So after months and months of planning and eagerly anticipating the day, we finally got on a plane, flew about 21 hours, and landed in Wellington, NZ. Most of the first day was spent getting bank accounts, tax numbers, and visa papers in order but we did leave some time for a little bit of sight seeing. Wellington is situated in a bay with small mountains and hills surrounding it so it kind of looks like a bowl. We took the cable car up to the top of one of the hills to get a great view of the city.
The Wellington Botanical Gardens also sit atop this hill so we decided to stroll through those as well. The gardens were very colorful and we just happened to be there when all of their tulips were blooming. There was bed after bed of tulips...yellow, red, orange, purple, black, and white.
On the way back down we stopped at Old St. Paul's Church which is one of the oldest churches in Wellington. It is famous for all of the local timber that was used in its construction.
We also spent a couple hours in Wellington's most famous museum, Te Papa Tongarewa. It is a six-level national museum that highlights the NZ culture, history, wildlife, and geology.
After walking through most of the city we decided that we would rather start our job hunt in another city, so we bought ferry and train tickets down to Christchurch, NZ. We left on the ferry early Friday morning on the 3 hour trip to the South Island. The ferry goes right through the Marlborough Sounds which are a series of mountainous islands at the tip of the South Island.
We got off the ferry in Picton and boarded the Tranzcoastal train down to Christchurch. The train ride took about 6 hours but was packed with non stop beautiful views. The tracks run first through the Marlborough region which is the main wine producing area on the South Island. We passed by vineyard after vineyard of what I would guess was Sauvignon Blanc, which is what the region is known for. The train then followed the coast for about 3 hours with beautiful views of the ocean on your left and views of the Kaikoura mountain range on your right. The following picture was taken at the Kaikoura train station with the beach and mountains only steps away.
We got into Christchurch late and found our hostel. We went to bed early with the intention of hitting the flat and job hunt hard the next day.
We found a flat to stay in rather quickly. Here is the googlemaps street view link to our new living arrangement.
click here
The job hunt is a little more difficult and is still in full swing.
Week one went well. Hopefully week two will go the same.
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