A moody, special photo of Wellington Harbour

Annalie just wanted to create a special post to highlight Ian's photographic skills with nothing more sophisticated than her iPhone.

Walking back from dinner this weekend, we took the "scenic route" and decided to walk along the waterfront. We were greeted with dusk setting on the calmest waters we've ever seen in the harbour! This moody picture sums it up. Looking out past the marina northwards. But don't talk too loud - don't want him getting a big head ;-)

Two months in

Yep. That's right, we've now been here two months. In some ways we can't believe it's only been two months, but in many other ways it feels like it's been an awfully long two months. As we're still living out of suitcases and in a very small flat, time is dragging as we long to have our own stuff around us and space in a proper house.

We have another two weeks until we move and once we're away from the city centre, we need to have wheels. Otherwise weekends are going to feel very isolated!

So we set about car shopping. Thankfully one of our friends had very kindly offered to drive us around to some of the car yards, although pretty much all of them are within spitting distance of each other in Lower Hutt. Still, it was a good excuse to get together :-) We knew we wanted a "station wagon" (as they call estates over here) and thought we were no longer car snobs like we had been in the UK! Our rationale for the wagon was somewhere to throw Maddy (so she doesn't get hair all over the seats), our camping/walking/sports/surfing gear and also something that will comfortably enable us to transport friends, family and luggage around!

We had pretty much settled on a Subaru Legacy as a reliable, solid car. As we mentioned, we thought we were no longer car snobs, so we were going to go for the "cheaper" option of an old shape model. But as we looked around, the newer shape was so much more attractive! And from our research, the new engine is about 100% better than the old one. In the end we paid more than we'd hoped but got a really nice car, only 5 years old (we'd originally been looking at about 10 years).

So that's one more box ticked.

Next - our belongings. They are having a wonderful holiday having travelled down the East Coast of the USA, to the Bahamas, across the Atlantic to Cape Town and Durban and have just left Mauritius! There was originally an ETA of 4th December but that has conspicuously disappeared from the tracking website and Annalie's internet investigation has us believing it may not get here until the 13th now :-( For that reason, we have asked our new landlords if they have any stuff we can borrow. They have enough bits and bobs to see us through, so we'll "rough it" for a couple of weeks until we finally have our own bits around us.

Next box - Maddy. Suzanne took her for her first pre-export vet visit. Thanks to Suzanne's organisation skills and our vet's professionalism, all tests were passed and all follow-up visits were finalised. It feels like a long slog at the moment and we can't thank Suzanne enough. We know what we'll be doing most weekends in December!

Next box - Ian's job. That's another one ticked. Ian started work this week at Air BP. After not working for a couple of years, he's felt it this week! Although he hasn't been able to do as much as he'd hoped as they didn't have all of his protective clothing available straight away - it's not like they didn't know he was coming! Now, Welly Airport isn't even as busy as East Midlands, where he worked just before we left for the US, so thankfully the shift isn't 24/7. But there's still some odd patterns!

The Airport had an open day this weekend as they have just opened a new international terminal, nicknamed The Rock. Now, it's certainly not an international airport like we're used to. And everyone just wandered through - there was absolutely no security at all, even though we were walking out onto the outside apron and airside! Seriously, you would NOT get that in the UK or USA! We mainly went for the chance to win free flights! But it was also interesting to see Air New Zealand's new interiors that are going to be rolled out on their London and LAX flights (777 only though). The new Premium Economy is almost up there with what Business Class used to be like, while the new Economy Skycouch was also on show. Ian tried it out for size, and we're still not sure we both be able to fit!!

We also went along to the local cinema's "Mystery Movie" night with Vanessa and Dave. For just $5, you got admission, a small popcorn and coke, but you had no idea what film you would see. We didn't know if it would be a current film or a golden oldie, a thriller, rom-com, sci-fi or what. But for $5 you almost couldn't go wrong! Although it almost was. It turned out to be a film that hadn't even been released (it was about a week away) called "Monsters." And it was a bit of a monstrosity! We don't think that anyone in the cinema actually enjoyed it! But, it was a night out.

Vanessa also roped Ian into volunteering for the SPCA when they did a day of collecting around Welly. He got posted to Porirua with an alpaca and a llama! See the photos in our album :-)

One thing that we still have to get used to is the fact that it's nearly Xmas and it's also coming into Summer! And that was really hit home when we had the Santa Parade through Wellington. Yes. Already! It is nothing like the New York Thanksgiving Day Parade - the Kiwis don't do flashy! It was down and dirty and amateur. But it was fun. We found a spot outside the pub on Lambton Quay to watch the parade go by.

Compared to how we started our life in the US (click on the link we've posted on the right if you want to remember!) then we feel like we've had a pretty boring start to our time in NZ. But some of that is due to the fact that we are completely without transportation at the moment. Well, at least transport that we can both travel on! Once we pick the car up in about 10 days time, we can hit the road and get out and explore properly. We'll get up the Kapiti Coast almost straight away as we'll be going to see Maddy, so plenty to explore up that way. Hopefully our blog will be a little bit more exciting then!

Our house - in the middle of our street!

So we just thought we'd show you a pic of the house we're renting. Ian took a trip up to Island Bay to take a photo. As you can see, it looks pretty nice.

It's a 3-bed detached with double garage. Two bedrooms are downstairs and the master is upstairs with the living areas. The main reason for this is that sun is an important factor in heating homes over here. Every room in the house has a north-facing window so gets all-day sun, but the upstairs is much sunnier. So they put the master upstairs. There is a Jack-and-Jill bathroom up there too (the one where the shower head comes up the Ian's chin!). Downstairs the bedrooms share another bathroom plus lots of storage space.

He's also taken this photo of the view that's just about 100m from our front door. Just to give you some idea of what we've got in store.

Also check out some of the other photos he's taken from a different angle this time. It's turning out to be a cracking Spring with a dry, warm summer in store. But the weather forecasters here are about as good as the UK...

We've found a house

Although it might not seem like a big deal, we've found a longer-term rental to coincide with our container arriving in NZ. Our plan had always been to stay in a central short-term apartment as we didn't have any stuff with us and then explore a little to figure out where we wanted to live longer term.

Without a car, we've not been able to explore as much as we'd like. We decided that the location of Ian's work would dictate where we went. For a while we thought we'd be focusing on Petone, when Ian got a job in Lower Hutt.

But he gave that job up so we were a bit in limbo again. Well, very soon after leaving his last job, he's been offered one doing what he's done a lot of - aircraft refueller at the airport! At the moment he's due to start on 15th November for training and induction, but he's now got another interview with Airport Operations! So anyway, at least we know now that he's going to be working at the airport!

So we were able to focus our minds on areas a little. We decided to jump on the bus to Miramar and Seatoun (pronounced sea-toon) to have a look around. One thing that we noticed was that all the parks had "no dogs" signs on them. So we were struggling to find places we could take Maddy (when she arrives).

Although the area was nice, the apparent dog "unfriendliness" was a big downfall. So we decided to widen our search area. We also decided to hire a car for the weekend to get around with greater ease. So, we dutifully set up some house viewings in Karori, Island Bay (x2) and Plimmerton. All very different areas in very different parts of the region!

The second house we saw was in Island Bay. We established a nice rapport with the landlady and were having a laugh. Things seemed to be going well until she mentioned she didn't want "kids or animals". Our hearts sank as it was a really nice house. As we prepared to leave we mentioned how we were interested in the house but she wouldn't be interested in us, as we have a dog. All of a sudden this wasn't such an issue, there were offers to put a dog door in the garage and finish the fencing off to give us a secure place for her to go. It wasn't a done deal as we still had others to see, but we had a good feeling. The house is right next door to a dog friendly reserve and there is a dog friendly beach at the bottom of the hill (a 3-minute drive or about a 5-10-minute walk). Serendipity?

We visited the last two houses on our list (the first in Karori was a complete no go-er - it was awful!) but both were tiny, if lovely houses. We didn't even mention Maddy to these.

And so we told Vicki, the landlady, we were most interested in the house, she responded that we were her preferred tenants out of everyone they'd seen, but we decided to go back on the Sunday to have a more practical viewing. At this viewing we met Bruce, the landlord, and all seemed to go just as well. Bruce is a (short) plumber and this is evident in the height of the showers! The en suite doesn't even reach Ian's chin! :-D so they're going to put a monsoon/rain head shower in to rectify that. And so the deal was done. And we move in on 4th December.

So that's the major milestone, but what else have we been up to? Well, whilst having a wander around Miramar, we stumbled upon Weta Cave, the retail and mini museum related to Weta. This is a movie/TV special effects company that brought us Lord of the Rings, King Kong, Avatar, District 9 and will be bringing us The Hobbit as well. A fascinating place, a behind-the-scenes video shows you how it all works. The only photos we have include "Flat Stanley" so you'll have to put up with them!

We also continued our winning streak since arriving. Annalie won a Twitter competition for two free tickets to see the local football team, the Wellington Phoenix. They're the only NZ professional side, but it's not quite the standard we're used to! It was honestly like watching Sunday league at times! The Phoenix ended a winning streak while we were there so we're obviously bad luck for footy teams at the "Cake Tin"! Maybe we'll give football a miss down here!

We also both won t-shirts of Rico - Air New Zealand's new mascot who's becoming a social media icon! Click here to learn more about him and see some of his videos - parental guidance recommended!!

NZ also celebrates Bonfire Night - although there's no bonfires! Just fireworks. With the natural harbour that is Wellington, there are many good vantage points. We decided to stick to the Waterfront though. We met our friends Vanessa and Dave (we mentioned Vanessa from the SPCA previously - we've had a couple of nights out with them) and stayed at the pub until 5 minutes to go. Unfortunately a bad Southerly storm was starting and it was freezing stood out on the exposed wharf for the 12.5 minutes of the event! But it was a good display, even coming from the home of fireworks displays! Then it was back to the pub!!

We've also celebrated our first birthday out here! Ian's birthday present was finding our rental house! It wasn't the greatest way to spend a birthday, but it was an important achievement for our new life here and the next step towards settling down. We finished the day with dinner in a bar watching a rugby league international (Kiwis vs Kangeroos - NZ vs Australia) and then Vanessa and Dave joined us after a trip to the theatre. We ended up in The Library lounge - an interesting place with much "retro" furniture that makes the place smell like your grandparent's front room! The sofas were that old that they ate you! Getting up out of them was a challenge in itself!

Our move has been somewhat vindicated as well. OK, not exactly, but Lonely Planet has declared Wellington is the fourth best place to visit in 2011. And it is also, apparently, the coolest little capital in the world. So do you think we made a good choice? Although we will admit that it was more fate than intention that brought us to Wellington!

We'll leave you with a picture of Island Bay - just a few minutes from where we will be living.