The Sun'll Come Out...Right?

And here we are in Wellington.

The drive was thankfully uneventful. Betty heartily chugged along the entire 9 hours, against my fears of her turning out to be a flakey lemon. We lucked out with the weather and had blue skies for the entire drive, so I sat myself in the passenger seat, let Bjorn drive, and took in the scenery.

And, oh, the scenery. The first several hours of the drive were mostly farmland. Sheep, sheep, and more sheep. And red deer. And cows. There are small towns everywhere along the way, and if I understand things correctly, the majority of New Zealanders live in small towns. (Auckland is a whopping 1 million people, but NZ as a whole is only 4 million. So that means that the remaining 3 million are spread out, which means there is a lot of green space in NZ.)

Interstate number one lead us all the way down the heart of the north island. About halfway, we hit Taupo, a little resort town situated on a huge lake with a perfectly-shaped volcano behind it. (I feel certain that Bjorn is the only friend I have who is interested in Lord of the Rings trivia, but...if any of you are interested, this volcano, Mount Tongariro, IS Mount Doom in the movies. Oh boy.) We had a picnic dinner of peanut butter and banana sandwiches while sitting out by the lake, watching skydivers plummet through the skies above us, and marvelling at the gorgeous mountains around us.

We pulled Betty into a campsite around 8 PM. There were no other cars or campers, though I could hear what sounded like a large river running close by, along with lots of shrieking birds. It was almost completely dark. I am NOT going to be a wus, I told myself. No way. There is nothing to be scared of. We are in the middle of nowhereland, NZ. They don't have boogeymen in NZ. Well, instead of actually pitching the tent, we decided to set up camp inside the car. So we pulled out the middle seat, spread our sleeping mats and bags down and hoped sleep would come. I was actually quite comfortable and slept pretty well. Betty kept us nice and toasty, though it must have been a very cold night - there was frost on the grass the next morning!

But now, at least we know sleeping in the car CAN be done, and fairly comfortably and safely. And...cheaply! We saved ourselves so much money by not staying in a hostel that we decided to splurge and enjoy a lovely McDonald's breakfast a few miles down the road on Monday. Yum, yum.

So we arrived in Wellington around noon on Monday, just before the rain.

Side note: It's amazing to me what weather does for a person's (this person's) disposition. The rain greeting me in Wellington made me feel CERTAIN that Wellington was not going to be a good place for us to try to settle down. We made a trip to the grocery store in the rain and by the time we got home, I had knotted myself into a tight little wad of fury. The wind was relentless, blowing the cold rain up in my face - this is NOT what I signed up for! On top of the weather, our initial pokings into the job search were not positive. I had gone into this knowing I was going to end up with some kind of crap job, far beneath my ability level, but there weren't even crap jobs turning up.

What were we doing? I wondered. Had we made this HUGE mistake? Was I going to run out of money and have to turn up back at home shamefaced and with nothing to do? My everyday self could have talked myself out of this line of thinking, could've lead myself away from the scaries and the negatives. But, on a rainy day...the scaries got the better of me.

Worse still, hoping that Tuesday morning would greet me with sunshine and a fresh page, I woke to the sound of furious winds knocking the windows and rain pouring down. STILL! Pouring!

We couldn't go out (or wouldn't, I'm not sure which), which made me feel totally unproductive. We are NEVER going to get a job at THIS rate, I thought, miserably watching the rain from the TV room of the hostel. My life is a mess. What a disaster I have made.

Luckily, I've got Bjorn here, who watches me burying myself in these ugly places and pulls me out. It's just a little rain, he says. I didn't realize you weren't going to be able to handle a little rain every now and then. And then I remember, oh yes, I cannot control things like this! Better to just accept that it is going to be a lazy day and...be lazy.

The sun came out yesterday afternoon, so we were able to get out and do a bit of exploring around the city. And we sat down at the internet for a long while and applied for jobs, which felt good. Getting somewhere!

I'm feeling torn about the job situation. I can easily get myself a temporary office job here. Data entry, administrative work, whatever. You name it, I have done it. I can do it. We can sit here in Wellington for the next three months, and I can go into an office every day, and I can make money and save it up so we can go spend it all in January, when the weather is warmer. But, hmmmm...Did I come to New Zealand to do office work? I just can't stomach that idea.

So we have contacted a few dairy farms. And we've registered with WWOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms). Even if I can't really MAKE any money, at least I'll walk away with an experience, right? So, we'll see what turns up.

I have had a lovely sightseeing day today. Got a tour of Parliament today, took the cable car up to the Botanic Gardens, wandered through the gardens, people watching and admiring the flowers. Enjoying the beautiful spring day.

And so things are looking up. Things will work out, one way or another. Not having a plan WAS the plan, so we're just going to take it one day at a time, see what happens, and go with it. And, oh yes, hope it doesn't rain too much.

Love you all.