Week 2 - Welcome to work & WIND!

Hello Everybody, and welcome to week 2 in Wellington, New Zealand. Firstly thanks to all of you that are looking at the blog, and those who said nice things about last week’s post …. Even if I “do go on a bit” eh Julia! ;)

This week, has basically consisted of two parts:

1) Starting work which has included meeting my new colleagues understanding kiwi slang/ accent, driving a car over here for the first time, and learning lots of things about New Zealand and it’s Mental Health set up.

2) Moving into my new place, which has included some serious bargain hunting, learning of a new use of the word ‘Manchester’, scouting out the local cafes & restaurants, and adding some homely touches! 

Oh I should add whilst all of my mates in the UK take great pleasure in telling me how hot and sunny it is, I have been experiencing my first real exposure to “WINDY” Wellington with a fair bit of rain today!

Firstly as promised from last week’s entry, Just before writing last week’s entry I went for a walk up Mount Victoria and down into Oriental Bay (no comment please Mr Lane!), with some stunning views! Have a look at these…..

Walk up Mount Vic

Walk up Mount Vic

Views from Mount Vic

Views from Mount Vic

Orietnal Bay

Wellington City & Harbour

Up Mount Vic

Ok, so onto the major events of the week. I walked into work Monday morning feeling a little apprehensive and well, let’s face it ‘pretty scared’ as I would soon find out what I was really letting myself in for by moving here for work, and in hope that my new colleagues expectations would match up with what I was confident in being able to do! I was soon put at ease by my Team Leader Helen, and the rest of the team, with humour, character and a cheery disposition. I soon learned that many people had connections to the UK, including some colleagues who had lived in the UK, and one who despite growing up in South Africa, had actually been born in my hometown and had got married in Bury! (Just a few miles from Manchester). So what would be the biggest challenge? – learning the system? Dealing with cultural differences? Getting over the time difference? (I was still waking up at 5am). Answer = none of these, my biggest challenge seemed to be understanding any word my NZ colleagues said that had the letters E/I in. The NZ have a habit of saying the letter ‘E’ as an ‘I’. So the word ‘Ten’ sounds like ‘tin’, and ‘sex’ sounds like ‘six’. I have had lots of fun asking my colleague Jen what the time is if I know her response will include ‘tin to tin’.  This issue is a two way thing though, because with my Northern English flat vowels (especially ‘A’) no New Zealander seems able to recognise my name when I say ‘Dan’ – it seems to them I am saying ‘Darn’… just gonna have to wear a name badge to overcome the issue I think.

Work highlights have included visiting the in-patient unit in a place about 20 minute drive from Wellington, in some seriously lush mountains – and I have to drive myself there tomorrow morning for a 2 day induction. Fortunately, I was taken out by a colleague to visit a client, which gave me the opportunity to have a little drive. I was nervous enough, but then realised the bloody car was automatic! My left foot felt very redundant, and kept pushing against the floor. We made it back in one piece and my driving skills will be put to the test properly tomorrow! I Must remember the indicators and the windscreen wipers are switched round here… I might end up crashing through not indicating, but I’ll have the cleanest windows in the city!

For confidentiality reasons I can’t go into too much detail regarding my work, though I’ll just say I visited lots of community based projects here in Wellington, which gave me lots of optimism as an Occupational Therapist, that there are lots of community support groups, and many mainstream groups to help with social inclusion agendas!

Ok, onto ‘THE MOVE’. Yesterday (Saturday) at 11:30 I lugged my 3.5 Large bags into a taxi and headed for my new place in the city centre. I was met by the little whirlwind that is Sheila, - a Hungarian lady who works on site for the letting company. I was soon keen to check everything that was already here worked ok (tv, pull down ‘James Bond’ bed, dvd/cd/docking station player, shower, toilet, sink etc.. I even have a washing machine & dishwasher in here) and it’s a small studio flat. I soon headed off at the suggestion of my work mates to ‘Farmers’, ‘Briscoes’, and ‘The Warehouse’ where it seemed they lived in a perpetual state of sales…. 30%-60% of most things which meant I‘ve done four big trips (walking), to these places to buy bedding, towels, food, cleaning stuff, an iron, hangers etc…. Things may not be necessarily cheap here, but with these stores having sales every weekend, and the large number of charity / discount stores in this city, you can seriously do things cheaply. This also extends to food! I have seen so many $10-$12 dollar lunch offers, outside bars/cafes/bistros it’s untrue! Just last night, (having almost nothing in my fridge) I trudged off down Cuba Street (no more than 500 yards from my flat) and I walked past the following food outlets: Chinese, Malaysian, Italian, Indian, Pizza place, French, Caribbean, Lebanese, a Bistro, Japanese, and good old ‘Fish place’ doing fish & chips! There’s a bakery, down the road, and a pie shop too!  Visitors will not go hungry here!   

I do have to mention a strange little thing I noticed yesterday: - When I was looking for bedding stuff, there were lots of signs with the words ‘Manchester/Manchesters’ all around the place, and they seem to use the word to refer to bedding and linen. Nobody has been able to explain this to me yet, though the best suggestion I had was that as Manchester was the birth place of the industrial revolution and famous for cotton production, maybe that’s where the name came from to describe cotton like goods? Answers on a postcard please!

Here’s a few pic of my flat now, with the ‘James Bond’ bed as it has now been christened… not in that sense of the word, (for those filthy minded people, I won’t name you here!)

My New Place

'James Bond' Bed

I could go on about the wind and how it almost blew me over yesterday, or the ridiculously slow internet but that seems to have been a blip! So lets end on a positive note and say roll on week three, as now I have sorted started work and found somewhere to live; I can concentrate on getting a social life going! 

Regards from New Zealand! 

Week 1 – ‘Starting Up’ & the things we do for a free meal!

Hello everybody! Well here we are again 6 months on from the last entry, but a very different reason for continuing the blog. – A permanent move to New Zealand!

So this blog will be used as a catch up for friends and family, as well as a little diary of the fun, bizarre and random things that happen along the way. It’s already been a bit of a random week, none more so than Friday when a house viewing turned into a lush free lunch at the ‘Courtney Place’ Rotary Club, courtesy of the enigmatic and colourful character that is Patricia. More of that later…

The week has been made up of the following events:

1)   ‘the journey’ – 26 crazy long hours of flying – this was an epic journey even by my own standards, though the 3 day bus journey from Colombia – Peru still tops the list (see www.otdaninchile.blogspot.com). After a long drive from Manchester to London with the folks, and one or two tears at the airport my trip began. First with a 12/13hr flight from Heathrow to Hong Kong. (Heathrow is such a crap airport and not just because it has no massage facility!) Fortunately my carrier (Air New Zealand) were great, with excellent food choices, both Eastern & Western dishes, and more importantly on the long legs of my journey I had 3 seats to myself, and actually slept on the plane! Full marks Air New Zealand. I also met some nice passengers who were sharing the journey, and one (Emma) who was doing the full leg to Wellington. I have to share some of the safety video from the flight as it was hysterical and I thought it was a wind up at first!

The views into Hong Kong were pretty nice, and the 2 hour stop over was much need to freshen up, toilet and use the free internet at the airport to find out that Ashley & the dog had won Britain’s Got Talent! The next flight (10 hours) was equally good, and the sunrise allowed some great photos from the window.

The final leg of the journey required me to pick up luggage and head over to the domestic terminal. I was fortunate to have Emma to guide me through the process and she gave me 2 pieces of advice for life in New Zealand. 1) When swimming on the beach swim in the part with the surf, as the calm bits have the undercurrents, 2) Don’t sit on wire fences, they’re probably electric! 

2)   ‘starting up’  My first few days were a whirlwind, as the week went something like this: Monday – arrive at 12pm (a little smelly), meet Gail, run by the office, sign some papers, go to motel and shower! Get info re bank, find supermarket and buy food. Tuesday – Occ Health visit & blood taken, open bank account, buy computer & ‘smart-ass’ phone, get tax number & sleep. Wednesday – Walk around the city in pouring rain looking at different areas to live: find pub for football, and meet helpful barmaid originally from Didsbury (Manchester for those of you that don’t know it). Thursday – Begin the house/flat search and drinks with work colleagues. Friday – more house viewing, free lunch, and movie. Saturday – Sign lease for new place and find watch live footy!

3)   ‘house hunting’ – Just wanted to quickly mention the search for a place to live. I saw 1 bedroom flats from $500 (250 pounds) per week, to $130 (65 pounds) per week, in shared house. The apartments are all pretty nice, mainly unfurnished but pricey as a single person. The internet usage is not unlimited like at home, and you basically pay for amount of usage and they come in quite specific packages! At one of the shared houses I was met by a Brazilian guy called Alex, who was friendly enough, and even offered me a bed in his room for a night until the upcoming spare room became available… hmmm… though this wooden house looked like something that might blow over in the wind, and it also resembled a united nations squat with people of various different nationalities scattered throughout the property. The additional two houses I saw also had up to 8 other tenants, some passing through travelling and some long stay souls. The bottom line – for 6 months I wanted to know who’s hairs were in the plughole!

Here’s a few pictures from around the city to give you a little feel for the place.

(A few pics of Wellington)

(My Motel)

Wacky Wellington / New Zealand

During the past 7 days I have learned a few surprising things about life here in Wellington.:

1)   Wellington is known as ‘Windy Wellington’ – a bloody fair name, those winds from the South and the ocean are a little nippy – My Northern English roots serve me well 

2)   A bizarre unwritten rule that in rented accommodation you are not permitted to hang your clothes out outside on a balcony or patio – not because they might blow away, but because it’s unsightly!

3)   You don’t legally need car insurance here! (I think that’s a New Zealand thing), no road tax either – just an ‘MOT’

4)   New Zealanders struggle to understand my name because their ‘a’ is more an ‘I’ sound so with my accent they hear ‘Don’ rather than ‘Dan’.

5)   Free 30 mins internet around the city – and you can just click on again after 30 mins!

Random Event of the week:

Whilst viewing properties number 6&7, I was met by a colourful and interesting landlady called Patricia, she was showing me a room in one of her properties, when she happened to mention that after showing me the room, she was going to her weekly Rotary Club lunch (Courtney Place Rotary Club), based a nearby hotel. When I mentioned that in 2010 I had been part of an UK Rotary District (1280) international Exchange Programme to Sri Lanka, she immediately suggested I join her at the club for lunch. Wearing just a casual shirt and jeans, with my sunglasses, I felt a little unprepared, though I was quickly put at ease by the club members. The lunch was seriously tasty with a full meal (fish, potatoes, veg & salad, with cheesecake, pavlova and tea/coffee). I pretty soon had made links to people within the property sector (great advice re places to rent), a guy from the only professional football club in New Zealand, and had been invited to come back the club as a guest speaker in a few weeks – that might be another free lunch! The most random element of this story is that the president of this club had received an email by my friend and Rotarian Dave in Manchester, about my arrival, but had not yet had chance to reply to the email. What are the chances, eh??!

Tips of the week:

1)   Don’t sit on a wire fence: (unless you want a free enema) as the fences are probably electric.

2)   Within Maori culture, you do not sit on a table/desk as it’s considered seriously rude ‘you wouldn’t eat from off the toilet would you?

That’s all for now! I’m still recovering from watching last night’s football (well This morning’s football – games at 2am & 6:45am! That’s the only negative I have to say about life here so far – football in the middle of the night!

Regards from New Zealand

PS – I have just been on an amazing walk up mount Victoria and into Oriental Bay, of which I shall try and add pictures to next week’s blog!