Mount Vic!

   My penultimate week of classes has come to a close. So sad! I remember when I wasn’t even halfway done, thinking “Man, I have so much time left.” Now that I have one week of class left, and four weeks of travel, I feel like my time is up! I can’t stop thinking about how I’ll be leaving Wellington in just over a week, and I won’t be back for a month. Even then, I’ll only be here for a few days before flying home. I’m SO excited to spend so much time exploring the South Island, but I’m also sad to be leaving my beloved city!

   I’ve had a rather normal week, except that all of my courses are slowly coming to a close. We’re talking about end of semester stuff, and winding down with the course material. Spanish is the class that has made me feel like school is over – I only have one class left, and we’ll be taking an exam during it. I’m the class representative for Spanish, and class reps can host parties at the end of the semester will money from the university. Of course I organized one! It’ll be after our exam, and we’ll have yummy Spanish food and we’ll all mingle. It should be fun. The lecturer, Victoria, unfortunately won’t be able to come. She’s super pregnant, and due in a week! She helped me organize the party a bit, and donated money to the cause too. What a sweetheart! I’ve worked with her over the semester as class rep, so I’ve gotten to know her a little bit. She gave me contact info, and told me if I ever needed anything, to not hesitate to get in touch! She’s truly a wonderful person : )

  I don’t have lectures on Thursdays, so I usually try to get out and do something in the city. I didn’t really have plans for this week, but I did have to walk to both campuses on Thursday. As I was leaving my flat building, I checked my mail and had a Memere letter waiting for me! It brightened my day, and I loved reading it! I walked up the hill to Kelburn afterwards, then down the hill to Te Aro. I only had an errand or two at each campus, so it was still early afternoon by the time I was done. I didn’t know what to do for the rest of the day, and spur of the moment, I decided to walk up to the Mount Victoria lookout. I was wearing boots and was not prepared! The walk wasn’t too bad though, and the view was all worth it!

A bus tunnel I saw on the walk. Tight fit!

Halfway there. So high up already!

Finally made it! There's the airport and the South Coast.
The airport is on a big peninsula, and the land in the center of the picture connects it with the mainland. 

Windy Wellington! The city gets 173 days of wind over 60 kph per year!

I'm in love.

My apartment building is waayyy on the right of the photo. Kelburn is on the left, up the hill. What a walk! 

   I haven’t been up Mount Vic since my family was here. It’s amazing. I couldn’t believe how quiet it was up there! I spent some time admiring and taking photos, but I knew I had to get going if I wanted to get home before dark! I walked down the opposite side of Mount Vic than where I walked up, and followed the ocean all the way back to the CBD. It was the perfect day – chilly, so I didn’t get too hot while hiking! I stopped at some beaches along the way, and found TONS of seaglass. It was seriously everywhere on each of the beaches! And it was so smooth and worn down. I filled my pockets!

I watched at least 20 planes take off and land in the 20 minutes I was at the lookout!

I made a friend!

Okay, I made two friends. This one told me to follow him. So I did.

A shortcut down the side of Mt. Vic. Steep steep steep! And long!

Personal cable car? Yes please.

I had such a hard time walking away from all this sea glass...

   I stopped for dinner on Cuba Street on my way home, because I’m running low on groceries. I almost don’t want to buy more, because I’m leaving so soon. I have to remember that I still need to eat for over a week though!

   I luckily don't have much work to do for the end of the trimester, just studying. I've got 3 exams next week and my final photo project. I may end up hitting the books this weekend instead of going on an adventure!

My Brooklyn is better than your Brooklyn.

   So, I went to Brooklyn last weekend. I finally got around to making this panorama of it! Cool eh? It doesn't look as big as it really is. I had to rotate around quite a bit to photograph everything!

   Wellington city is on the left. Mount Victoria is slightly left of center - the big green bump. The airport is right of center, but it might be hidden by the hill. The south coast is on the right.

 

 

Click on it to make it bigger!

The Supermarket.

The lovely New World, a short walk from my flat through the Parliament grounds.

   Here in NZ, it's the supermarket. Not the grocery store. If you say grocery, people will know you're not from here.
   Things are a lot similar, but also a lot different in the supermarket here than they are at home. The biggest difference is that foods are priced per kilogram, not pound. This will always confuse me. I have no idea if things are a good price here or not. Prices are also in NZ dollars (obviously...), which are not the same as US dollars. Yet another confusion. But, I took a trip to the local supermarket, and I've done some research. Here's some things.

   1 NZ $ = 0.807 US $ and 1 kg = 2.204 lbs. So I did some quick calculations to figure out price here relative to back home. I was surprised by the prices of a few things!

PRODUCE:

Courgettes, not zucchini. The first time I tried to buy one, I went to the self-checkout. Bad idea. I couldn't find zucchini on the list of produce, because it wasn't there. I almost had to ask somebody what vegetable I was buying!

Paw paw? There's some weird stuff over here...

Feijoas! They are like nothing I've had before, and so hard to explain!

"Capsicum," not bell peppers or green peppers or whatever you call them. Every pepper here is known as capsicum. They are $3.66 - $4.38 per pound, US dollar. Is that expensive?

Kiwis come in a 10 pack with a spoon? They mean business.

The teeny tiniest container of grapes is SO expensive : (

All the way from Cali! And only $1 a pound US!

Everything at New World is always stacked so perfectly. It's kind of scary.

I always think I'm going to topple over a whole pile of food when I try to pick something out!

Kumara is a big deal here. I still don't know what it is.

Holy smokes! Looks pricey, but they're really only $9.14 per pound US. Still expensive!

MEAT AND DAIRY:

   Chicken usually sells for $14.99 per kg, which is $5.49 per lb. This is like 3x more expensive than back home! Ground beef is almost twice as expensive, and fresh salmon on sale at New World is still a few dollars more expensive than in the US.

Wow this picture is gross. Sorry. But it's lamb. Everyone is all about the lamb here. When I was at the grocery this particular day, a man was freaking out about how cheap this lamb was. He said it was a sin not to buy it. At $10.99 per kg, or $4 per lb, I guess he was right!

This is pretty much it for cheese. Not a big selection, and it mainly comes in big blocks.

EW BACON. I don't like it, but the Kiwis sure do. And it's not like US bacon, it's more like ham.
But not Canadian bacon.

Milk only comes in 1, 2, or 3L bottles. The price here is equivalent to $6.62 per gallon US. Yikes!

PLEASE REFRIGERATE YOUR EGGS. THIS IS NOT OKAY.

OTHER FOOD:

   Potato chips are called "chippies" and cookies are called "biscuits." A loaf of bread costs $3.29 per loaf NZ, which is $2.66 per loaf US, so pretty similar. M&M's, on the other hand, are twice the price, for a bag half as big as normal in the US. What a ripoff!

SO many chocolate options. This is my weakness.

Really? That's it for the oreo selection?

There is no such thing as granola here. It's "muesli," and no, I don't know how to pronounce it.

Banana bread is too expensive. I've certainly broken my addiction.

Something I learned early on: Tomato sauce and ketchup are completely different.

Okay what? Spaghetti sandwich? One of the stranger Kiwi traditions...

THIS STUFF IS ICKY.

NON FOOD:

   Friskies cat food (Mom - the same we get at home!) is $25.61 US over here! That's for the equivalent of a 16 lb bag at home, but is over twice the price! Ouch! Also, a small bottle of Garnier shampoo (250 mL) is $4.48 US, which is a little less than twice the price of back home. The cost of living really is a lot higher here!

Nurofen or Panadol. No Tylenol or Advil here!

   I really wish I had done this post a long time ago. I feel like I finally have a grasp on how much I'm spending when I go to the supermarket. It would have been useful to know, but now I only have a little over a month of grocery shopping left!

My Day of Bird Watching.

Cable car to nowhere!
HA just kidding, rebuild at the Kelburn terminal!

   Sunday was Wellington’s “Open Day.” A lot of local attractions were offering discounted prices for entry, to get the locals to see Wellington as the tourists do. Most places asked for a gold coin donation to get in, which is a pretty common thing around here. New Zealand has a $2 coin, and that’s a widely accepted donation, or koha, around here. I had a lot of options for places to visit Sunday, but I chose Zealandia. I’m so glad I did! It was such an incredible day!

   Zealandia is within the Karori Sanctuary, and it has walking paths, guided tours, a few animal exhibits, and plenty of native flora and fauna in it. It’s in the Karori valley, which is situated right on top of a huge fault line. There was originally a dam there, but once the fault line was discovered, they discontinued use of the dam to prevent a serious catastrophe. It was cool that the area had such history!

   I took the cable car up to the top of the hill, and walked over to the Zealandia bus stop to catch the 9:50 shuttle. Zealandia opens at 10, and I figured it would be busy, so I got there early! The shuttle was full, so it’s a good thing I did. As we pulled into the Zealandia driveway, we could see the HUGE line of people waiting to get in.. yikes! I didn’t think it would be this busy!

Look at that line!

   I got in after a while, gave my gold coin, and I was set! I queued for the entrance to the park, which was a double gate to keep pests outs. A bunch of us all piled into the cage, and had to close one door before we could open the second to get into the valley. The Zealandia crew are really serious about restoring the sanctuary to the way it was before settler’s came to New Zealand.
   I walked around the valley for nearly 5 hours. There was so much to see! First, I took a boat ride up the old dam lake. I got to see some of the birds close up! After the boat, I walked around the main loop that led to the upper dam in the valley. There are 2 dams, built a long time ago before knowledge of the fault line. It was the perfect day to be walking around the sanctuary - sunny but not too hot, cool and windy but not too cold. I could feel the warm sun on my face, smell the earthiness of the bush, hear birds all round me, and hear the wind through the trees and the trees creaking. It was the most beautiful experience!

A perfect day for a boatride.

   After reaching the upper dam, I decided to go on the Round the Lake track rather than just heading back. I got into Zealandia for $2 instead of $20, so I wanted to take advantage of it! The track took me an hour or two, and it was really steep and muddy in places, but it was worth it. I saw a Kaka, which is a big parrot, up close and in it's native environment! It flew right in front of me, and then hung out for a while. I think it was showing off. I also saw lots of other birds on the Zealandia checklist they give you, including the Saddleback, Bellbird, Tui, Kakariki, North Island Robin, Takahe, Grey Warbler, Pateke, as well as Tuatara and Weta. It's amazing that all these animals are back in their pre-human environment, living like they would have thousands of years ago.

Deep in the native bush!

Well worth the hike!

A takahe. The friendliest!

Yucky weta in a gross weta hotel. Ew.

A bellbird at a feeder. It let me get so close!

A kaka who was not shy at all!

A North Island robin. Another outgoing bird!

Hey baby tuatara!!

   After conquering the Round the Lake track, I made it back to the main loop and made my way to the Zealandia Visitor Centre. I was starving at this point, after walking for nearly 5 hours! I got a quick snack at the cafe, and kept on going. There's an exhibition inside the visitor centre with tons of info about how New Zealand formed, what it was like before humans, how humans impacted it, and conservation efforts. I spent a few hours reading everything in there.. it was really interesting! The craziest thing for me was how Europeans came to New Zealand, brought species with them like goats and dogs, burnt the forest away for farmland, and completely altered the landscape. These days that totally wouldn't fly, but back then it was a free for all!

A 9 FOOT TALL BIRD. STOP.
I'm glad moas are extinct.

   Zealandia closed at 5, and I made it out just in time to catch the free shuttle back to the cable car. I intended to walk home, but I was just too tired, so I took the cable car back down. After exploring Zealandia from 10-5, my feet hurt and I was ready to relax. The rest of the evening was very chill, which I so needed. I didn't intend to be so active this weekend - I wanted to rest and get better! But I'm glad I did so much and saw so much. I love how Wellington has a little bit of everything - bustling downtown, beautiful waterfront and beaches, native bush... I will never cease to be amazed with this place!

You knew I'd take a picture of myself... didn't you?