living it up at the hotel duxton

Sadly, I've only one week left in the 5-star hotel called the "Duxton" and I am still looking at flats to live in (which is why I haven't uploaded any pics yet - no flat, no personal internet, sorry!). I'm also still looking for a car - I stopped counting the skyline GTRs driving around here after I saw 10 - they are everywhere over here!

Good news is I got my phone situation sorted. My old sony ericsson didn't work because it was made with the North American band frequency (gsm 850), so I emailed work to see if anyone had a phone they were willing to part with, and I got a reply! Eerily, it turned out to be the exact same phone as mine, except it works for most other countries including NZ (gsm 900)! Funky!

A few of my co-workers have found sweet apartments right on the waterfront and are going to live like rockstars (and pay for it too)! I, on the other hand, have decided (I'm thinking) to go the humble route and live with locals! I'll have no view of the water, but I will be living with 3 other local Wellingtonian girls in a 4 bedroom flat in a nice little town called "Hataitai" (pronounced "hy-tyty"). It's a 5 minute drive from work and a 5 minute drive from downtown. Pretty ideal!

Also, the rent is pretty much dirt cheap (480 new zealand dollars a month) and I'll have 3 local tour guides to show me the ropes around Wellington. I've discussed it with my co-workers and they think it will be a great experience and might make things a bit easier around here (and no, not ALL of my co-workers are single guys =P). The girls seem really nice and normal (they posted an ad looking for a flatmate in the city paper) - that and they all have good normal-sounding jobs. I think I'll give it a try for a couple months and see how things go. What do you all think?

Kiwi saying of the day: "heaps"
example usage: "They've got heaps of cheap cars in Wellington."

current weather: 70 mph winds, light rain (of the horizontal variety), 16 degrees celsius

cheers mates!