Real people with new duvets

Emeline and I are becoming real people. At the start of our second week in New Zealand, we now have bank accounts, cellphones, library cards, a house to live in, electricity to power it, some gas canisters (we don’t know what they’re for yet), plenty of bus timetables, a new duvet, some new towels, new keys, and lots of other things that prove we exist.

By Wednesday, we’ll have wireless internet at home too. Once we’re online again, there’ll be no stopping us. It’s been a tough and busy week. Dunedin is a hilly city, and we’ve walked lots and lots and lots of hills. Even in a nice quiet civilized country like New Zealand, it’s hard to set up new lives ... especially if you’re starting from scratch and trying to start new jobs at the same time. The realty agent we’ve been working with told us on Friday afternoon that the house we were moving into on Saturday morning had no power. Who do we call for power?

“There are lots of companies,” says a co-worker. For instance, there’s Contact Energy, or Meridian Energy, or we could try Trust Power instead. When I call Contact Energy, a recorded message says, “Welcome to Contact Energy, the only energy company that lets you power up your Fly-Bys!”

What?

The weather is already turning chilly. In the afternoon, our house high up in the Wakari Valley is filled with bright sunlight. And then as soon as the sun dips below the houses above us, a little farther up the slope, our house is cold. Very, very cold. Immediately. Cold enough for thermal underwear.

Anyway, I can’t post pictures until we have internet access at home. In the meantime, here’s a picture I found online of the Taieri Plains of central Otago. In the middle of the frame, if you look closely, you’ll see the tiny airstrip that we landed on a week ago. (CK)