At Home Wellington

So this is the first time that I ever got to experience "losing" a day...somewhere during our flight to New Zealand we lost the rest of Monday (which was looking pretty good in my opinion) and ended up with Tuesday. From Rarotonga we flew into Auckland first before connecting on through to Wellington; the capital of New Zealand. Auckland is situated in the northern part of the North Island of New Zealand, while Wellington is situated in the southern part. I can officially say that Wellington is the furthest south I've ever travelled in the world. Perhaps the South Pole is in the future? We had to clear customs and immigration in Auckland and they are quite particular and stringent on what you can and cannot bring in. They don't want any unwelcome "pests" introduced to their country. And rightly so. Good thing I was able to smuggle in those sea shells from the Cooks without getting caught! :)

Anyway, after a short layover in Auckland where we got to hang out in another one of Air New Zealand's lounges, and I must say this was by far one of the best that we got to hang out at during this trip, we boarded our one hour flight to Wellington. We were greeted by our welcoming committee at the gate when we arrived. Okay, our welcoming committee was actually just one person...my friend Katherine whom I roomed with for 10 days during our Ireland adventure last year. Katherine was actually the main reason we ventured down to Wellington because I knew that I'd be in a lot of trouble if I went to New Zealand and didn't visit her. It was really sweet of her to pick us up at the airport and drive us to our hotel. We did meet up afterwards to catch up, but that will come a little later. Oh, when you land in New Zealand, be sure to pick up the one of the many city specific visitor guides. They contain a bunch of useful information, great tips on places to see, things to do, places to eat and coupons too! (more about that later)

Our hotel was a very nice boutique hotel called "At Home Wellington". It was located about a block away from the harbour and ended up being very conveniently located for us while we explored Wellington. The hotel is owned by a lovely lady named Leanne. She was very friendly and quite cheerful for someone who along with running this hotel was going to school for midwifery. She didn't even get a credit card imprint from us when we checked in. In fact the subject of payment was never brought up until we realized we would be leaving the next day and decided that we better ask about the check-out procedures.

Ziad found this hotel on the internet and what a great find it was. Have I mentioned yet how resourceful he is and how good he is at finding great deals? Our hotels in New Zealand were definately great deals! The rooms at this hotel are apartment-style trying to give you the comforts of home while you're on the road. Each room has a fully useable kitchen with a stove and oven, a tiny but cute dishwasher, fridge and freezer. There were sufficient dishes available for use as well. It even had an all-in-one laundry machine, like the one I have at my home, in the room. One of the cool features, which was a first for me, was that the towel rack in the bathroom was heated so your towels were warm when you went to use them and also dried that much faster. Had it been a little warmer outside, we probably would have made use of the good sized balcony as well, but it was the start of their winter while we were there. This place really had a "home" feeling to it. Leanne told us that by the time we come back for our next visit (does she know something that we don't?) they will also be offering a continental breakfast option. This is something that they felt they were missing ever since the restaurant below them went out of business. We thought it wasn't really necessary because the rooms have a kitchen if you want to store breakfast foods and there are also plenty of other restaurants around where you can get a great breakfast, like FInc. just down the street. There's also a grocery store about 2 blocks away so you really could do a grocery shop for your stay.

I would definately recommend this hotel for anyone going to Wellington. It's a short ride from the airport. On the trip back to the airport after our stay, the taxi only cost $26. The hotel's website is: http://www.athomewellington.co.nz/ for anyone considering a trip there. Tell Leanne we recommended them!!