Kia Ora!

Welcome to my blog. For those who don't know me, I move to New Zealand from the UK a week ago. To everyone else - how's it going? Long time no see! So, as you may have guessed, we arrived safely last Sunday to cold weather. But it was mostly dry, so not bad, and it was followed by 4 days of lovely sunny weather. First impressions are great. Auckland's not that big, and it never seems to be too busy, but it's got a lot of life and people from all over the world. The Asian community seems pretty big around here which means loads of great places to eat. Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese are all available, alongside the usual world foods. Virtually all of these are privately owned and I can imagine going to a different place every night for a year. Most of our time has been spent wandering around and exploring the city. We've seen most of the districts now, and there are some great areas. Ponsonby seems to be the best district for an evening out - it consists of mostly cafes, bars and restaurants. It has a road running through it called Karangahape Road (or "K-Road" for short) which is full of small boutiques, vintage clothing shops, and coffee shops. It's a great place to shop. A couple of days ago we headed to the Bay Area (called The Viaduct). It's the equivalent of Cardiff Bay, except it's actually a working port and the water is clean. Actually, the water is clean everywhere - it's so refreshing! On Friday night we had dinner in the revolving restaurant at the Sky Tower - the tallest tower in the southern hemisphere. The food was overpriced, but really nice, and the views really are spectacular. We checked out our first bars and club on Friday night too. We went to Queen Street (the main street in the Central Business District) and saw the equivalent of Cardiff's St Mary Street. There are a lot of Irish Theme bars (why are they always so popular?), and a few pubs. But there were no fights, and no obvious Hen do's. It was bliss. We ended up in a coold little underground club hosting a night called "Turnaround" which played a whole range of different genres - funk, soul, electronic, house. A good night and one we'll definitely return to next month. The rest of our time has been filled with job hunting and apartment hunting. No luck on either front yet, but our fingers remain crossed. A few things we've learnt since arriving:

1. They don't do central heating or double glazing. So it is quite cold right now.
2. It's "jandals", not "sandals".
3. It's "jug", not "kettle".

I think we're acclimatising, and there's still plenty to see and do. I can't wait to see more!