The wonderful world of Wellington work

I couldn't get photos of all our various occupations in Wellington, but here's a taster :

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=273175&id=510568119&l=3042385d54

The grand plan for our time in Wellington was to put down some light roots, find jobs and earn some much needed cash while soaking up the ambience of the "coolest little capital in the world." (This rather specific accolade was bestowed upon Wellington by the Lonely Planet's "Best in Travel 2011" guide and seized upon with such gusto that days after the book's publication banners bearing the slogan lined the city's main thoroughfare and the story was a major item on the national evening news. It reminded me of the time Redcar won the Seaside Award back in the late 90s...)

We started by finding ourselves a nice little Kelburn apartment to call home, kitting ourselves out in business attire at Number 1 Shoe Warehouse & Farmers (NZ's answers to Shoe Zone and BHS), printing out our CVs and heading into town to sign up with the local recruitment agencies. I'd done a fair bit of temping in the past, and we were both up for pretty much any work that came along, so we had high hopes of employment. Sadly, our optimism was not shared by the city's recruitment consultants. "Hmm, it's very quiet at the moment I'm afraid" and "well I'll put you on our books but I can't guarantee we'll find anything for you" seemed to be the phrases du jour. Undeterred, and more importantly having nothing better to do each day, we adopted the slightly belligerent approach of calling into every recruitment agency in Wellington in person every morning until one of them, in a desperate attempt to get rid of us, offered us a shift clearing tables at Te Papa museum's cafe. Result!

So began a long and varied succession of work assignments, as the recruiters realised we really would do pretty much anything and with very little notice. After succesfully clearing tables at Te Papa we were woken at some ungodly hour by an agency wondering whether we could take a shift that started in 30 minutes and involved making and serving lunch to students at the university canteen. From then on we were on a roll. Before I knew it I was in demand as a waitress working business awards dinners and high school proms, serving wine and canapes in house to solicitors at NZ's "premier law firm," washing dishes at an industrial research facility, making coffee and washing more dishes at the NZ national police headquarters and selling cupcakes on a market stall. Rich, meanwhile, had secured the dubious pleasure of working 2 weeks' worth of night shifts at Wellington hospital's laboratory. The lab staff were on strike and working to rule, therefore refusing to answer the telephone and thereby creating a job for Rich which involved sitting at a desk from 11pm to 7am waiting for the phone to ring. One on of the 10-15 occasions each night when it did so he would take a message, pass the message on to lab staff in the room next door and then call the caller back with their response. I did feel sorry for him until I heard about the temp whose job it was to sit at the end of the hospital's pneumatic tube transport system unscrewing and emptying any capsules which arrived containing samples for the lab to test. We also managed to work a few shifts together, notably manning the box office for a Wellington Lions rugby match at the Westpac Stadium where we sold a combined total of 23 tickets.

What with all the night shifts, daytime washing up assignments and evening waitressing gigs (I made such an impression that clients kept asking the agencies for me by name. I'm clearly wasted as a solicitor), Rich and I were pretty much working around the clock. He'd be coming in from work as I was going out, my feet permanently ached and we were both starting to wonder when we'd get some proper sleep. Having said that, there were unexpected perks, most significant of which being the ridiculous amounts of free food we kept being given (well someone has to eat all the leftover gourmet canapes, don't they?) After a few weeks we'd entirely restocked our fridge with leftovers from all the dinners, lunches and drinks receptions and I was getting quite a taste for the free wine that kept coming my way.

So it was both a relief and a disappointment when we each landed full time, day time office jobs. Rich was recruited to answer ministerial questions at the NZ Department of Health, and I was given a job as an executive assistant at Compass Health, the company which provides management support for health care providers (PHOs) in and around Wellington. I ended up spending 6 weeks with them and came to feel rather at home there. My work was varied to say the least - as well as taking minutes and being administratively helpful I also found myself trying to get tea stains out of a carpet with vinegar and driving across town to pick up a new foot for the staff fridge. I met some truly lovely people, including Kira (the kitkat queen), Erin (without whom I would never have figured out the binding machine), and my boss Stephanie who I will always remember for overseeing the implementation of the most brilliantly bizarre office colour scheme I have ever known.

In our spare time we made the most of Wellington's undeniably cool and eclectic attractions. Rich reports that he enjoyed the "extremely well developed independent coffee scene," notably at Memphis Belle; I was a fan of the shopping on Cuba Street and we both loved the food (Sweet Mama's Kitchen's swamp dip and fried chicken is worth travelling from the UK for); the grand old art deco Empire Cinema; the excellent Weta Cave; the Alice in Wonderland themed kookiness of Alice bar, as well as the impressive array of live music and arts on offer. We took in an evening of bohemian hybrid blues/calypso/spirituals courtesy of Storehouse at Mighty Mighty, the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra at the San Francisco Bath House (a fun night but they could take some lessons from the original and far better Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain) and the amazing World of Wearable Arts show. Part avant garde fashion show, part circus, part theatrical production, this was like nothing we'd seen before and a definite highlight.

So 2 months after we arrived we left Wellington triumphant - money and happy memories both firmly in the bank. And now, having lived there for a short while, I think I can say the Lonely Planet got it spot on.