Wellington: Our First Three Weeks

We arrived at Kingsford Smith airport early on the Tuesday morning. Our flight was on time, and we were soon in the air. For people accustomed to flights in calm European skies, the turbulence on the flight felt horrendous. Thankfully, the flight to Wellington only took a few hours and we were soon back on solid ground. After almost five months of travelling, we had reached our destination.

I was a mix of excitement and nervousness on the bus into the city; excited to see the place I had visited back in 2009, but nervous because this is Fionnuala’s first time in New Zealand. “What if she hates it?!” and “what if it’s awful, but I’ve forgotten?!” were the main thoughts rattling around my head. Within twenty minutes of stepping off the bus, we had observed several expensive clothes shops, the incredible view from the harbour, people in kayaks, others on paddle boards, runners, cyclists, a climbing wall and a Wagamama. Everything was going to be okay.

The Airbnb we had booked was in a place called Tawa. The train ride from Wellington to Linden, the closest station to the house, took only fifteen minutes. The one mile walk uphill from the train station wasn’t all that enjoyable with our rucksacks, but the accommodation was great, and our hosts, Thomas & Adele, were really welcoming and friendly; great news, as we had booked to stay for 21 nights!

Our first couple of days here were spent searching the shops of Porirua and the city centre for an outfit for Fionnuala to wear to interviews. Outfit found, Fionnuala has since been to two interviews and has accepted a job offer. Apart from job hunting and progressing with our visa application, we’ve been exploring the city, enjoying the NZ Fringe and trying not to spend all of our remaining budget. 

Fringe is “NZ’s largest cutting-edge arts festival”, and we were lucky enough to arrive just before the 2017 edition kicked off. So far, we’ve been to six shows, including some stand-up comedy, hard-hitting psychological drama, a contemporary ‘light, sound and body installation’ and a musician playing violin while singing in a Neanderthal-inspired language. Not wanting to limit ourselves to live drama, we visited the cinema to see Pork Pie, an action comedy about three accidental outlaws driving a stolen yellow Mini from Auckland to Invercargill. The film was superb, and I’ll definitely watch it again.

One thing Wellington has a lot of is sports teams. There are football (soccer), rugby league, rugby union and cricket teams, and they all play in the city centre, which is brilliant. So far, we’ve only been to the cricket, but I’m sure that will change! Ex Durham player Scott Borthwick is currently playing for Wellington Firebirds, and I was quite excited to see how he played in the Ford Trophy elimination match against Central Districts. Although Wellington won, just, Borthwick didn’t bowl and only made one with the bat. Not quite what I had expected.

I’ve really enjoyed getting back into some regular running over the last three weeks. The most notable thing about Tawa is that it’s extremely hilly. Every run there is challenging, even if you only run a few miles. On my first run, I got talking to a local runner called Preston, and we ran together for about 40 minutes. It was a great indicator of just how friendly people are here, which we’ve noticed again and again since we arrived. As Preston and I discussed the scenery, he pointed out one particular hill known as Colonial Knob, which gives spectacular views to the north and south. Fionnuala and I have since walked most of the way up it. The heat that day meant we didn’t make it to the top, but we’ll be back to conquer it in the near future.

G