Back in Wellington
It was now mid-January and we were staying at a free self-contained site in a suburb of Wellington called Porirua during this rather stressful time of trying to find jobs as well as an apartment. The site was great – right on the coast (which did make it very windy), but it was spacious and had garbage bins, luxurious! We had stayed at this site during all of our visits through Wellington, so at this point, we’d probably spent close to three weeks there, already about a week there during this stretch. Plain and simple – it was wearing on us, we craved lounging on a couch and being able to refrigerate our food!
Our luck suddenly changed – we had just finished brushing our teeth and were standing by Mayo one morning when Kay spotted two little dogs who looked just like her family’s dog at home, Georgie. One was a spitting image of him! She went up to the lady who was walking the dogs and started petting them and chatting with her. As it turned out, the dogs were the same type – Bischon Maltese’s – and the one who looked just like Georgie…his name turned out to be George! We continued chatting only to find out that the woman’s name was also Kay. We really couldn’t believe all of the coincidences!
George (Kay C’s pup)
Georgie, for reference
It doesn’t end there though. Kay C turned out to be the kindest and most generous person. She lives in another suburb of Wellington, Wainuiomata, and was just camping at this beautiful site with her dogs as a relaxing weekend trip. We couldn’t believe it, but she had a guest room that she offered up for us to stay in while we looked for an apartment. We happily took her up on this offer (sorry parents, we threw “stranger danger” out the window at the chance to get a free, hot shower!). That evening, we drove over to her house and felt as if we had entered an oasis – she had lots of land and a massive veranda to enjoy the sunshine on. Despite only being a half hour away from Wellington, Wainuiomata is not nearly as windy or cold as Wellington (think East Bay vs San Francisco). She showed us to her guest room with an en suite bathroom and we were in heaven. We had a wonderful time with Kay; she had just bought her camper van (far more legit than ours), and so we had fun comparing travels. Of course we had a blast playing with the dogs, Kay felt like she was back at home with Georgie! We also met her neighbors, Oliver and Isa, a really kind German couple who had been living in NZ for many years. They had just about the coolest house we’d ever seen, and invited us over the following night for a movie night in their in-house movie theatre! We lounged on their comfy, legit theatre seats thinking how our dream of lounging on a couch had come true x100!
During our time staying with Kay C, we were busy looking for apartments. We had heard horror stories about Wellington housing, especially as we were looking just a week or two before all of the college students would return and start their search as well. Somehow, someway we managed to find a great place in just a few days! It actually turned out to be the first place we toured. We were able to move in ASAP, so we ended up staying with Kay for four nights.
Before we left, however, Kay invited her family over for a BBQ to introduce us to everyone. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon filled with tons of food and Kay was even gifted a sun hat by Kay C’s sister.
Our apartment is in Thorndon, a neighborhood just north of downtown Wellington near all of the government agencies. We’re about a 15 minute walk to downtown and only three minutes away from the Botanic Gardens. We live on a main street, right above tons of cafes and some restaurants, and for some reason, there are also upwards of five antique stores on our block. We live with a mother and daughter who are great.
Kay has been working as an Executive Assistant at a government department, the Ministry for Women, and Hans has been working on personal projects and helping a friend with a website. We’ve been trying to balance taking weekend trips with exploring Wellington as much as we can. We’re enjoying trying new restaurants, hanging out by the water, and of course – having a couch to lounge on.
We’ve also had some visitors and have already been back to the South Island to do another backpacking trip. Since we’ve given you enough to look at this time around, we’ll be back with updates on that later. If you’re still with us, thanks for reading!