More pictures

Please click the following to take a virtual tour of our house:

House

Let the pictures begin!

All of our stuff was delivered and while much of it is now out of the boxes, it hasn't been put away yet. Part of the reason for this is that while the house is much larger than our old apartment, there is less closet space. Another part of the reason is that we don't have any furniture to put stuff in. But we're working on that!

This is one of our favorite pictures from a tourist sign. It reads:

Blame it on Cook Strait.

Our prevailing north-west winds accelerate through the straight, giving us 173 days of wind over 60kph (32 knots) each year, on average. Southerly winds also intensify through this narrow gap, giving Wellington the strongest winds on record in New Zealand.

During the 1968 Wahine Storm wind gusts reached 270kph (145 knots). That's double hurricane force! Wind measuring equipment at the airport was destroyed as Wellington faced the most intense storm ever recorded in New Zealand.

Force (kph) Description
2 (7.5-11) Leaves are in motion
3 (13-18.5) Gentle breeze. Raises light flag.
4 (20-30) Moderate breeze. Small trees sway.
5 (31-39) Fresh breeze. Large branches sway.
6 (41-50) Strong breeze. Whole trees in motion.
7 (51-61) Near gale. Hard to walk against.
8 (62-74) Gale. Large branches break off.

Did you read the best part? 173 days a year over force seven. To see some more pictures click the picture below:

Pictures

First All Blacks Game in NZ

Perin and I attended our first live All Blacks sporting event a local "dodgy" bar. We met some colleagues from her work who told us to get there 90 minutes before the start so we could get a good standing (not sitting) area staked out.

The match was to decide first place in the Tri-Nations Tournament. The Tri-Nations are the three rugby powerhouses of the southern hemisphere: South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. The All Blacks played the Wallabies (Australia). South Africa's team is the Springboks.

Just watching the haka (traditional war dance performed by the ABs before every game) with everyone packed into that bar together raised testosterone levels tremendously. A couple pitchers of beer and the last-minute victory made it a very memorable event! Go All Blacks!

We learned a lot about the subtleties of the game from her colleagues and saw that no one moved or ordered drinks while the ball was in play. Only during a stoppage in play was it appropriate to move or order drinks - at least at the bar we were at.

Get pumped up for battle watching the haka:

Water pressure

As it rains a lot here, no one has to pay for water or sewer. New Zealanders won't be facing droughts any time soon. And even though we live near the top of a hill, we have unbelievably high water pressure.

I've blown the plastic cup out of my hand several times trying to fill it from the tap. When we flush the toilet, the water is so forceful that it sprays up and out of the bowl, getting the seat wet. Dangerous. No courtesy flushes here.

Even shutting the lid before flushing doesn't fully alleviate the issue - the water splashes up against the lid and runs to the sides and gets on the seat. Not as bad as without the lid down, but still....

So I got super pumped for my first shower! I wasn't sure if the water would pin me to the back wall or if it would hit me in the chest so hard I would do a backflip. Regardless, I looked forward to that shower. You can imagine my bitter disappointment when I found out we have a super-water-saver shower head. It barely trickles out.

We have a second shower in the basement that's normal. But one of my first improvements to this property is to get a better shower head installed upstairs.

Other updates: Our stuff is supposed to be delivered on Monday, so after we unpack, we can start uploading pictures. We also got a car - a white 2001 Nissan Pathfinder that we'll pick up on Monday too. We got a couch and TV set up and cable/phone/Internet should all be working this week.

Sam the bartender

Perin and I have been waiting to get TV, phone, and internet installed. Service everywhere isn't quite the same as in the US, but better than India. Only a 17-day wait for installation... Hopefully next week. Now I'm at an Internet Cafe downtown.

Perin and I live in a Brooklyn - a 10-minute commute to downtown Wellington. We have two pubs and I met Sam the bartender at the one closest to our house earlier this week. (I haven't been to the pub two blocks further away yet). Sam's young and fit so I thought he'd be the perfect one to ask about how best to join a sports team around here.

Sam: "What kind of sports?"

Paul: "Soccer and touch rugby."

Sam: "Touch rugby? No! You want to play tackle rugby."

Paul: "I don't know.... I'm kind of old to learn such a physical game. Mostly I'm worried that whichever team I try to join will make fun of pads in American football and try to inflict deep tissue bruising and probably break my nose at the first practice, just because."

Sam: "How old are you?"

Paul: "29."

Sam: "Yeah, they probably will, but only for the first practice. Then you'll be part of the team. If you get the ball or try to tackle somebody, just go in confident. Listen - in highschool I played rugby and broke my arm just below the shoulder. I couldn't lift it and it hurt like hell. But I kept playing. Do you know who Buck Shelford is?"

Paul: "Nah, not really."

Sam: "He's a famous rugby player for the All Blacks. See, raking in where players rake you with the bottom of their cleats. Usually, they go for your hands after you've been tackled and are lying on the ground. Well Buck Shelford got his crotch raked. Tore his scrotum open and he a testicle hanging out. Went to the sideline, the doctor sewed him up and he finished the game. I knew if he could play with that kind of injury, I could play with a broken arm."

Paul: "Oh."

You can read more about Buck Shelford here. Sam's nice and everything, but I'm still not sure tackle rugby is for me. And when I find out how to join a team, I supposed to let him know.

Some things I have learned on the job

I'm almost through my first week of work (it's Friday here) and I thought it would be fun to share not only my experiences but some of the many phrases I have picked up.

My first week was hectic. Monday was a whirlwind, I met at least 65 people before 3pm and by the time I got home at 6pm I had a proposal to work on, trainings to complete and head that was spinning. Also, taking 3 months off of work definitely made the adjustment a little harder. I fell asleep at 7:45pm on Monday, made it all the way till 9:30 on Tuesday and then of course stayed up really late (11pm) on Wednesday when I had to be up at 4:45am the next day to catch my flight to Auckland.

All in all, I really like the office. We have about 60 or so practitioners in the Wellington office and another 60 or so in Auckland and its very important to our leadership that we view ourselves as a national, rather than regional practice. Therefore everyone, knows everyone. For example, in pursuit of some information, I called a colleague in Auckland (as recommended to me). When he answered the phone "hello Perin" instead of just hello, I was caught off guard. Then I quickly commented, how he must have picked up my name through through our caller ID, to which he replied, "your'e the new manager from San Francisco". Basically what I'm trying to convey is that its a personal environment and everyone, knows everybody.

I am currently attending our "All Hands" meeting in Auckland and its been really nice to meet all the partners (all 5 of them) and the rest of the practitioners. Prior to coming we were sent an email regarding the dress code. One of the items said "No Jandals". So I enquired what a Jandal was to which I got a reply, "No thongs". No thongs? Why do they care what underwear I wear? Finally it was clarified that jandal is Kiwi, thongs is Australian and in the US and UK we call them flip-flops (hehe).

I have to be downstairs in a meeting in about 20 minutes and I'm still in my PJ's so I'll keep this post short, but I've been capturing a lot of interesting sayings and new words that I definitely want to share with everyone. For example, Togs for a kiwi is a bathing suit (also known as a swimming costume) where as Togs for a South African (of which our practice has many) is your Rugby boots.

I also learned that when computers used disks instead of CD's, South African's called the two different types floppies and stiffies. So can you imagine the first time the partner entered the room and asked if anyone had a "stiffy"? I was laughing so hard at this story last night.

I also heard a funny story of a German colleague who was trying to use the english phase "spoon fed" and instead the sentence came out "I can believe I have to breast feed the client". Another burst out laughing story.

Just so you know they don't use sidewalks here, they are called footpaths, and to sound like a kiwi turn your I's in U's. So it would Fush and Chups (instead of Fish and Chips) and if you want an Australian accent, I been told to turn my I's into E's. So it would be Feesh and Cheeps.

Everyone here calls me Peerin (prounced like peer-in) and so after a few drinks last night the "peerin-perin" story came out. For those of you that don't know that story I suggest you ask Jon Poynter as its not quite too appropriate for the blog (though I swear I didn't see anything!)

Ok, gotta run. Got 15 minutes to get dressed and I've been up since 7am on phone calls with the US (for work). I will post again tomorrow with all the other funny stuff I have learned.

Love,
Perin

We got the house!

Today, we signed on the line which is dotted for our house, so that's good. It ended up working out okay, but the day didn't begin well. I had to be at the realty office with the check at 10am but our bank doesn't open on Wednesdays until 9:30am. Why you ask? Because there's a weekly meeting.

That alone would have been okay, but all the bus drivers got today off while the union negotiated pay raises. Technically, the drivers weren't on strike. Union members just get the day off when negotiations take place. Crazy! So instead of a $2 bus ride to the top of the hill, I took a $20 cab ride to the top.

My choices as a consumer here are kind of interesting. But it explains some things we noticed, like how come no one here talks on their mobile phone? And of the very few we do see talking on mobiles, how come no one has Bluetooth?

There are two mobile phone companies to choose from. New Zealand has the most expensive mobile phone plans in the industrialized world. You pay approximately $40/mo for service and $0.40 a minute when you talk. You can some phones for free or for a nominal price similar to the US, but the more features you get, the more expensive it is. A PDA phone costs nearly $1000. Which explains why no ones uses their mobile unless they have to and also the popularity of text messaging.

I thought about starting my own phone company but Telstra (an Australian firm) has beat me to it. They announced the beginning of their service yesterday. They only charge $20/mo and $0.21 a minute. I'm thinking about signing up with them!

Most people think rugby is the sport of New Zealand. Those people are correct. However, another very popular sport is jetsprint boating. It's on for like two hours a day on the sports channel. We might have more jetsprints in the US if those damn environmentalists weren't protecting the wetlands and air quality. See what you're missing out on here: