and went for some lunch at a restaurant called The

Botanist which is a vegan restaurant.  It is a five minute walk from Jackie's 

house. We had a lovely lunch and both of us had a burger which was delicious. It really was a lovely restaurant and it was so good to be able to have absolutely anything from the menu.  We then walked up to the shopping retail park. Now this was quite strange because slap bang in the middle of it they are building

the new traffic control tower for the airport! Yes you did read that correctly.  I did have to point out to Jackie what about security and terrorism. Nothing like that over here she said. I could not believe it. How crazy.  The shops were interesting and it was good to have a look around.

In the evening we walked but into Kilbirnie which is the local 'town' as we were attending a vegan cheese and wine event at the local organic shop. It really was good and some of the cheeses were so tasty; other however were not.  However, it is good to try these things and the wine and bread were so good.  We bought some cashew cheese (yes you did read that correctly) which was amazing. It was very soft and come in a jar, like a cream cheese. Very rich but lovely.  We also went to the supermarket which is always an education.  My observations were as following:

New Zealand Fact: the milk is different.  Green top milk is skimmed, dark blue

top is full fat (same as UK), light blue top is semi skimmed, yellow (yes that is a new one) is calcium enriched and red is cream.  I mean cream. I have decided I am living in topsy turvey land. However, I like it as it shakes you out of your comfort zone. Also, wheatabix is not wheatabix, it does not look the same. Goodness knows what has happened to it but I did not like the look of it so had some lovely yoghurt.

It has been a lovely day. It was great to walk down by the sea and I could not really believe that it was November. It is a total 'head fuck'. There I am in summer clothes, flip flops and looking at Santa stuff. It really is crazy and an odd feeling. But I guess it is just what is 'normal' for us is different to others and that is what makes the world go around.  And as many of you know, I do like difference.

I will leave you with some photos of the bay, which is literally a three minute walk from Jackie's home. How lovely is this to be so near to the sea. She really is very lucky.

And yoghurt in cartons!

As always, with my love x

Day Three - Wellington

I have arrived. Finally.  I did feel as if I had been put into a 1600spm washing machine and spat out. I appreciate that security measures are necessary and I wouldn't mind if every place wanted the same thing, I just cannot do with the different rules at different places. For example, laptops out of bags, in bags, coat off, coat on.  Needless to say by the time I did arrive in Wellington I was not feeling the love. More 'interrogation' about food coming in, especially meat; I am a vegetarian! Then off to more security checks.  I was so tired and knew that Jackie and Mel were just the other side of the wall but could not get to them.  It was so frustrating.  Of course, they found nothing in my bag because, let's face it, it has been checked so many times before.

I finally turned the corner and there she was waiting for me.  It was so lovely. It was just like the scene form Love Actually; the meeting at the airport.  We

View from my room

hugged and kissed and I was finally there.  Who would have thought that New Zealand was the other side of the world!  Mal was the perfect gentleman and took my case and we went to the car.  I was given a tour around the area and my first impressions were that there were no high rise buildings or flat, a lot of bungalows, property made out of wooden slates and very, very beautiful. I love how some of the shops have canopies outside of them too. Other first impressions were how lovely the coastline and sea is and how clean it looks too.

We got home and by now I had no idea what time it was let alone what day it was.  Talk about totally lost the plot.  We went out for some food to the Spruce Goose. I have heard Jackie talk about this place so many times and I could not believe that I was actually there.  It is a bar come cafe come bistro and it is

View from my window

lovely as it overlooks the sea.  The food was delicious and I had the monkfish with seafood and it was lovely.  Oh we had some gorgeous olives to start with then I had lemon sorbet for pud.  It was a lovely meal and such a great place.  I still found it quite difficult to comprehend that I was here.

Back home and I was exhausted.  In fact that was a bit of an understatement. It really is quite and odd feeling to be honest.  Not knowing where you are and so tired. I kept forgetting my words lol, seriously strange.  I got in bed and slept for four hours. I did no hear Jackie and Mal come to bed. I woke at 1.30am and looked at my stars, but was so tired. I slept round to 6.30 then back off until 9.00. I know my slept pattern is going to be off for a few days but it will all settle down.  

New Zealand fact of the day: Did you know that there is no central heating here (OK hotels and that sort of thing has it).  It is because would you really want a metal container full of water strapped to your wall when there is an earthquake? I will leave you with that thought.

I have arrived. God help you New Zealand.

As always, with my love x