Day 2 in New Zealand

Christmas decorations in the Bank Arcade. This is also New Zealand’s spring.

It’s spring in New Zealand with temperatures in the low 60s. But it is also the Christmas season, which makes for an interesting contrast. Holiday decorations already have gone up and a Christmas parade is scheduled for Nov. 14 here in Wellington. Most of the stores are having spring sales.

Since the Wellington dollar is worth around 82 cents American, you might think you could get more bang for your buck, but prices here are outrageously high. T-shirts, for example, are 20 to 25 New Zealand dollars on sale. Anything wool is $200 to $400 or more (NZ dollars).

This is a country where there was once more than 8 million sheep and now there are about 4 million. With the introduction of synthetics, the wool business is not what is used to be.

The city is clean, but there is some graffiti and the city has an Occupy Wellington movement going on. Yes, even here in the Southern Hemisphere, the natives are restless.

Wellington is a city of about 180,000 population. One of its finest shopping “malls” is Old Bank Arcade, a beautiful heritage building, once a bank, and now housing some of Wellington’s premier fashion, beauty and lifestyle stores. The Old Bank clock tells the history of the building every hour on the hour and is worth a visit. It’s open seven days.

Later today I am visiting Middle Earth filming locations from Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit,” which will be released in early 2012.