Today marks the start of Week Three in New Zealand.
It's a bit incredible to think of how much has happened in the past two weeks.
On one hand, we are still internetless, but this is mostly because Telstra Clear apparently had its first major outage recently and they are taking a ridiculous amount of time to get back on track. We do get a month free of charge, so at least that's nice. Other than that, Claire and I are settled in. We have monthly train passes into Wellington City and we have city library cards, and we are starting to make our way around town.
And now some details!
Friday was pretty boring, but we did go out to Watusi to catch a few bands. We got there late, so we missed The Phrenologists and The Entwives (two bands, not just an exceptionally oddly named one), but we caught the Claire Terry Trio, which was surprisingly nice. Derek warned us that the crowd could be quite variable, so we were braced for deadspace, but it was mostly filled with hipsters and the type of music nerds who wear fedoras.
Yesterday was spent in Wellington. Claire and I systematically made our way through every shoe store on Cuba Street and some off of it in search of women's wingtip shoes. We were On A Mission, you see, and it was of vital importance. It was actually a lot of fun; it gave us an excuse to go into all the nooks and crannies of Cuba Street and just poke our heads in. We didn't end up finding The Shoe, but we did come across my new favorite place, this little shop called Frutti. I'm not sure how much stuff I would actually buy from there, but there were many things I would theoretically like to buy. If I stay in Wellington for a long time, I fear that I will succumb and become the type of person to wear knit berets and possibly own a cloche hat.
Afterwards, we met up with Derek and Lauren to watch the rugby game and chat. It's hard to describe how cute those two are. Lauren has always watched rugby with her family and Derek is just sort of in it because he is competitive and likes to get swept up into things. He spent a decent portion of the game explaining what exactly was going on, Claire learned things and made comparative observations between sports, and I just watched tank-like humans bash into each other while sipping wine. (I'm mostly kidding. Rugby is pretty thrilling to watch, and I imagine that it'd be fun to play up until the first concussion. At the end of the game, Claire and I independently noticed two players with smears of blood on their uniforms. Oof.) If anyone cares to know, the All Blacks won, thus winning the Tri-Nations Rugby Tournament (tournament? thing? I'm not sure) and a large exciting trophy. Much excitement was had.
In nonsporty news, I learned that I was in possession of one of the most difficult to find DVDs in New Zealand. After we last talked, Derek and Lauren had gone to the movie store and tried to rent out The Fall. Immediately upon hearing the title, the clerk folded his hands, looked devastated, and said, "The Fall? Good luck finding a copy in New Zealand." Apparently none of the video stores in Wellington have it, except for a single, quirky shop outside the city bounds, and that shop doesn't rent it out.
Luckily, they know me, and I brought it. Watcha.
I placed it very carefully in their hands, and I hope they like it. I am so blinded by my entirely irrational love for it that I can't tell by any objective measure how interesting or engaging the film actually is.
Anyway, I thought that was kind of cool.
We then went to Duke's, this bar downtown, where I had some absurdly expensive drink that I thought would be much bigger, and we played Trivial Pursuit and just chatted for a bit. Then homeward we went.
Today we went to the Wellington Farmer's Market, located just outside Te Papa on the waterfront, and we bought a wealth of really nice fresh produce. Yum. There's apparently one in Johnsonville on Saturdays, so we'll definitely check it out next week.
Then back to shoe adventures, and we finally found The Shoe. It's not exactly what Claire wanted, given that it is a heeled shoe, but I was and am freaking obsessed with it. It was the last pair available, and, unfortunately, it was just a tad too small for me. But it fit Claire, so I strong armed her into getting them. Muahaha.
Then, ripe with fresh fruit and cute shoes, we headed back to the house for an early night of restfulness and Life on Mars, rented from the local Wellington Library.
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