Living in Wellington

As some of Persuasive Authorities’ co-bloggers know, I recently accepted a position at the Faculty of Law, Victoria University of Wellington. I arrived to Wellington last Sunday; everyone at the faculty has been extremely welcoming and collegial, I simply could not ask for more.

But after living for four years in Toronto (which is also a great city), I have been surprised of how helpful Wellingtonians are. Just to give you an example. For the last few days I have been looking for a house to rent, so I have been going around the city by public transit most of the time. Today, I asked a bus driver for directions. He had never heard about the street I was looking for, so he called about four different bus drivers and asked them. These other drivers did not know where this street was either (apparently Bould Street is somewhat unknown), and immediately there was a discussion among the other six bus passengers about how to get there. Eventually, we ended up finding Bould Street in a map that one of the passengers offered me, and with another passenger helping me to find the street after we got off the bus.

Hopefully, I would be able to find a place soon, so I can begin worrying about more interesting things, like the Treaty of Waitangi, the Bill of Rights, and Parliamentary Sovereignty and Human Rights in New Zealand.