Out and About

Once we were all successfully settled in, several IFSA students and myself teamed up to explore the Wellington. (The pictures that follow are some I have collected over the past few weeks.)

We had to climb down the hill which was an adventure in and of itself. Now, remember those stairs that I have to take to up to campus from my house? Well multiply that times four and you get Allenby Terrace! Luckily, I have learned that going down really isn't that bad, but going up is. My friends and I learned quickly that you don't do your grocery shopping before going up this way!

(After going up the first 50 or so stairs, you're met by this lovely message. Someone was kind enough to answer on behave of all of us who have taken this route.)

 (Then you're met by this lovely message another staircase a little further on. It says "Give Up Now.")

 (But then if you survive the next two staircases, you see this message!)

Now if you want to walk downtown while avoiding Allenby Terrace, you can go down a road that happens to be a short walk away from my house. You have to walk around campus, down a few flights of stairs to get to it, but those I've found the stairs to be a welcoming sight after making it up this monster:

(Just to illustrate the angle. Looks like a 45 degrees to me.) 

Downtown Wellington has been described as looking a lot like a smaller version of London, San Francisco, and apparently Seattle, too. Seeing as I haven't been to any of those places, I think downtown Wellington looks like this:

 (In the distance you can see the hill leading to Mt. Victoria, which is opposite of the Kelburn Campus.) 

 (Something cool about the city is that you can walk down the street and see a building like the one above next to...)

 (...one that looks like this!)

(Here is what the Wellington Buses look like. Unlike some buses in the States, these are neither dirty or "shady." I feel very safe on them and take them once to three times a week, usually to get back up the hill after buying several bags of groceries.)

Besides the usual over-priced clothing stores, Wellington has some really interesting little shops or restaurants. 

(Even this street-side cookie place!)

(There are three main cellphone provides in New Zealand. 2 Degrees is the cheapest so this is the company that I purchased my phone from (not this exact shop).)

 (And of course, no western society can get by without a McDonald's. I've seen three different ones downtown, and also two Burger Kings, three Subways, and one KFC. For this McDonald's, you have to take the escalator up to order.)

 (Looks the same as the ones back home.)

 (The prices, on the other hand, are quite different. No dollar menu, for starters. So not only does the food taste as awful as back home, but you have to pay $3 more for it. Even though I took all these pictures, I didn't buy anything. Tourist moment: check.)

(A pizza joint. There's biggest competitor seems to be "Hell's Pizza." Ah, Kiwi humour.)

 (This is for all my Indianapolis friends. Our "place" we go to for our late-night munchies or for Kappa Kappa Psi celebrations is Denny's. I haven't been yet but I plan on it, despite it being more expensive than I'm used to. To my Brother's back home, AEA!) 

Nearly every time I've been downtown, I've seen at least one street performer. A little different than the guys in Indianapolis who drum on bits and pieces of tupperware and trash cans:

(I'm not entirely sure what this instrument is, but I'm pretty sure I'm about to study it in my Music of Asia class. He was selling CDs for $5. I might have bought one if I didn't remember that I needed the money for dinner that night.) 

To be continued!