Nearly One Year Post

[Kalla]

hi all

I have been reflecting alot lately on our move out here to NZ so I thought I would do my one year post now (even though it's technically not for a month, but still, 11 months is enough I think to get a good perspective on this place).

I think it's the winter - it does make one reflect. And I think having this time to see the worst of the NZ winter has brought up my positive & negative feelings about the place so here goes:

Summer was awesome, bright, long sunlight hours, happy outdoor days, bbq's, river walks, picnics, activities. We loved our summer in NZ (and we live in the South of the South so I think our summers are comparably colder to the North) but still, we loved it. This was our honeymoon period. The lifestyle was awesome and I thought 1000 times how great this was for our famliy and our young children.

We settled in quickly, we found the people friendly, we learnt the run of things easily and realised that (coming from the UK), we had to chill out and relax a bit and adopt the 'no worries' attitude. My son made friends quickly at kindy (although he had to adjust to the freedom and tree-climbing that goes on at kindys here - he was an indoor child and now he is 100 times over an outdoors kid! - Love it). Our neighbours were friendly, people in the shops just stop and chat to you over here (something new for us) & up until winter time we hadn't experience any bad stuff.

Winter has been cold (although I don't feel it's been any colder here than the UK was), the houses poorly equipped to deal with it, we've had mould problems, spend heaps on electric bills, it's soggy outside and lots of rain/wind etc, but still we get some beautiful crisp, sunny days which are just gorgeous and make you feel whole again. Winter has made us wrap up and sit infront of the tele again and I have to keep motivating the family to get out and about.

We've found life a bit harder here. My husband spends alot of time chopping wood here to keep us warm. His work hours are long in the 'on season' and I've found that making friends has been harder than I thought. I have loads of mums from kindy/baby groups that I know and chat to, so I'm not lonely! But I've found that, being a small town, people have lived here all their lives and went to school here etc, so they already have their lifelong mates and very few are looking to make another good friend so it takes a while to wiggle your way into their lives, that's not to say that people haven't been super friendly & helpful - they have in every way, I just lack that 'best friend' to have a good ol' chin wag with & it makes me miss my friends in the UK at times.
I have to cook a lot of things from scratch nowdays as there isn't much available 'ready-made' and groceries are pretty expensive and I have found myself buying heaps of fresh ingredients and concocting weird and wonderful dishes for my family, I've gotten creative in the kitchen (a good thing - I think we're healthier because of it).We've also 'let go' of a lot of our 'material' ways if you like. We live more simply here. Some of this is to save money (we're only on one salary) but some of this is because the simple life is to be celebrated! We get joy from a hike through the bush much more than we do a shopping trip to the big city now days. I feel myself feeling patriotic which is strange because I wasn't born and have no connection to this country besides the fact that I've lived here for the past year. I think this just inspires patriotism and it makes my heart skip a beat when I see my nearly 5 year old shouting out 'God Defend New Zealand' at kindy - love it!

So to sum up. I love NZ, it's beautiful and I want to make it my home forever and a day. We are happy here! It's not perfect & I have found fault with many things, but no-where is perfect and I think you have to accept some of the imperfections and just get over them, learn to deal with what you can't change and celebrate the good!

I hope all your dreams come true all of you moving to NZ still. I have found that an open mind & a 'have a go' attitude are great things to have onboard.

[hsfa484]

Very informative post. I like this "an open mind & a 'have a go' attitude are great things to have onboard"

Thanx for sharing you experience Kalla.

__________________________
EOI submitted: 14 August 2009 (135 points no job offer)
EOI selected : 26 August 2009
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ITA submitted: 14 December 2009
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[peter+lucia]

We are moving at end of August so your post is very inspiring.

[Manks]

Thanks for sharing. I'm glad you love it so much. It gives me hope for when we make the move.

[jlg84]

Since we move in a scant 40 days (not that I'm counting...) this was very helpful. I am a bit nervous about moving to a small town, coming from the Big City, but hope that a good attitude and can-do spirit will do me the same wonders it does for you.

[benandclare]

Good on ya Kalla,

[Kanga]

Neat post Kalla

[Ana&Steve]

Thanks so much for sharing your update!

[Aquarian]

Thanks Kalla

[mooncalf]

great update. hopefully I will write one in a months time of my first year in the Big 'A'.