Around the World and Back: I Love Wellington

Hey everyone! Hope your holidays are/were wonderful. We enjoyed the 70-80 degree weather for the first time ever. But before I get to that, let me tell you about our amazing time in Wellington! After leaving the Barley's spot in Hawkes Bay, we headed down towards Wellington to spend two nights with the lovely Dalton family. They live in Pauatahanui, which is a suburb Northeast of Wellington about 20 minutes driving. Brian had been introduced to Shelley through his cousin, Maria (who we visited in Taipei), who she knew from high school. Shelley and Paul were so generous and offered us a place to stay for the two nights before we caught our ferry for the south island, and it was an awesome and super comfortable place to stay. We arrived in the evening and they made us a delicious curry dinner, and Paul invited me to join him on his morning run the next day. He was endlessly patient with me that morning while I died running up Battle Hill with him. :) The views were amazing and I was so happy to have a workout buddy for the day.

After breakfast, Brian and I drove down into Wellington, which is where we had originally thought we'd like to live for a few months at some point. As we drove into the city along the coast, we mentioned that we already wanted to live there. The beautiful weather we had didn't hurt either; Wellington is known as "Windy Welly" for a reason, and fortunately we didn't experience much of what I'm sure could be bone-chilling wind chill in the fall and winter (and probably sometimes in spring and summer...). A mix of Auckland and mini-San Francisco, this port city has stunning views of the water, hilly & windy streets, a great farmer's market (!!), and a cool coffee-shop culture. We spent the afternoon driving around the coast, walking around downtown, exploring, and of course, trying out the farmers market. As we drove along Marine Parade, which is the waterfront street, we saw a German friend we'd met back on our Waiheke Island WWOOF. We picked him up and drove around for an hour catching up. It was so funny, of course we'd see someone we know after being in a new city for an hour. That's New Zealand!

Our time there was too short, but it definitely made me excited for the wintertime when we could potentially rent a cozy little room in a house, find jobs, and spend the rainy & cold days in a comfy house for a few months. A few short hours later, we reluctantly left Wellington, only to be welcomed back into the warm holiday spirit of Shelley and Paul's Christmas carol party. For my fam at home: you can imagine how excited I was for the chance to have a carol-sing in New Zealand, just like at home! It was so much fun; food, drinks, great company, singing old favorites and learning some new ones (Snoopy's Christmas? Anyone?). There were a lot of kids between 13-16 there and Mariah Carey's All I want for Christmas is You, and Wham's Last Christmas were among the faves, so I wasn't complaining. :) Poor Brian, he thought he'd escape my love for carols and my Christmas cheer this year, but I had to let it out (just that once!!). I am so glad we were with the Daltons for their party; they even did a wonderful toast to Brian and Maria and their family (and me, by association), and it was so sweet. Thank you so much, Dalton family!!

The next morning we woke up bright and early to catch our ferry to the south island! We have soooooo much more to see and do, and there's still so much on the north island we want to see! One year is just not enough for this country, that's for sure. Many shenanigans already since our arrival on the south island... those are stories for the next post.