Comments on: O, Happy Solstice, and Business

By: amy

amy — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 02:05:42 +0000

Max thought devonport was a bit too quaint too, but I really liked it. I liked the fact that everyone went to the grocery store in bare feet. I liked that you could walk down to the beach for a swim twice a day. We were staying at a guest house owned by some very cool hippie-people who had also lived on that winery island near auckland whose name escapes me right now, and they had avocados, citrus, and apples growing in their garden all at once. Oh, and there was a cat hanging around near the library begging fish and chips off us, and I said “hey, that cat’s always around here, it’s like, the library cat.” And then I saw that it had a tag on it, and I kid you not, the kitty’s tag said “Benjamin. Devonport Library Cat.”
Also, there was a good bookstore, and I’m a sucker for that classic NZ bungalow house style. And I liked the view across to the port.

When we were in wellington we rented a car. First ten minutes, we managed to lop the sideview mirror clear off a parked car. Woman who owned the car happened to be there. She completely understood, not a problem, she did the same thing when she was in Hawaii, can she help us find our hotel. could not ask for lovelier people. NZ is also incredibly kid-friendly. And non-litigious. But you know all that, you live there!

We knew through friends some other techie expats in Wellington. Steven and Tam, they keep llamas.

Max’s res permit runs out in Jan 2009. We’re not likely to move at this point (family, friends yada yada yada) but if we get stuck with a president guiliani we may well end up down there after all. It’s really an incredible place, our month there was great fun, and I recommend it to anyone who is looking for a change.

By: Walter McGinnis

Walter McGinnis — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 18:30:55 +0000

Devonport is a cool spot, but a tad too quant for my day-to-day tastes. Maybe I would change my tune if I had enough money for one of those amazing beach houses on the Esplanade. Auckland has its problems with traffic and sprawl, but pretty minor in the global scheme of things.

If you can handle weather that sits somewhere between San Francisco and Seattle, Wellington is hard to beat for a small city with lots going on. A bit of a mish-mash architecturally, but somehow that charms me.

I live in the Island Bay neighborhood on the South Coast and walk my dog along it twice a day. Beautiful place, lovely people.

Wellington does suffer a common problem in local government though, over-representation of local commercial interests. The mayor is married to one of the biggest property developers in town…

Lots of techie-oriented expats already here.

Cheers,
Walter

By: amy

amy — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 20:50:13 +0000

Yeah, even as I was posting, I thought “But what about summer? No one gets anything done in August either.” I could make some argument about how we can’t get office work done in August because we’re programmed to be outside getting the harvest in, but since most of us don’t have a harvest to bring in, we go to the beach instead. But that’s stretching it.

Incidentally, our family visited Wellington a couple years ago, when we were thinking of moving to NZ (applied for and received permanent residency visas and everything). A beautiful city you’ve got there (though I became very fond of Devonport, Auckland, myself). But oh, the distance!

By: Walter McGinnis

Walter McGinnis — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 20:41:35 +0000

I was born and raised in Vermont, so I have plenty of memories of getting up, going to school or work, and then coming home after a normal length day all while it’s dark. You can definitely feel pretty low as result. So I understand your point.

I now live in Wellington, New Zealand in the Southern Hemisphere. It’s December, summer is starting to really kick in. Wahoo! Guess what? Nothing gets done in NZ for like a month and a half around Christmas and New Years.

So the result is the same, but the reason is kinda reversed.

Cheers,
Walter