Matariki

Ash is really getting the hang of night photography – here’s me on the beach just down the road from our house on Friday night.

On Saturday morning we drove over to Kaitoke National Park, a bit down the road from Wellington. This was the location for Rivendell in the Lord of the Rings movies. There isn’t really anything left of the sets apart from this arch, which I posed under suavely. As always in New Zealand, the scenery was lovely.

We then headed back to the city for the Matariki (Maori new year) fireworks.

On Sunday morning our chest of drawers arrived, which was quite exciting because it meant that we finally have all the furniture we need – rented houses in New Zealand tend not to be furnished.

In the afternoon we went down to the City Gallery to see an exhibit called “This is New Zealand” about the way the country presents itself to the rest of the world. It was really interesting – we particularly enjoyed these old posters from the tourism board.

After the gallery we went for a wander around town so Ash could get some photos for her course – I got this shot of the business district from a little island in the harbour that you can walk over to.

Street art

Quite a lot has happened since the last time I wrote a post. We have found a house in Island Bay, which is about 3 miles out of the centre of town. It’s a 15-minute drive from here to my office, or a 35 minute cycle. While we were looking to be within easy walking distance of the centre, this is a nice enough place while we get ourselves settled in.

I’ve started work on the 9^th floor of the majestic centre, the tallest building in the city (this isn’t as exciting as it would be in London, as good views are so easy to access in Wellington). It’s pretty nice working in the centre though, because it is so compact that most things (places to eat, the waterfront, parks, the library, shops) are within a 5-minute walk.

We’ve been busy settling in to our new house, so we haven’t done many exciting things over the last couple of weekends. However, there is loads of good street art in Wellington, which we’ve been taking pictures of along the way.

I found this one where everyone looks a bit stoned quite entertaining.

Also, Ash went back to her parents’ house recently to pick up some bits for our house and got this cool shot of the stars.

Hopefully now that we have got ourselves established in Wellington we will have some more exciting things to tell you about next time.