21 Months of Good Life (Part 1: First Impression)

We are leaving Wellington this month. This is the first installment of the high points during our 21 month tenure here...

I still remember the date, 10 January 2007, when we landed in Wellington Airport from Changi Airport, Singapore. It was raining and windy when we arrived. Excited, as we realized it would be a different ball game altogether.

I liked this place right off the bat. I'd never been very comfortable with crowds, and here they only have 400,000 people, just a tenth of Singapore population, and a err.. tiny percentage of Jakarta population. People are generally polite and friendly. It was refreshing when the first time I took a bus and passengers were thanking the bus driver when they got off. I must have spent too much time in Singapore, when people were confused when you said 'please' or 'thanks' :-p.

We went out to buy groceries. Heck, food stuffs seemed to be very expensive (apparently we went to the 'wrong' supermarket though). Eating out could also break you wallet. In Singapore, 4 bucks could get you far, while buying Chinese food here would cost at least 7 dollars at that time.

First day at work, it was 5 o'clock, I looked around... Hey, where's every body??? The lax kiwi lifestyle was definitely NOT a myth. I packed my bag and headed back home. Well, when in Rome we do what the Romans do, don't we?