Bright lights big city?

I took a trip to Auckland this week for work. It's a funny place.

When we were making plans to move to NZ we pretty much ruled out Auckland straight away. The rationale was simple: if you're going to live in a big city you want it to be London or New York, Paris or Hong Kong, not Auckland.

Not that there's anything in particular wrong with Auckland per se, it has shops, venues, restaurants, but they are all a bit 'so what' (as my EngD supervisor used to say). The people rush around in a big city fashion, but behind the bustle there seems to be little real spirit.

Wellington, on the other hand, is a small city. Rather like Edinburgh is in comparison with London. Despite its size, Wellington has a distinct vibe about it - it has cafes, restaurants, theatres, boutique shops. In short, every time I come back here I know that we made the right choice. I'm happy to leave Auckland to those who want to play at living the big city life.

Have you got wood?

It's the time of year in New Zealand when people's thoughts turn to wood. The nights are closing in and the first Southerlies remind us of what awaits in winter. I could blog for pages about the Kiwi unwillingness to heat homes, but I'll spare you, for now.

We are relatively lucky. We have a system that recover heat from the roof space and recirculates it through the house, it also removes moisture, which is good for Anthony's asthma. To complement that we also have a wood burner in the living room. To quote my colleague Nathan, we 'live like kings'.

Wood is generally the fuel of choice for those who bother to heat their homes at all. This is the time of year when you start to see piles of it appearing at the end of driveways and the tops of stairs. We were very organised this year and got our winter wood delivered in December. One reason, it's cheaper then, the other that we would have the whole summer to move it down the 100 steps to our house. Good plan? Turned out that the supplier's promise to deliver it to the top of our section translated into dumping it in the middle of the road. Two days and the help of some good friend later and it was stacked outside the house.

There is a downside to having the wood delivered in ready to burn chunks - no wielding of the axe this year. Chopping wood was something that I'd never done, but I don't suppose that I'll miss it on those wet winter evenings.

We're ready for you winter, whatever you decide to throw at us!