Homey

There's a great new tradition starting in the Wood household: going out for breakfast on the weekends. Ahh yes. With all the cafes around here, we can go to a different one every time and never have to repeat a place if we don't want to. We're really liking nearby Petone with its cute shops and easy parking. We had breakfast at Go-Bang-- I had poached figs (which looked like slugs) on muesli. It was good despite the slug-ness.


Our landlord thinks that it is somehow cost-effective to try and assess our 10-20 year-old tv to see if it's repairable. So we dropped that load off and was told it would take a few days to get fixed. (grr)

We had friends over for dinner-- we had tacos and made pumpkin pie. Ok pumpkin pie is sorta hispanic and goes with tacos; pumpkins were a New World discovery afterall right? New learning today: whipping the cream too much is NOT a good thing for pumpkin pie (but IS a good thing for butter).

I am feeling more and more at home each week now; I had no idea I was missing out on that feeling until recently. Bryce and I really have a routine going on the weekends which is really comfy. I think it all starts with a good breakfast. Out. :-)

In the swing of things

We've now been in Wellington for about 5 days, still waiting for our internet hook-up.
Here's a little recap.

• The ferry ride over was nice. The ship was large which made it pretty smooth(couldn't even feel it pull away from docks). It was sunny and we were able to see dolphins which of course made our day. However we saw evidence for why a 18 y/o drinking age is a bit too young.
• Our place is quite nice. It doesn't however have baseboards, I guess they didn't quite get that done.
• Wellington is smaller looking that I expected. The CBD(downtown) is wedged between steep hills and the harbor and most the housing is hidding in the hills and valleys around the city. It's very green everywhere. Very different than flat Christchurch.
• It is cloudier here, and the windiness, while exaggerated, is still constant.
• I rode the bus and then the train into the city with Julie Monday. A nice efficient system. Hardly any waiting and the walks weren't too far either. It was fun to go with her.
• Tuesday Julie felt very cosmopolitan taking the bus and train herself. She got her pass and was able to assure the agent she didn't mind missing the next train because she knew another was coming in just a few minutes. She really likes her 5th floor view of part of the harbor and the river valley that lies below our home. We both think it's pretty cool to set down in a new place. It's a different feel than our first month(which was felt a bit more like a vacation)
  
• I've taken to lots of walking/driving around being not really lost but not really on task. We'll call it unguided exploration. It feels unproductive, but I totally know my way around now.
• I've found the internet cafe system to use, and I've found that they cluster their stores by type. Outdoors stores, check! Snowboard shops, check!
  
• I'm looking to join a climbing gym shortly to stay in shape and improve my climbing. There's not much traditional climbing here or long hikes. However there are many day hikes and bouldering (unroped, low altitude climbing with a pad for any small falls). The deep outdoors is mostly a day drive away, which works. I think I do miss the south island, but this place could definitely be fun place to call home for 6-9 months.

Well that's my summation, hopefully we'll have home internet soon so we can more easily post pictures and Julie can post as well. Tonight I'm making our tacos. You wouldn't beleive how hard it is to find uncooked black beans. I've been to 4 grocery stores and 4 Asian/Indian markets to find them, success!