19 January 2009: Wellington Arrival

Despite ALL of the advice from kiwi friends who know better, I decided to make the 8 hour drive down to Wellington from Auckland in one big push. I was just too excited to start my new life in my new city after 3+ weeks of traveling to take any excursions. Plus I have the whole next year to explore New Zealand and my former neighbor in DC, Obama, was being inagurated the next day and wanted to be able to watch it. So I drove, with only one stop in hamilton to head to their version of walmart, the wharehouse, to purchase bed linens and pillows for the air mattress my roommate had promised would be waiting in my new room.

Upon arriving in wellington around 7 pm I looked in the mailbox for the key that my roommate had emailed to say she left me incase she wasnt around. I met my roommate Petal at the New Zealand embassy in DC back in June of 2008 where we had both gone for an informational session on Visas and work permits. She had traveled up from NYC for the session and I had hobbled in with the help of my sister, crutches, and boot post freak skateboarding accident May 25th in Park Slope Brooklyn. After the session we exchanged email addressses and kept intouch durring the summer and fall. She had moved to NZ in August and was a wealth of knowledge about what to bring with and what to sell in the states. A month prior leaving for NZ she emailed and said that her roommate was moving back to Germany and she was looking for someone to take her roommates place. If I was interested I could sublet from Mid January to Mid February then sign a year lease If I liked the place. She emailed photos and I looked it up on Google Earth. Being too good of an opportunity to pass up I told her a resounding YES. So here I was, I used the key, entered the apartment, which was exactly as pictured, and was a bit confused as to which room was mine. I had asked for the larger bedroom with bay windows however there was still furniture in that room and the blow up mattress i was told I could use was in the smaller room. So I brought all my items in and temporarily set myself up in the smaller room. There were no clothes in either wardrobe so I figured I could talk to Petal when she returned from whatever trip she might be on and see what room was to be mine. I was aiming for the larger one since the week before I had purchased a 5 piece bedroom set off the always useful Trade-me and was to pick it up this week, hopefully with the help of Petal. I took a quick look in the fridge and cupbords before heading to the grocery store. After an hour of getting lost on windy hilly roads I finally found a store, picked up the basics and headed back to the flat. I cooked dinner, set up the air mattress with my brand new sheets, duvet, and pillows, watched a dvd on my computer and then went to sleep.

The next day I immediately headed to a cafe to email Petal letting her know I had arrived in the flat so I wouldnt surprise her upon her arrival back, as well as start the daunting task of setting up my resume so I could commence the job search. I spent the rest of the day walking around wellington, then driving to the beach, and then back to the house for dinner. I actually ended up avoiding watching the innaguration as it would have made me a bit homesick for DC and I wanted to fully enjoy setting myself up in Wellington. The evening brought a new surprise! While cooking dinner I noticed someone walk by the bay windows, then there was a knock at the door. It was the landlord, who somewhat looked at me dumbfoundedly. "I just recieved an email from Petal about an hour ago saying that she has vacated the flat, has moved back to the states, and that you are here living in the flat and expecting to take over her part of the lease until February 14th. I came over as soon as I recieved this to see what was going on." Now I was dumbfounded! I had not signed a lease, paid a bond, or anything. Petal had said we could take care of the techincalities with the landlord as soon as I arrived. Now here I am nothing tying me to this flat that in reality Im not suposed to be living in. Luckly she had talked to the landlord, Chris, prior and told him about our previous plans and he knew who I was and that I was an architect moving here from the states. However nothing can describe the ackward incident between me and the landlord at the door of the flat as we had both been blindsided by the whole situation.

Luckly he was nice about it all, allowed me to stay in the flat, sign a sublet until Feb 14th and only pay my half of the rent. The aggreement was also that if I was interested in keeping the flat I needed to sign a new year lease, that would start on Feb 14th, the next week, meaning I needed to find a new flatmate by then. After he left I had a slight bit of a freek out contacting everyone I knew in NZ to see what to do. Then in typical Neri fashion I became determined to find a flatmate and make this just another one of those situations that only seem to happen to me but end up turning into something for the better.