I’m kidding, of course. It’s actually really easy to take, especially when we see the weather at home.

We flew from Auckland to Wellington today and were treated to views of the New Zealand coast.

Last year when we visited New Plymouth, we only caught fleeting glimpses of Mount Egmont (now changed back to the original Māori name, which is Taranaki Maunga). Today we had a perfect view as we flew over.

After checking into our hotel, unpacking, and freshening up, we headed out for a walk around Wellington. This is our third visit here, and things are starting to feel familiar. One of our favourite spots is Cuba street.

Note the beautiful blue skies. It was “only” 20 degrees C today, so we were worried we might find it a little cool. Not a problem. I’m not sure why this is, but we’ve found in the past that in New Zealand it feels far warmer than the thermometer suggests. Maybe it’s knowing what the temperature is at home? But whatever the reason, we were very comfortable in shorts, t-shirt and sandals.

There is an impressive church right across from our hotel, so I had to take a picture, because … that is what I do. Once again, note the perfect blue skies.

Last year we stayed at a place on The Terrace. It was close to downtown, and on the map it looked like an easy walk. That’s because everything looks flat on the map. Unfortunately, in real life it was all uphill. So this year Jan made sure to find a place closer to the same elevation as downtown. It worked, and we even have a view of the hill that we had to climb last year … several times a day.

Surprisingly, the view is much more interesting from down here than it was last year when we were on top of the hill. This picture zooms in on one of the houses on the side of the hill that fascinates me.

We’re on the sixth floor with a balcony, giving us a perfect view.

Here is another interesting house, nestled in among the lush vegetation on the side of the hill.

We’re still a little tired from the long flight, and from jet lag, so we weren’t all that enthusiastic about going out for dinner. Fortunately we found a lovely pizza place that would deliver. Add in some New Zealand beer and wine, and you have a wonderful meal.

The pizza was very good. It says it is “Neapolitan” pizza, but having just been to Italy, I have to say that it wasn’t as good as the pizza in Naples. But, to be fair, that is a very high bar.

Tomorrow … who knows. A week ago, the forecast was for cool, wet weather, but now it looks like it will be sunny and in the low 20’s. We might just wander around Wellington for the day. We’ll see…