I'd looked into churches in the Wellington area for Saturday morning and found a few but wasn't sure which to attend. A friend of mine from high school days recommended one that turned out to be right down the road from me. Capital Church Wellington. She knew the pastor personally so recommended I visit his contemporary church and gave him a heads up that I was coming. It turned out to be about a 10-minute walk from my hotel. I walked in and was greeted pretty much right away by Andre, the head pastor, who asked me if I was Chandler, Julene's friend.
The service was great, very informal and mostly a younger population. I stuck around for the meal afterwards talking to various people. Rita was one of those people. She was from the States but now lived in Australia with her three sons. She was visiting NZ for the first time, had arrived the night before, and would only be here another few days. Her and her son Jacob would then head back to Australia. After the meal Andre invited me to his place that evening where a few people were coming over to hang out then grab a bite to eat. Plans changed up a few times and it ended up that the four of us went out to grab a bite to eat (Andre, Rita, Jacob and me). Rita missed Denny's and it turned out there was one in Wellington, so we went there. After that Andre drove us to Mt. Victoria to show us the view of Wellington from the higher vantage point. I had a really fun night with these guys and felt like I'd known them for years instead of hours.
After we drove back to Andre's place, I started the short 7-minute walk back to my hotel, but then decided to walk around Wellington a bit before turning in for the night. I ended up walking around for an hour enjoying the city and nice weather.
As a stroke of good luck, or Providence, in looking for the location of this SDA church I noticed an "Apex" car rental icon on the map near my hotel. I had used them before and wondered if they were the ones I was using for the rest of my North Island trip. I looked into my reservation noticing I was with another company. I then went back to the website I'd used to find a company. You give them your info and what you are looking for and they pull up all the rental car companies in the area with pricing so that you can choose a company to rent from. Apex wasn't listed. I looked them up and found that I'd save just under $500 NZD ($400 USD) by using them! And I could easily walk over to pick up my car instead of taking a taxi to where I'd have picked up my car with the previous company. I happily changed my reservation to Apex. Not sure why they weren't listed on the other site, but I'll always check with them first before looking at other companies.
The service was great, very informal and mostly a younger population. I stuck around for the meal afterwards talking to various people. Rita was one of those people. She was from the States but now lived in Australia with her three sons. She was visiting NZ for the first time, had arrived the night before, and would only be here another few days. Her and her son Jacob would then head back to Australia. After the meal Andre invited me to his place that evening where a few people were coming over to hang out then grab a bite to eat. Plans changed up a few times and it ended up that the four of us went out to grab a bite to eat (Andre, Rita, Jacob and me). Rita missed Denny's and it turned out there was one in Wellington, so we went there. After that Andre drove us to Mt. Victoria to show us the view of Wellington from the higher vantage point. I had a really fun night with these guys and felt like I'd known them for years instead of hours.
After we drove back to Andre's place, I started the short 7-minute walk back to my hotel, but then decided to walk around Wellington a bit before turning in for the night. I ended up walking around for an hour enjoying the city and nice weather.
As a stroke of good luck, or Providence, in looking for the location of this SDA church I noticed an "Apex" car rental icon on the map near my hotel. I had used them before and wondered if they were the ones I was using for the rest of my North Island trip. I looked into my reservation noticing I was with another company. I then went back to the website I'd used to find a company. You give them your info and what you are looking for and they pull up all the rental car companies in the area with pricing so that you can choose a company to rent from. Apex wasn't listed. I looked them up and found that I'd save just under $500 NZD ($400 USD) by using them! And I could easily walk over to pick up my car instead of taking a taxi to where I'd have picked up my car with the previous company. I happily changed my reservation to Apex. Not sure why they weren't listed on the other site, but I'll always check with them first before looking at other companies.