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!