Q U E E N S

Monday was the Queen’s birthday and Tuesday was all about Queens Wharf.  All-in-all, I am far more excited about the wharf than the birthday.  Sorry Liz!

Monday was a national holiday here in New Zealand in recognition of Queen Elizabeth’s birthday.  That means that a lot was closed including EY where Julie works.  Since Julie is technically still working for an Australia client, she worked it as a normal day from the hotel room.   Next Monday they celebrate the birthday in Australia so she will take that day off instead. I guess it's worth noting her birthday is in April... the 26th I think?

Working in the same room as Julie is always a special treat. I have never seen someone work so tirelessly without taking any breaks.  I mean seriously, even bullfighters and heart surgeons stop and take a breath midstream. She tends to talk quite loudly on her calls but that's really nothing.  While talking she is also typing 100 words per minute, usually into a spreadsheet, without looking at the computer or the phone.  It's kind of eerie. Rain Man like.

I worked from home too.  I had some normal website stuff to knock out, some job postings to reply to, and finally needed to take our apartment hunting to the next level. I managed to arrange to see all of our finalists for the following day -- Queens Wharf Tuesday.

In Australia, and to some extent in New Zealand, apartment rentals are a competitive sport. Typically, real estate professionals schedule 15 minute time windows for ALL interested parties to walk through a place -- yes, simultaneously. After that they weigh competing offers, some times looking to exact a higher rent, and then progress the champion of that session. We are fortunate that our age, lack of children and pets, income levels, and generally pleasant disposition (wink)  usually make us the winner.  We're 4 for 4 baby! Julie never goes along on these visits.  It's not because of her disposition (wink again) -- it's really more a matter of her never being free coupled with the fact that we align so tightly with all of this stuff.

This time around we totally lucked out. The very first place I visited was the one we wanted.  We kind of knew this going in, but you never really know how good a place is until you've been there. I still went on the other inspections but found myself comparing the rest to stop number one. Stop two was tiny with a good harbour view. Stop three was slightly bigger with the best location around, but it lacked the space we need to store Julie's shoes and clothing, let alone periodic visitors. So stop one easily won the day.

1 Queens Wharf, Wellington Central - how's that for a location?

It's a converted loft unit spread over three floors.  The first floor is the kitchen, living room, dining room, bathroom and laundry. Fully furnished with really nice furniture and an owner willing to buy anything we decide is missing (say, what?)... The second floor has two bedrooms and a master ensuite. The third floor is a rooftop deck -- three decks to be exact, overlooking the harbour and all the goings-on in the area.

The building is from the mid 1800's. Now, you'd think in earthquake heaven a 150 year-old building might not be the smartest play. However, if it's survived all those years, (do the math) 150 years of Wellington at 25,000 quakes per year, is 3,750,000 earthquakes.   I think we are fine. The elevator is one of those double wire door cage lifts, you know, the kind every lingerie photographer uses to shoot a model.... it's so amazing. The building, and even our unit, has original sconces and fixtures updated with electricity. There are skylights in every room except the kitchen and scads of natural light. It's what you want to rent.

Location is ideal. 10 minute walk to anywhere in Welly. 5 minutes to the outdoor market, 4 minutes to the underground market. 8 restaurants on the wharf, dozens within 3 blocks...it's really perfect. Hope we get the place. We apply tomorrow! I'll post pics if we win this battle.  Can we go five-for-five?

Finally, and for both of my morning coffee fans, I bought a drip/filter coffee maker today.  Now, Wellington is know for it's coffee but then so is Melbourne, Seattle, Portland, Sydney, well, everywhere.  I can do a Latte, an Americano, a Cappuccino, an Almond Chai Tea Latte, an Espresso -- I can do them all and every time we relocate we have no choice but to fork over the $4 - $5 per cup, two or three times a day, for 4 - 8 weeks. The alternative is to carry our coffee maker on the plane and that's just not who I want to be.... #vanity

Thus, I bought the drip coffee maker, on sale for $59.00 ($60 discount). It'll pay for itself by Saturday and we'll get the coffee we want to drink in amounts we want to consume. Now if I can find some decent beans... striking out mostly so far, though I did manage to score 500g from a local roaster today... "Morning Coffee : Better Coffee Edition" is on the horizon.

Later peeps.