Wellington. We've actually been here two weeks now and again time seems to have flown. But before I start to fill you in on the last two weeks of our journey, we have two very important announcements & messages: firstly a big congratulations to Jon & Emma of Ash Ridge Vineyards who have just had their first child, a gorgeous, tiny baby boy called Jasper William; and secondly, congratulations also to Danie & Sam who have just had their first child, a beautiful little girl named Amelie. With these two births, plus the birth of James William to Emma & Michael as mentioned in a recent blog, and Sarah's scan photos, we're currently in something of a baby boom! Many congratulations to you all!

Anyway, what's been happening in Wellington? They have a saying here, when you're caught in a strong southerly wind, that you can 'smell the penguin poo' as it's blowing straight off the Antarctic. Well, if that's the case then we've been smelling a lot of poo in the last couple of weeks! It is cold right now. Which I'm finding weird because while I've easily adjusted to the time difference between here and the UK, I cannot get used to the fact that July is winter here. Admittedly Glastonbury & Wimbledon have just finished so it's probably been bucketing down with rain at home, but it shouldn't be this cold (and you'd think considering we'd been living on the North Norfolk coast for 18 months before coming away, we'd be used to this!) Of course, Wellington does have the reputation of being 'the windy city', a well-deserved moniker, as it is perched at the end of North Island, where wind is pushed through the narrow Cook Strait, and amplified by the high-rise buildings and hills, but just in case you haven't got the message, it's a rather cold wind right now!

We spent our first week here staying with Ross, Helen & Stevie at Raumati South on the Kapiti Coast, which continued in much the same vein as previously mentioned - delicious food, yet more wonderful wines (from an extremely well-stocked cellar!), intelligent conversation, further exploration of the Kapiti area, and being utterly charmed by gorgeous little Stevie. We found it wonderful to spend time with the little man as we both have close friends with little ones back home who we miss dearly, and a little cuddle, reading a few stories (and in Su's case changing nappies, I ran from that!!!) reminded us of friends back home. Our days settled into a happy routine, set around Stevie's sleep times, where our mornings were spent either having a guided tour of the Kapiti area or going for a hot chocolate and/or light lunch, and our afternoons painting - the first of our jobs in return for 6 weeks of free accommodation in Wellington - a rather good deal! Ross & Helen have recently had a room converted to two smaller rooms, both of which required a fresh coat of paint on the ceiling and a couple of coats on the walls, which utterly transformed the rooms as the previous owners had gone for a black & grey colour scheme - cheerful! Even if it makes us sound a little immodest, it did look very good once we'd finished, and we will return one weekend to finish the door & window frames before we depart for the South Island, as well as to spend more time with our friends of course. We've also left Shadowfax parked on their tennis court as parking in Wellington, especially where we are staying, is rather like parking in Brighton, so it seemed both safer and cheaper to leave her there. But she is staying in a very beautiful place, the Kapiti Coast is a wild and windswept area, with rough seas and on a good day a view to the snow-fringed mountains of South Island, all presided over by Kapiti Island, which is a superb spot for a magnificent sunset, of which we got to witness a couple of beauties.

And then we moved into the city, to Helen's father flat, which is on Talavera Terrace, close to the Cable Car line taking people up to the Botanic Gardens and Victoria University, where David is a Professor of Applied Mathematics. It is an absolutely charming flat, full of character, set out in a Japanese style and decorated with lots of oriental trinkets and pictures, and set on a steep hill with a view over Wellington Central Business District (and we could even see the lights of the stadium for the All Blacks game the other night!) We are so grateful, and feel extremely lucky to have this place for a few weeks, especially after spending time in an Internet Cafe in a city backpackers yesterday where the kiddies were discussing how pissed they got the previous night (yes I know it makes us sound old, but we don't miss the hostels one little bit - while some have been charming, many are just plain exhausting!) So, while here, aside from dodging the showers, sorry I mean downpours(!) and trying not to get blown over by the strong, cold wind, we've been completing stage two of our deal - to clean this flat for David - while also searching for work. The cleaning is complete, and the flat does look fabulous (once again, excuse the modesty!) and very cosy, but the work is proving a little trickier. Su was thinking about working as a Health Care Assistant due to her nursing background, which the agencies were very positive about, then decided that as we were only here for 6 weeks it wasn't worth the paperwork and checks. I started by bombarding the Universities and Libraries due to my past experience, only to be told I was over-qualified for many of the positions going, which I've tried to explain doesn't matter to me, I just need to get some cash in while we have the chance and have rent-free accommodation. And now I've moved on to the agencies, though I don't have the clothes for some office work (sorry, I forgot to pack my suit!) and some aren't interested as we are here for less than 3 months. The other problem, which is affecting everybody, is the current economic situation which means that many companies simply aren't recruiting right now, and many of the agencies have said that they not getting in many jobs at the moment to fill. So we wait. Today we have been street-walking (no, not that sort of street-walking!) to look for adverts in windows and look at notice boards in backpackers, and things seem a little more positive, so hopefully we will find something soon. Obviously we'll keep you posted on that front.

And while we wait we are doing a little exploring - Wellington is a compact city, due to the surrounding hills, and most things are in walking distance, you just have to learn about the little passageways and shortcuts. Due to the hilly nature of Wellington, parallel streets are often on completely different levels, and there are many shortcuts which involve going into an office block and taking the lift to another level and walking out in another street, which seems quite bizarre, though a good idea. We are enjoying finding our way around and have already located the fabulous Te Papa Museum, a fantastic and very cheap Sunday fruit & veg market, lots of Asian supermarkets and the wonderful Central Library, which has come in use for our other current activity, planning. From what films we want to see at the New Zealand Film Festival held right here in Welly in a couple of weeks, to the things we want to see, do and tramp on the South Island, to planning our Asia trip on the way home, all things we are working on right now. In fact there's hardly any time for work (shame we need the money!)

Speaking of which, I'd better put my internet card to better use and start today's job search.

Lots of love to you all, Jo & Su, xxxxxxxx