Ok, so to this day I still haven't posted any pictures of where I call home. I'll get around to taking some pics of my apartment soon, I swear. In the meantime, here are a couple pics of the view from my apartment. I take it for granted sometimes, but every once in a while I realize that not everyone has a view out the front of their house or apartment...except for the view of the house across the street, or the condo next door...so I'll take what I've got without complaining.
This first shot is the view out the front of our building and also the view out of my apartment. The front wall of my unit is pretty much just windows. I took this standing at the window. Our building is about 9/10ths the way up a hill, hence the view looks down over the rest of this part of the 'burbs...facing east...oh, and that big black diagonal line is the power line that runs down the hill to some houses below.
This next shot faces south, looking through my kitchen window. The blue stuff is the Cook Straight, the patch of ocean that separates the North and South Islands, about a 5 minute car drive to the water from my place. There's a couple small beaches there, but you won't catch me swimming in that freezing water. Kiwi's are nuts!!!
You might notice from the pics that the homes look a bit like antiques...that's because they are! Around Wellington a house that is 30-40 years old is considered "new", I'm not joking. Most of Wellington is quite hilly, so all the streets wind up and down the hills and valleys. There are NO straight roads, no grid pattern streets or pre-planned cookie cutter subdivisions. For that stuff you have to go to other parts of New Zealand. Christchurch reminds me of home...straight roads with sidewalks, you can see way down the road ahead of you, not just another corner or the bottom of a hill.
There are newer subdivisions around Wellington, about 10-15 minutes drive up the 'highway'. Like any city, property in the core is insanely expensive, especially considering this is Wellington, not exactly the international standard of a metropolitan city. But still no housing developments like north america where they bulldoze a couple farms and then build a few thousand houses that all look the same. Here you purchase the land from the developer, hire an architect to design your home, and the developer's build it. That means the land itself is a bit cheaper, but then they stick it to you by forcing you to go with their builders, and hence their prices. Well, at least your house won't look like any other on the block.
This next shot faces south, looking through my kitchen window. The blue stuff is the Cook Straight, the patch of ocean that separates the North and South Islands, about a 5 minute car drive to the water from my place. There's a couple small beaches there, but you won't catch me swimming in that freezing water. Kiwi's are nuts!!!
You might notice from the pics that the homes look a bit like antiques...that's because they are! Around Wellington a house that is 30-40 years old is considered "new", I'm not joking. Most of Wellington is quite hilly, so all the streets wind up and down the hills and valleys. There are NO straight roads, no grid pattern streets or pre-planned cookie cutter subdivisions. For that stuff you have to go to other parts of New Zealand. Christchurch reminds me of home...straight roads with sidewalks, you can see way down the road ahead of you, not just another corner or the bottom of a hill.
There are newer subdivisions around Wellington, about 10-15 minutes drive up the 'highway'. Like any city, property in the core is insanely expensive, especially considering this is Wellington, not exactly the international standard of a metropolitan city. But still no housing developments like north america where they bulldoze a couple farms and then build a few thousand houses that all look the same. Here you purchase the land from the developer, hire an architect to design your home, and the developer's build it. That means the land itself is a bit cheaper, but then they stick it to you by forcing you to go with their builders, and hence their prices. Well, at least your house won't look like any other on the block.
1 comment:
wow. What a view! Thanks for the pictures. How is the cost of living there compared to L.A? Post some interior pictures too!
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