Hmm. My best suggestion would be to find places where you can volunteer doing... well, something. I don't know what kind of volunteer type organizations you have in New Zealand, but I walk dogs at the local animal shelter every Saturday, which is good excercise for me and I get to play with puppies! :-}

I'm sure there are volunteer organizations which would love to have you help out on a whenever-you-can basis.

Let's see if I can come up with any other ideas...

Go to museums, concerts, local band perfomances at coffee shops, local festivals/craft fairs... all places where it wouldn't be awkward to be by yourself.

I'd tell you to go join a community theatre group but I'm afraid that would fall under "regularly scheduled" things. But community theatre is a great place to meet people. And the best thing is you don't have to worry about being very good, because they're *always* short on people! At least around here, anyway.

Good luck!

~Mina "misses her own puppies" moon