Working environment

When I was back in England last year desperately trying to visualise what it would be like to live and work in Wellington rather than London and England, I imagined working in these wooden houses on these hillsides, with these views and compared them with working in London flats overlooking the backside of Victorian tenements. And here I am, living the dream. God knows, it isn't for the money.

Product endorsement

I have had my tent for 18 years. I bought it 3rd hand from a vicar in Colorado Springs and it had RENTAL emblazoned all over it. Despite it's provenance, the manufacturers have been true to their warranty word and replaced 2-3 tent poles over the years and even made a couple of repairs to the fly. This winter I decided to send most of the tent back to them for an overhaul, but the fly was showing so much UV damage that they offered to sell me a new tent for half price since UV damage isn't covered by the warranty. So now, in the bat of an eyelid, I suddenly have a brand spanking new tent. Same model. New livery. Can withstand a hurricane up Mount Everest - which is pretty useless to me admittedly. I just like it because it is lightweight and spacious. If any of you want to invest in a quality product from a great company, go look at www.sierradesigns.com. Not cheap, but worth every cent.

Behind the tent, our lemon tree just never stops producing fruit.

Section

I have been looking at building plots to see what is available and how much they cost, and I found one in Roseneath - probably my favourite suburb in Wellington - which seems cheap compared to other "sections" on the market. Maybe because it is 100m off the road. But otherwise I can't explain it. It is high enough on the hillside to get a lot of sunlight - can be a problem in Welly - and low enough to feel close to the water. The fact that it is away from roads is a delight to me, although that may not be the case when trying to get building materials, furniture, firewood, shopping, etc. to a house! At the moment I am aware that it is covered in native bush, alive with bird song and has stupendous views up the bay.


In order to try and work out what I can fit on to the site, I have had to crawl up and down the hill, through the trees with camera and compass to try and work out the topography and boundaries. This is my guesstimate of what the section would look like naked.


And this is what I would like to build on it. Actually two houses. The bottom to sell. The top to house my furniture collection! To be continued.....

View

This is the view from my bedroom window. It is pretty much the same through all the seasons. All the indigenous trees are evergreen and the result is a landscape which never looks quite as dead in winter as a North European one. Here you can see mainly pohutukawa, which come from the north of the north island, but have been planted extensively here in Wellington, and Macrocarpa, which are a pine tree from California originally. However here they seem to grow to about three times the size they would reach in America. (If I ever build a house here I may use the timber from these trees as cladding. It weathers to a pleasant light grey colour.) In other places, notably the South Island, deciduous trees from Europe were planted by the original settlers wanting to recreate a home from home. There the sense of winter is much greater.

Also in view are the playing fields of Wellington College. Sport is pretty important here. Not surprising when you consider that a nation of 4 million people can regularly defeat the rest of the world in rugby. Although one should not forget that Polynesians (Maori and South Pacific Islanders) can be menmountains, and are a race with a bellicose history. The sports fields in the picture are often filled with kids playing rugby, football, hockey from dawn to dusk.
This may go some of the way to explaining why kids here seem pretty rounded and balanced people. Although teenagers display all the usual tribal trappings of youth, it seems to be largely without the associated angst and attitude that I associate with the age. This may be peculiar to Wellington. Gangs do exist and the NZ male teenage suicide rate is one of the highest in the world. But what I observe is an openess, confidence and lack of bullying and intimidation, that feels enlightened and refreshing. It possibly also results in a slightly less vibrant and eclectic culture than I have experienced in London, but there are plenty of local bands and artists out there to counter this view.
I just caught some kids nicking lemons off our lemon tree. Instead of scarpering, they came over and explained that they were making lemonade and could they have some lemons please? No fear. No shame. Just open. I figured there were enough to go around and why try and develop their sense of fear.
The other day a 13 year old said "Hi" to me as I was working on a friend's house. I'm so used to giggling, self-conscious, mini-skirt clad teenagers in England, I felt ashamed that I wasn't the one greeting her first.