FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL -VICTORIA UNIVERSITY

Angie left for her first day of school on February 13th! As you can see Angie is a typical student complete with backpack (good thing school is only ½ block away-those books can be heavy to tote around). When she has completed two trimesters, she will receive a Graduate Diploma of Arts through a postgraduate study in both Criminology and Social Policy. What a perfect opportunity for an international student to learn about the Criminal Justice System in New Zealand.

ROTARY CLUB OF HUTT CITY

Angie attended her first Rotary meeting at the Rotary Club of Hutt City and made a short speech of introduction to their members. The meetings take place at a Lawn Bowling Club, quite a different venue from the Rotary Club of Edina. Allan Brown, pictured, is the club president. He and his wife Trish are tremendous hosts- we have enjoyed spending time with them.





LOOOONG LUNCH

Jim and Angie were lucky enough to arrive in Wellington just in time for the Rotary Club of Hutt Cities annual Loooong Lunch.


The lunch is Loooong because it takes place in Martinborough, a 45 minute trip on a train to wine country! The trip includes wine tasting at a boutique vinyard owned by one of the Rotarians and a lovely lunch that was catered by the ever so talented club President’s wife, Trisha. The day consisted of good conversation, lovely food, music and plenty of wine.

FIRST VISITORS FROM AMERICA

We had our first visitors from America! Tom and Gaia arrived on Feburary 13th and spent 3 nights right outside of Wellington. They had biked across much of the South Island, 700 KM- that’s hard core. We expected them to be beat, but instead they were upbeat and full of energy. We had just moved to the city a few days prior so we all explored together (the Kapiti Coast and the Circa Theater) and as you can see from the photo, we broke in the new pad in style.

NEW HOME SWEET HOME

We upload this blog entry while overlooking a game of cricket at Kelburn Park. We are fortunate that our place faces NE, which allows for a view past the park and unto the bay. In a few months, we may actually understand what’s going on in that cricket game.

How nice it was to finally unpack our bags and to have awoken 7 mornings in a row in the same bed! We have rented a fully furnished flat and are extremely fortunate in how it is furnished. It must be remodeler’s karma because as we rented our house in MN after a major remodel, this place was recently remodeled as well.

Here are a few pictures of the new place as well as a map of where we are located. Wellington is set up a bit like San Francisco with the city center down by the waterfront and lots of residential living up the hillsides surrounding the bay. If you can’t tell from the map it’s a pretty steep slope from our flat to the city. In fact there is a cable car that runs up the hillside right by our place – we are the second to the last stop up the hill. Our sore legs are already realizing that they’ve had it too easy for too long.





Our new address:
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Angie & Jim Cousins
2B, 88A Salamanca Road
Kelburn/Wellington 6005
New Zealand

Angie: 64-211-802-252
Jim: 64-211-803-853
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(Double Click Photos to Enlarge)


HOST COUNSELOR

We were delighted to arrive in Welly to a wonderful welcome. Greg and Jacquie could not have been more accommodating. Our two night stay grew to five given the high demand of rentals in the city. They not only helped us find our way around but also led us to a great neighborhood, the best grocery store, a hidden gem of a pizza shop, and a lovely sunset picnic spot!

WELLINGTON

February 1:
We made it to Wellington just in time for one of the finest summer weeks of weather they’ve had this year. No photos to post as we were extremely busy looking for an apartment in Wellington. We stayed with our Rotary host family, Greg Thomas and Jacquie Wilson, who were a tremendous help orientating us to the city and pointing us in the right direction in our home hunting (Thank you Greg and Jacquie!!). It turns out that Wellington has a lot more demand for rental properties than supply. We looked all over town for three days straight; by the fourth day we finally signed up with a great flat right next to the University of Victoria. This leaves Angie a thirty-second school commute and if Jim has work in the city, it’s just a 10-minute walk.

Our move-in date is February 10th and we’ll report more on Wellington then. For now, we have a week to see some of the South Island. More to come..

A 7-Hour Day

January 26:
It’s not your regular 8-hour workday, but walking the Tongariro Crossing between two volcanoes was 7-hours of hard work! No blisters, but we certainly felt every movement in our legs for the next few days. The TC is near the main ski hill on the North Island, but the area now gets even more visitors for the summer hikes. It literally looked like a line of ants walking along that trek. We sure could have used 6 extra legs…

ROTORUA

Rotorua is somewhat central in the North Island and is clearly the center of tourist activities for the region, including many hot springs and volcanic areas and sites of native Maori villages.

We walked through the Wai O Tapu Geothermic Wonderland that included one pool (or a pond for you, Carl) that had an acidity level almost that of battery acid. Lots of sites with gas escaping, boiling mud, etc. It turns out the smell of the earth’s underbelly was not all that different that of a human.

And here’s a quick snapshot of a Maori Warrior we bumped into. O.K., he was on his way to a reenactment performance we attended, but still…