Happy Spring from Wellington!

So it may have just started Fall there, but that means it's newly Spring here!

We have safely arrived in EnZed! Our cross-country as well as our cross-Pacific flight got in early, but since we still had connecting flights it didn't elate us as much as it could have. But we sat in the SFO airport, got out our instruments and did some jamming at an empty gate, which was fun, and on both flights we slept through most of them. I'd been dreading the prospect of a 13 hour flight, but with two movies and a lot of sleep it was really a good deal! I haven't even felt the effect of jet lag!

When we got into Auckland we had to collect our bags and pass through customs. As fortune would have it, our checked backpacks came around the carousel just as we walked up. Someone standing nearby remarked what good luck we had and asked if it was a mandolin in the case I'd walked up with. Apparently her son plays mandolin. When I said that it was, and that I'd just started playing it, she invited us up to her place in Whangarei (pronouced Fahngahday) in Northland... I'd heard of people getting invited to the houses of people they'd met on the plane, but to be invited by a random stranger at the baggage claim? This bodes well. I also liked that after inviting us and giving us her address and number she remarked, "Well, I'll see you soon... oh right, what are your names?"

We then took a little plane (though not as small as I'd imagined... I've taken smaller out of Charlottesville) to Wellington. I'd hoped we would get to see all of the North Island as we flew over but it was a cloudy day so I went back to sleep. When we got in, we must have had good luck because it was a very easy touch down (I'd been warned it could be terrible!) and the sun started to come out. We caught the bus to downtown ($8 NZD with included wifi on the bus--crazy!) and walked around Cuba Street for a few hours.

Cuba Street is a pedestrian mall that has similarities to Burlington's Church Street Mall or Charlottesville's Downtown Mall, but with a NZ flavor. There are a lot of coffee shops, restaurants, bars, clothing shops, etc., and there are cross streets every block or so. The green 'walk' man has a funny buzzer sound that still gets me, three days later. I'll try to record it and post it along with the other videos I've been taking. We walked down to the harbor and sat and learned a few songs together--trying to work up our repertoire!

We then took the bus up to the Botanical Gardens and found Garden Rd. where our couchsurfing host lives. Niv is originally from Milan but is doing his PhD here. His flatmates are Deeps, an Indian American from NY, and Ursula, Carrizo and their 6-yr-old son Sebastian, from Chile. They are all wonderfully friendly, welcoming, fun and musical, and we're staying with them our whole short first Wellington visit! We have very much lucked out!

We spent Tuesday afternoon walking all around the vast Botanical Garden across the street, then went with Niv, Deeps and their friend Fido to Cuba Street so we could get some dinner. Per my friend Brianna's recommendation, we chose Cuba Kebab and had a filling cheap dinner. We then went back to The Big Kumara to meet back up with the guys, who were in the midst of a poker tournament. After trying to figure out the rules of Rugby watching the TV over a beer, our fatigue finally started to set in, so we headed back to the house.

Houses in Wellington generally have no heat, and although theirs usually does, it was broken, so Niv had warned us it might be chilly. Indeed, in the morning when we woke up we could see our breath--but I was warm in my sleeping bag all night! For the record, LaFuma sleeping bags are really cheap and effective! We had breakfast of eggs, toast, tomato (and bacon for the meat eaters) with Niv, then walked downtown. It was a beautiful day so we walked the length of the harbor before heading to HigherTaste, a veggie Indian restaurant where there is a weekly luncheon meeting of the Wellington Couchsurfers every Wednesday. We talked with a bunch of CSers and met Fiona, the woman with whom we'd been supposed to stay before miscommunication upset our plans. She said she would be going to Red Rocks (where there are a lot of seals) the next day if the weather was good and invited us along.

After lunch we went to Te Papa, the national museum. It is huge!! We spent three hours wandering around just the first floor, seeing cool exhibits on the flora and fauna of NZ, earthquakes and other natural disasters in the region, an interactive floor map of NZ, and many others... and that was just one of 6 floors! We went back this afternoon to see the rest of it, and in three hours we were able to at least briefly peruse everything, but not with as much detail as before. But Te Papa definitely gets an A+!

This morning it was raining when we woke up, and although it was only slightly spitting by the time we called Fiona, we decided it might not be the best day for Red Rocks, so we headed to Mt. Victoria right in Wellington instead. We had a nice hike up through the tree cover (where, apparently, many of the woods scenes of Lord of the Rings were filmed), and at the top could see all the way around the city--beautiful! I took a 360 video I'll post later. Fiona pointed out where in the city the two fault lines run. There are apparently a lot of earthquakes every year because New Zealand is split between three tectonic plates. Don't worry, they don't expect another big earthquake for a few hundred years.

I think that's all I'll post for now. Tomorrow night we go to Karori with another CS girl, then on Sunday head to Palmerston North for our first WWOOFing assignment at a newly renovated manor they're trying to get ready over the next two weeks--looks beautiful and it will be nice to have some structure. Hope you're all doing wonderfully and enjoying the Fall!