Haven’t written in a week but that’s because we’ve been such busy bees. Napier, as I said, was a fab little town. We explored Art Deco buildings, played lots of mini golf (Sue, sadly, coming out on top by one pathetic stroke), visited the Mission wineries (partaking in an excellent Pinot Gris and Geburztraminer) and a small brewery. Left, spent one day in Palmerston North visiting the NZ Rugby Museum and arrived in our new home, Wellington, on Saturday.

Within five hours we’d found ourselves a home: a downstairs flat in nice little suburb called Kingston, fully furnished and with a TV, video, washing machine etc. We even had the luxury of turning down people whose houses we’d visited and who’d rung us back offering us rooms. Now it’s the slightly less easy task of finding a job and replenishing our rapidly depleting bank balances. Don’t even want to think about how much money we’ve spent since leaving our jobs in Auckland!

Another “inconvenience” is a $95 fine for having our rental car towed away yesterday. Very embarrassing and very stupid: we parked down a semi-pedestrianised paved road in the centre of Wellington next to all the other (legally-parked) cars. The ground markings were exactly the same, no yellow lines or anything. What we failed to spot was the shutter in front of the car leading to an underground car park with a crappy sign telling you not to park. Completely missed it. No excuses, though, just an untimely thirty-odd quid to pay Wellington City Council. Seems like a nice place, otherwise, and we met up with ex-housemates Joanna and Dan on Saturday who rave about the place. Think we need time to get our bearings and start looking around us more!