First things first: No earthquake related injuries or troubles so far! We didn't even feel the big earthquake, even though we were still awake at that time. Auckland, where we've been staying, is far up north, and not earth quake prone. We are now in the capital, Wellington, where some felt the earthquake, but there are no visible signs of it now, which is good. There have been some tiny earthquakes since we've been here, but nothing we've felt so far.
New Zealand is pretty cool
Other than that, New Zealand has been fun up until now. It's very American, but there are still some European touches to it. In Auckland, everyone uses cars even to go to the grocery store around the corner (with the occasional pick up truck on the road), and there are big, green suburbs full of big bungallows, but the supermarket has tons of fresh fruit and veggies, and the average kiwi isn't obese as sports are praticed widely. At first glance, we do feel at home in this country. As we have been reading everywhere, the pace seems more relaxed than in Belgium. For example, the couple we were staying at in Auckland left for work around 8-ish, but were back home at 4 already, so there's still plenty of time to relax after work! And Auckland itself is a very relaxed city as well. We were staying in the suburbs, 20min north of the city centre, and it felt more like a village than a big city. There's little traffic and lots of trees, with the happy singing of birds waking us up in the morning. (It's spring down here, and summer is just around the corner.) Our adventures up until now Up until now, we've been doing some touristy stuff, but we've also been trying to get some paperwork done, with some mandatory administrative problems to go along. For example, we wanted to open a bank account, but apparently that's not that easy. First of all, we needed a proof of address (proving we were living in New Zealand) but we didn't have anything to help. Luckily, our lovely airBnB guest wrote a letter stating we are staying at her place, which should be sufficient. Moreover, every branch of every bank can choose if they want to open an account for you. So, the first branch we went to said they were not allowed to open an account for anyone with our visa. We're hoping to try our luck somewhere else, but now that we're in Wellington we need a new proof of address. And so the game began again... The boring stuff also has to happen abroad, I guess!
We've been walking around a little bit, for example to this tiny volcano in the city centre of Auckland (don't worry, it's been dead for a very long time), or to the beach side. Both offered us quite some sights! At the beach we found the best café ever: A Belgium beer cafe "De Fontein". We had to go and have a look of course, but we were disappointed to see that the only Belgian girl working there started a month ago, and that their waffles weren't up to Belgian standards... But they had Kriek, so all is good.
Our plans
In the meantime, we have been in Wellington for over a week and we absolutely love it. It's not only pedestrian friendly, but also has the Town Belt, which is a huge park that is all around the city. The main, and only, downside is probably the wind. Being the most windy city in the southern hemisphere, it owns up to the name "Windy Welly". We were going to stay in Wellington for a few days, and then roadtrip back to Auckland but at this point we just want to stay and settle here. So let's hope we can find a job in this tiny capital!
Fun pic of the week
November is navy month in New Zealand, and because the Kiwi Navy was founded 75 years ago, that called for a big party with navy boats on display and open for the public. No military event without its share of peace protesters, and some of them were slightly better at stealing our heart. Meet "Grannies 4 Peace"!
