Well...we started our trip. It's hard to believe that a year and a half of planning turned into reality today. We flew from Toronto to Hong Kong and were feeling pretty pumped to get off our plane and actually stretch our legs. We were also pretty pumped about eating a meal that was not plane food. Chinese food in Hong Kong, it only seemed appropriate.
In Hong Kong we made our way up "the peak tram" to get a birds eye view of the city. The city is huge and it was interesting to see it from another view.



Our next stop was in Auckland where we had a 12 hour stop before our final plane ride. Debi's friend from Women's College, Yvonne, is working there and was great enough to meet us and let us use her shower (trust us after 3 days on a plane it was much needed). She took us out for lunch (our first NZ meal!) and then an afternoon spent at the beach - a great introduction to summer living down south. Our first week in Wellington was spent
getting most of our new lives in order. We got cell phones, bank accounts and a cool new apartment. Although we were living in the life of luxury thanks to Debi's hospital we were happy to move into our new place and feel a little more at home. It's right in the city and walking distance to everything. It was designed by design and architecture students and came completely funished (kinda a necessity for us as we couldn't exactly pack couches...although in debi's suitcase we probably could have)
Dont worry even with all this boring life organization we still managed to find the time to hit up the town. We found our way to the $8 wine section in the grocery store and managed to muster up some liquid courage to go out and make some new friends (although this may have backfired somewhat since these guys are 17 and I am obviously not that concerned...) Although we did win a prize from janice for meeting her challenge of each befriending 2 or more people.
Not deterred by our young "friends" we headed out the next week-end with 3 of the young nurses from Deb's unit, Hayley, Dana and Adele. We also treated ourselves to a meal out. We found an amazing mexican place and two orders of fajitas and a pitcher of raspberry margaritas later and the night was off to a great start. We met up with the other girls and went to see one of the male nurses from deb's floor bands play. From there we went out for cocktails...then on to dancing...and more dancing...and well from there it all gets a little bit blurry but thanks Hayley, Dana and Adele for showing us the sights and sounds of wellington.
We have also taken advantage of living 10 minutes from the beach...it's pretty fun for us. We've also found our new favourite hangover cure - lying on the beach doing nothing. One slightly hungover saturday we headed up the coast to a black sand beach and took advantage of sun, sand and salt water to cure our hangover blues.

Later that day we decided to head up the mountain and take another look at our new city. We took the cable car up mount victoria and went through the cable car museum and saw wellington from another angle.

eDont be deceived by the nose ring that is still the Debi you all know and love - just the new zealand version. Deb decided she needed a change to start off her adventure!
And more beach...this is the beach only a few minutes away from our place. The sand was imported in from the south island so wellingtonians can spend a week-end by the sea without having to go anywhere.