Kiwi land

Greetings from Wellington, New Zealand! 

Motto of the city by the harbour

I have been fortunate enough to be able to come here on a year work visa with my partner. While he will be working 50 hr plus weeks on the Hobbit I will hopefully be involved in some equally creative and fulfilling pursuits here in Windy Welly.

The city greeted us with an apparently uncharacteristic week of smiling sunshine and gentle breezes. I actually went swimming sans wetsuit right out from the beach in downtown. The water is much warmer than the bay and so inviting- clear, almost tropical looking. We spent a couple of busy days looking at almost every available apartment/house in Wellington close to downtown and were lucky enough to find our perfect new home right on the water at Oriental Bay. Until move in in a couple of weeks we're staying at the cool Museum Art Hotel with a ensuite kitchen that has already been put to good use.

My first trip to a NZ farmer's market on Sunday blew me away. First of all- all the vegetables seem to be the big brother mutants of their counterparts in SF. The cabbages are as big as basketballs, the celery are small trees, and the leeks have about a footlong white stocking on them. I had to restrain myself to what would fit in our mini fridge. We also found an unmarked cooler stocked with real tofu (the supermarkets only sell it in a box on the shelf), a parisian bakery with amazing pain du chocolat, fresh eggs, flowers, woodfired pizza- more bounty than you can imagine!

Me with the big veggies

Organic food does not seem to have hit NZ quite yet, there is one organic store in town with a small selection of produce and products for exorbitant prices. The market was supplied with produce from Levin, which is an agricultural area a bit northwest of Wellington. So, hard to say what their growing practices are, but at least it is fairly local.

I am writing this while on hold with the wonderful CA DMV- 45min and counting! Some things are a bit challenging by distance- luckily all of the service type of businesses here, including their version of the DMV are much easier to navigate.

Well, until next time sending a big hug from the southern hemisphere!