oriental bay, september 2012
It seems that no matter what time of your life you're at, you will always get asked one particular question over and over again.
In your last years of high school it's, what are you going to do when you finish seventh form? At uni, what are you going to do when you finish uni? When you plan to move overseas, what are you going to do when you get there?
When you return home, the magic question has turned out to be, how does it feel to be back?
It's inevitable and hard to be annoyed by, but I have found the answer to this question a lot less straight forward than in the past.
At school, the answer was, I'm going to go to university.
At uni, the answer was, I'm going to get a job.
When I planned to go overseas, I'm going to get another job.
This question has the word FEEL in it. FEELINGS. It's a lot trickier and harder to pin down than I first thought it would be.
Two obvious things to say are, it's small and very expensive.
I'm still getting used to being out and about and seeing someone I know on the street or on the bus or in a bar. And I don't even have to know them, just seeing someone I recognise. A friend of mine referred to these people as "cameo Wellingtonians" which I think sums it up pretty nicely.
And expensive! A few days after I arrived, I paid $8.50 for two eggplants because I just picked them up without even looking at the price. UK produce is reasonably priced all year round because they import so much stuff. In NZ I'm definitely going to have to get used to buying produce seasonally.
It seems to be mainly food. And books. The price of books in NZ is obscene - thank goodness for my Kindle and for the Wellington Central Library. Other things - a gin & tonic at the Matterhorn, a taxi ride from Courtney Place to Miramar, a black cardigan from Glassons - all seem to cost what I remember from 2010.
So, after six weeks of being back, those are my two main observations of my home city. Mostly though, it's really nice to be home.
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