Tag Archives: Plimmerton

Part 8 – Work, Work, Work

Well, how the turntables. All of a sudden, the “holiday” vibe was gone, and it was almost a settled life for almost all of us. The general arrangement for this week was: Nina goes to town and does basically a full workday either at the National Libary of New Zealand (Turnbull Libary) or at Te Papa Tongarewa. Maybe a brief meetup for lunch, if I am in town, but that was it.

Number 3 got the chance to go to school. Which is mind-blowing to us, coming from Germany. He could not have hit it better, though. He got assigned to Mr. Cross` classroom of year 3 kids. First day kicked off with swim class. He was in love. Just the logistics were a bit of a challenge.

That left me and the Agent of Entropy, finding our ways. Most of the time, that meant going to Wellington as well, either to get stuff sorted (like, voting as #1 and #2 voter in NZ in that incredibly unneccessary snap election Germany had) or just to hang out.

Then, in the evening, with the kids in bed and the house settled in, I would go and get to work, usually 8pm to midnight. Sometimes, a bit longer. We knew, this whole trip could only work if we both put in serious time to work. But still, ouch. Those first few days hit me hard. Especially before I managed to make a mid-day nap a non-negociable. Working late is weird. Somehow, not helped by the 12 hour time difference, it feels like “the morning” in my mind.

Anyway – we got through this mostly alive – probably the hardest week of our entire trip in terms of work commitments. Time for some weekend fun …

The kids really warmed to Lupin and Loki, the two Golden Retrievers
Showing off the moves
Trying to lower the nervousness of going to school in a different country
She’s a cuddly monkey, isn’t she?
quite the hike down the hill
Joining in to our hosts tradition of “first day snapshots”
It’s a first but just being in the coolest little capital again made me happy
Wellington Railway Station
Out and about, she loved it
The sculpture caught her imagination
Plimmer Steps – walk down memory lane …
We managed to link up with Nina and her old friend Aaron. Shoutout! Great guy!
Even though Plimmerton is quite far out, the train connection makes up for it
no photos in the embassy, so lets take a selfy with the odd scuplture in the yard
No.3 warming up to the dogs
The benefit of having the last house before the sheep
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we tried to just have a peak, could not pass the colering table
This time, it’s all about free tours and information. Last time (over a decade ago), it was all spears and barbs on the outside
From the best chippery in Plimmerton!
linking up with mama, waiting for friends
The AoE listening to an audio book
One of the drawers kept sliding open and then something broke. It was quite rusty so we got a replacement for Timmy.
custom toping, gentle touch
and done

Part 7 – Wairarapa

The amazing stop at Te Paerahi Beach was the last one for a while. From here, our next destination was Carterton where a former collegue of Flo is now living. She’d let us stay in her flat in Kuala Lumpur in 2015 on our way back to Germany and we had also met her in our flat in Frankfurt when she was visiting Europe in April 2018.

Now it was our turn again to visit, this time with two kids. Over lunch, we stopped at Pukaha national wildlife centre. Flo and I have never been there but we are familiar with Zealandia, a Wellington institution.

We managed to see a lot of wildlife with a talk about eels as the last highlight. Time to head towards Carterton and see Sonja. It was lovely to catch up. The kids enjoyed the amenities of having a bath tub, a sand pit, a community pool around the corner and of course, lego and children’s books. Not to speak of Sonja’s company.

The next day, we explored a bit of Carterton together, then headed out after lunch. The final stretch towards Wellington, our second home. Before we got there, we picked sunflowers though and stopped for schoc chocolates in Greytown.

Finally, finally, we got to Wellington. And kinda just past it, as we planned to live with Mat and Liz in Plimmerton. It was so good to catch up. These are very good friends I met in my first two weeks in NZ about 19 years ago. The kids are all grown up now. And they have three dogs now. So happy to be here!

Our view from Timmy’s rear window
Walking towards the beach in the morning
but the kids still loved the beach at Te Paerahi
listening to an audiobook during a car ride
Looks like Tane Mahuta to me
Just hanging out
In the nocturnal house in Pukaha
It was a NZ project which then travelled to Burning Man and back to NZ
despite being nocturnal creatures, they knew they would be fed at 1.30pm
The Maori word for eel is tuna
…it’s a work in progress though
They were also communicating with other kakas outside the cage
They were talking to each other until we disturbed them
Lego! Lego!
One of Sonja’s books
Lovely place
Carterton playground was such a success
Trying to catch them all
One of the ladies at the travelling fair made smokey bubbles in her hands and when it burst, there was a marble inside.
There was a small marble in the bubble!
on top of the closed sand pit
About to go into the field. Barfoot as always
Up to no good
busy sunflower
“This one’s mine”
“We got one!”
…of sunflowers
Our run for schoc chocolates
schoc chocolates in Greytown
The barrier between the Wairarapa and greater Wellington
“Over the hill and far away”
Getting closer now
We’ve arrived at Mat & Liz’s place, the closest we’ve been to Wellington in over a decade