Wellington overview

Our first full day in Wellington was Sunday March 29, so we have been here a little more than two weeks. Today I will try and give a general description of our life here, and the next post will have more details about things we have done and places we have seen.

The Quaker Centre where we are staying is a complex of three buildings at the end of a short cul-de-sac. The Meeting House is a square brick building built in 1929 sitting on a terrace slightly raised above the street. In the center is a new building – it was not here when we were last here in 1990 – with an office and garages at street level and a community room upstairs where people gather for tea after meeting. It gets a lot of sun from its north facing windows – a solar orientation that I am still getting used to in the southern hemisphere. George Fox House, where we live, is on the right. Our apartment occupies the front of the house – living/dining/kitchen room on the right, and bedroom on the left, with bathroom and laundry room behind it. The two guest rooms, with two single beds each, are in the middle of the building with a separate entrance. There is an apartment in the back with about 5 students living in it, but we don’t have any responsibility for their living space. Our guests come in for breakfast – coffee/tea, cereal, fruit, and/or toast – between 7:30 and 9:00. We have had 1 – 2 guests every day, except for three days off about a week ago. So by 10 am, we are free to go out and about as we wish. We need to be back here in the evening if a new guest is arriving. Although either the Meeting House or the Quaker Centre is used by a community group almost every week night, they have their own keys, and we only have to make sure everything is locked up at night.

Wellington sits on a harbor that is shaped like a backwards J, so it actually faces north. There are many hills, although most of the areas we walk around are pretty level. Mount Victoria, the name of our neighborhood, or suburb as they call them here, rises behind us as the first hill on the eastern side of the city. From our house it is only about a six block walk and we are in the restaurant/entertainment district. Lots of coffee shops, restaurants of all kinds, bars, and theaters. Stretching for another kilometer, either along the streets or the waterfront, is the business/finance/shopping/government district. If we go the other direction, we can walk along the waterfront for miles – although we have only gone a little way until the restaurants run out. There is an indoor public swimming pool with sauna and hot tub on this quay that we plan to check out. In the business district there is a cable car that will take you up to the university and further up to the Botanical Garden which is on the hilltop opposite to Mount Victoria.
So almost every day we walk somewhere, usually together but sometimes separately, sometimes just to pick up groceries. For a downtown, it is actually very convenient that there is a large supermarket within about six blocks, a Sam’s Club type store within about four, and hardware or electronics stores also close by. We try to confine ourselves to eating out only every third day, but it is very hard – there are so many good restaurants!
The National Museum, called Te Papa, is within easy walking distance on the harbor. And there are also a number of smaller, more specialized museums. There has been a film festival for the last 2 weeks, so we have gone to 5 films. Also, 2 lectures with musical interludes, 3 concerts, and 2 jam sessions of Celtic musicians at the 2 Irish pubs. We have been lucky enough to be loaned a car by a meeting member who is in England for 6 months, so we have taken 2 excursions out of town.
Meeting for Worship on Sunday is at 10:30 with 25 – 30 people attending. We did not go the day we arrived, so we have been to 2 worships. It is strange to have Easter as a harvest festival rather than a spring holiday, although in fact no one made any seasonal reference at all during Meeting; it was just something I thought about. There is also a 12:15 Meeting for Worship on Wednesday with 6 – 7 attending and sharing lunch afterwards. With the tea after worship on Sunday, we are starting to meet people and remember names. In addition, there is a Monday night study group (6 people) following a British course on Quakerism called Hearts and Minds. On the second Sunday there is singing at 9:30, a new development, and family worship and a shared meal (potluck) on the third Sunday. And a group called Slightly Older Young Friends which meets once a month at night. The meeting is probably slightly weighted towards older members, but there are also a goodly number of people younger than us too. There do not seem to be a lot of families with children though, but the family meeting got bumped a week because of Easter, so we shall see. We have our own support group of two people that we have met with twice. We are starting to get some invitations out, so we are starting to get to know people better. I think it should evolve well.
We have been having excellent fall weather. It has only rained hard one day, and most days are a mix of sun and clouds. It rarely gets warmer than 70 even in the summer, so I would say the warmest days have been around 65 – 68. However, Wellington is famous for its winds, so it often feels cooler. I have put in some lettuce, chard, and spinach in the little vegetable garden, and we have harvested some herbs, 1 tomato, and 2 strawberries!
More details later. I love to get emails from home and friends, so write!