Wellington Brick-Con 2015

Last weekend (31Oct-1Nov) was a momentous event for LEGO fans in Wellington.  We had our first ever Brick-Con!  This was organised by the Wellington LEGO User Group (Well-LUG), which has a very active community of mostly AFOLS (Adult Fans of LEGO).  The Little People of New Zealand, a charity that supports people with dwarfism, as the beneficiary of this show.

I, along with my son and daughter, visited the show yesterday afternoon.  I was thinking the crowd would be more manageable by then because it is on its final day but was I wrong!  The place was jampacked.  And take note - adults outnumbered the kids!

We enjoyed viewing the exhibits.  There were lots of minifig collections on display, MOCs (My Own Creations), Sets, Star Wars... being a Star Wars fan, this was definitely a must see - I went round that area twice!

Fair weather friend, day 2

Brooklyn Wind Turbine

We immediately realized how perfect this location was for the wind turbine as we braced ourselves against the gale.  It's as if Nature particularly liked having the wind turbine here as the strong wind never wavered the whole time were there.

Brooklyn is the site of the first ever wind turbine in Wellington, and was built in 1993.  Our friend Darryl was taking some friends along to see some sights and he hadn't been back here for many years and so he wanted drop by as we were in the area, and it was going to be our first time there (Jo-Lo and I) so it was quite an occasion.

New park, new hobby

One day my son asked me about making and flying a kite. Wow, that was decades ago, back when I was still a kid myself and we flew kites in Burnham Park in Baguio, my hometown in the Philippines. I am familiar with the diamond-shaped kite, but it's been so long I'm not sure if we can make one from scratch and ensure that it flies.

Weta Cave: amazing!

The Weta Cave is a mini-museum of props, scale models, and various production materials for movies that Weta worked with.  Weta is more popularly known for groundbreaking film Lord of the Rings and is one of my favourite movies of all time!  The Weta Cave showcases materials from that film, as well as from a lot of memorable others.

Commuter mode in Wellington

Wellington is friendly to commuters; it has a network of buses that ply major thoroughfares on a regular schedule so you can visit the city even if you don't have a car. It has trains as well that service major towns, with the central station at Wellington City itself.

You will find these signs along the roads where you can flag down the bus. On the post itself is the approximate time you can expect the bus to arrive. I can say the times indicated therein are quite accurate. Some stops even have benches and shade to protect you from the wind. They weren't kidding when they said Wellington is the windy city!

Here comes the bus! We belong to Zone 3; it costs $4.00 to reach the city, in half an hour or so, a little under an hour til Courtenay Place, which is the last stop also in the city. You can also buy a bus card. It's $20.00, but $10.00 is credit you can use. It's also great having a card because you get 20% off , so it's $3.60 to the city. When you no longer need the card (you're moving, for example), you can return the card and have the $10.00 refunded (provided it's still in great condition, that is).Here in New Zealand, the driver is also the conductor. So when you step up, inform the driver where you will go and hand over your cash. See the contraption to the left of the driver in the photo below? Place your card on top of this after announcing your destination. In both payment modes, you get a receipt printed out. You can also buy your bus card from the driver.
Don't forget to say "thank you!" to the driver when you alight!


And then there's the train station. Use of the train is being encouraged. For one thing, it cuts back on emissions. Many stopovers have parking areas so you can park your car and board the train for the rest of your trip to work.

This is the central railway station at Wellington.



Previously, we had the impression that trains were cheaper than the bus. But when we boarded one in going back to Johnsonville, it cost us $4.00 each! Kids 4 years and below ride the bus and trains free of charge. One of the stopovers is shown below. Most are simple platforms.
Emote moment in the train :-)

First glimpse

Firstly, so sorry for my blog visitors if I have not yet been able to visit your blogs. We are still waiting for our internet connection at home. Here in the Johnsonville area, there are only about three places so far where you can get internet access: this lone internet cafe ($2.00 / 30min, owned by a Korean), at the Library ($1.50/15min), or at the coffee shop (free internet when you buy coffee). I haven't tried the third option yet though. But still, it will be great to have the internet connection up and running at home. Hopefully by tomorrow, things will be ok.

I'm in the cafe to apply online for jobs, so this is just a quick update. Here are a couple of photos I wanted to post:

See the square-ish house at the back? We are renting a unit at the ground floor. This is actually a house with space for rent attached to it. We have our own door and whiteware. When you step out of the house, you are immediately greeted by birds chirping and trees and the lawn photographed below. Nice, isn't it? Winter has just ended though but it still gets pretty cold so we keep the place closed most of the time.

Obviously, we still don't have private transportation so we take brisk walks to Johnsonville. It's a good 20-25 minute walk. Going to the town is ok because it's downhill. But coming back home can sometimes take the breath out of you!

And they weren't kidding when they said Wellington is also known as the windy city. A couple of days ago the winds were so strong it pushed me a couple of times, but not to the point of stumbling, though. Overall, it's a pleasant walk. There are trees all around and flowers too!

Renting a place in New Zealand

A week in Wellington, New Zealand! I wish we can celebrate our one-week anniversary but we still got lots to do. A lot has happened though in the past week. We stayed with our host for a couple of nights, then moved to our new place.

Apartments here are similar with what we have in the Philippines. You basically get a space, and the rate is directly proportional to proximity to amenities. The good thing here is, apartments and houses available for lease are available on the internet! Visit trademe (www.trademe.co.nz) for example. There are other sites out there but trademe is one of the more popular ones. If sharing facilities is fine with you, you can go through the "flatmates wanted" category as well.

Apartments here usually come with a stove. You are lucky if part of the lease includes washer and dryer, ref, bed, heater. Otherwise you have to buy these.

The Filipino community here in Wellington is quite solid, and some give things they don't already need to the newcomers. So it pays to be sociable. :-)

The rent here though is paid either by the week or fortnightly! And it's quite expensive too, if you consider having no work yet and relying on your savings. But when you enter the work force and start earning, I guess it pretty much equalizes things.

You also have to post a bond which will be refunded to you when your contract with your landlord ends and you no longer want to renew and move on. It's usually two-week's worth of the rent.

The tenant and the landlord enter into an agreement with the tenancy and the council is notified of the contract. The council also gets hold of the bond. This is to protect the rights of the tenant and the landlord. There is a checklist as well of the things included with the rent, as well as some probihitions such as pets and smoking which both parties will agree to.

Some new words I learned for my first week:
Kindie - kindergarten, start of school for kids 5 years and below

Wag - a verb, meaning to cut classes. Kids' attendance here are monitored, and it is the parent's responsibility to alert the school if their kid will be absent. So kids who wag usually get caught. Kids not in school but wandering about are also asked what they are doing out.

Whiteware - basically refers to the appliance included in the place you are renting. In our place, all the appliances are colored white; must be why they're called whiteware.

Our second day in Wellington

Just dropping a quick note to say we're on our second night in Wellington! Winter has just ended but it's still cold.

It was a fortunate turn of circumstances that brought us to the home of our host family. We are temporarily staying with a Filipino family here who I met online as I was looking for a place to rent. Unfortunately, it wasn't that easy. Online advertisements require that you need to be a member to access contact information of the advertisers (they rarely give away contact information publicly). I will no longer divulge their names but he advertised an apartment for rent and I said we wanted the place. But we were arriving a month later still and so the place cannot be guaranteed vacant when we arrive. He still said he will help in sourcing out a place for us if ever.

His apartment was rented out two weeks after we arrived, but he fetched as at the airport, graciously opened their home to us (it is our second night tonight with them), helped us with our groceries, look for furniture, open a bank account, get local mobile numbers, do occular for the apartments, and all the while driving us around. His family was very generous with their time and resources. To think that we just met online!

Other Filipinos also pitched in. One asked me to send her a list of places we see online and she would do the scouting for us. Another also asked around for vacancies. This is how we were able to get our place, which we are now populating with some furniture and food before we move in, hopefully by tomorrow.


I am still simply astounded by the outpouring of support by our fellow Filipinos here.

Right now I am using the internet connection of my host. When we get our connection in the place we are transferring to and have some photos, I will be updating my blogs again.

Winter has just ended here but it's still cold. They said summers here can be quite hot though.

Here's a surprise: we were the only Filipinos in our trip from Manila to Wellington! I guess that says a lot about the number of Filipinos here. But we have meet quite a number too in the two days of stay here.

Until then...