Windy Welly

We've arrived and after 10 days of going about, this blog entry is long overdue!

We're here in the Land of the Long White Cloud where summer is beautiful. The sun does get quite hot, to a point where sunblock is absolutely necessary. Though because of the low temperature and humidity, you'll hardly break a sweat.

The wind here is quite a phenomena. I guess they don't call it Windy Welly for nothing. I mean it's really really windy. There was one time where we were at the junction of Courtenay Place, the wind was so strong that we had trouble standing upright and had to support against a traffic lamp post! As you will imagine, it also renders hairstyling redundant!

And on top of the wind, there's hills, hills and more hills. Wellingtonians live on hills!

Today, we begin our wwoofing. (Yeah, we really miss our dogs back home, but it's not what you think it is.) WWoofing's actually a term that's kind of like a work and travel arrangement with a host. Typically your host could be a home, farm, backpackers, vineyard etc. What happens is you will offer 2-4 hours of your time to work for your host and they would in turn provide you with some form of accommodation and food. This depends on the arrangement you have with your host. There's no better way to really travel the country on a budget than wwoofing!

Initially, we planned to take the bus to the train station, but somehow ended up riding there. We're glad though that the path from Miramar to the Wellington Railway station was actually quite flat (in NZ standards).

Bike lanes galore! It was a very relaxing and scenic ride by the bay, even though the Wellington head wind meant that we had to pedal double hard.

Immense joy after 2 weeks off the pedals. Someone is obviously delighted!

Here's one for the wonderful folks at LCSG! Your legendary pose lives on across continents! We miss you guys!

LCSG, You'll Never Ride Alone!

From Miramar, it's probably about 8km to the city central.

Just chilling, riding down Evans Bay...

We arrived at Wellington Railway station and got our tickets to Plimmerton. Train tickets are much more expensive here as compared to the MRT back in Singapore. Maybe because they don't use cable ties. Ok, but seriously, it cost about $6 for a single trip ticket to Plimmerton, which is about 30 min away.

Good news is that foldable bikes are allowed on all public transports (buses and trains) at all times. Now this really encourages you to commute by bike!

Here's Gwyn on platform 7 and 3/4 enroute to Plimmerton.

And we're here in Plimmerton, very quiet suburb. WWoofing commences tomorrow and it should be quite an experience. We sit, wait and chill in bated anticipation!

The view from across where we are putting up. And it's only separated by a stretch of road!