Well i took the big step and moved into Wellington. Closer to work, and closer to the action. I am living on Crieff St, in the suburb of Northland. Pictured is the Northland Fire Station, which is at the very top of my street, although not accessible directly from my street by road. Crieff Street is one of several streets in Wellington affected by Colonial Idiocy Syndrome. Much of Wellington's street layout was designed in London by a bunch of beard sprouting, cigar smoking, top-hat wearing colonialists looking at maps. Maps are flat. Land in Wellington is not. Consequently, to reach the rest of Northland from Crieff St, you drive half way up and then walk a killer zig zag track up the hill. The fact that there is no direct road route to the fire station from my place is of little concern, as it has now been closed and converted to apartments.
Other interesting features in the 'hood include the Kelburn Viaduct (constructed 1934)...
..and the Northland Tunnel (constructed 1929).
Both of these were constructed to level out the gradient of the climbs for different tramways. The Northland tramline went through this tunnel and connected with the Karori line, which went downtown via Glenmore Street, which is the street that Crieff St intersects with at the base of the hill.
The tramlines have long since disappeared from Welington, wrapped up and replaced by trolley buses in 1964. However, Glenmore Street residents are unusually fond of the historic bus shelters left behind from the old Karori line. The one pictured is not in fact the original, but a replica constructed at much greater expense to the community than the plastic-fantastic adshell model after the original shelter was destroyed by an out-of-control trolley bus one tragic day in 1989. A memorial plaque on the replica shelter commemorates the work of area residents who so flagrantly wasted money which could have been spent feeding starving children.
This is the Chinese embassy, where most mornings a hardy group of falon gong practitioners gather across the road and silently do some wicked kung fu moves with their eyes closed.
And the Botanic Gardens. Perhaps the new 'hood's best attraction. In summer there are a whole lot of free concerts and movie screenings in the gardens. I have had a lot of fun there previous years and i can't wait for it to start up again this summer.
Office Space is one of my favorite movies. I have seen it an estimated 30-40 times since striking its gold on the video store shelves in 2001. I gotta level with ya, I am an Office Space fan.
