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Thread: One year in NZ... and

  1. #1
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    Default One year in NZ... and

    If you’d said to us this time last year that we’d be living in New Zealand, both have decent jobs, have a great car, be living in our own home with stunning lake views and almost an acre of land, and I’d have just bought a chainsaw. Then I would have thought... perfect. It is good, but it’s far from perfect. We came here with our eyes open and so far we haven’t been surprised by anything, good or bad, but the concerns that we had about certain things have rung true and in most cases been a little worse than anticipated.

    I know everyone goes on and on, and on and on some more, about the lack of central heating but crikey it’s a big thing. As winter approached we ordered a load of firewood, and I sat in my shorts in the sun chopping sticks. We kept looking at the different shaped logs and figured that if we ‘d been back in UK we’d probably have varnished a couple and stuck them on the mantelpiece. We had a few practice fires in our log burner and thought it worked a treat. Well it does, if you’re in the same room, it’s been on a few hours and it’s summer! Once winter came around and we were in our new (new to us) open plan home, the old log burner didn’t seem as toasty. After about 2 hours it would be warm enough to take your coat off after coming home from work, but that was only in the lounge, the rest of the house was pretty cold, and in a morning -ouch!! We have a fridge that has a digital display showing the temperature of the fridge, we also have a weather station that shows the indoor temperature of the room. One morning I came downstairs and the fridge said 6 degrees and the room temperature was 5 degrees, it was official, I could have started the day warmer if I’d have left my clothes in a neat folded pile in the fridge!! We succumbed. We bought a super ser - remember them. We bought an electric blanket - at least we’d be warm in bed. We bought a pack of thermal vests... each. Another problem being that you’d leave work in the morning cold as, arrive at work and guess what? No bloody heating. The only time in the day you’d be warm would be the journey to and from work in your car and when you went to bed. We had been more than aware of the lack of heating and you can get around it, but it does drag you down a bit.

    So what else is bad? Well the driving ain’t too hot, but it’s more funny than bad. Mirror, signal, manoeuvre? No, it’s more manoeuvre then signal if you’re lucky, mirror? No chance. And you can guarantee that if we drive into town at night we’ll see a car coming the other way with no lights on. “Don’t need ma lights bro, I can see where I’m going, saves more elec tricity for the stereo”. Whoops, is that a stereotypical Maori joke, well they get away with them all the time on the radio. The racism is truly shocking here, sometimes it’s like living in a 1970’s sitcom. We had an Indian lad on work experience and the comments to him and behind his back were nothing short of disgusting, but it seemed it was all normal.

    Another thing that has been a little hard is that after spending years of planning, all the ups and downs of the immigration process and all the energy put into the move, now that we’re here that’s gone. We’re here, we’ve done it, we’ve got what we wanted, so now what? Well obviously relax and enjoy it, fair enough, but there’s still a hole. Hopefully it will get smaller and not larger.

    The good stuff? That’s a real long list that most people already know so I’ll not bother with that, besides this post is more about taking off the rose tinted glasses, but overall I’d still say the worst thing about NZ is the fish and chips, so I guess it’s not that bad.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2009
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    Quote Originally Posted by stu & amanda View Post
    Another thing that has been a little hard is that after spending years of planning, all the ups and downs of the immigration process and all the energy put into the move, now that we’re here that’s gone. We’re here, we’ve done it, we’ve got what we wanted, so now what? Well obviously relax and enjoy it, fair enough, but there’s still a hole. Hopefully it will get smaller and not larger.

    The good stuff? That’s a real long list that most people already know so I’ll not bother with that, besides this post is more about taking off the rose tinted glasses, but overall I’d still say the worst thing about NZ is the fish and chips, so I guess it’s not that bad.
    I can wholeheartedly relate to where you are coming from here and agree with you on the fush n chups. The only remotely decent ones we've had we're in a highly regarded glorified sit down restaurant place in Queenstown where they charge $20 + a go.

    Our first winter was an absolute misery, but take heart you do learn from one year to the next and will seek ways to improve things before the big chill comes along next year. I remember all too well thinking that my car was better equipped for the cold than our house, enjoying the warmth to and from work and dreading getting home. It got so bad at one point I would do anything to get out of the house and into the car.

  3. #3
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    Sep 2008
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    Poole, UK to Chch, NZ
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    Thank you for sharing

    I've already informed hubby that whichever house we buy will have to be well insulated or insulatable, even if that means me buying a field's-worth of strawbales and stacking them round the walls. Haven't figured out what to do about the roof yet though!

  4. #4
    Manks's Avatar
    Manks is offline Serial procrastinator and general busybody
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    Thanks for sharing. I think that is one of the greatest things about this forum, people are willing to share the good and the bad so the rest of us go in eyes wide open.

    I hope that hole gets smaller for you too.

  5. #5
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    Hear, hear.

  6. #6
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    I don't like fish (fush) so I'm good
    Thanks for posting; I get the strong impression that no amount of learning and visiting will prepare us for much of the culture shocks we will experience, ie:racism, "she'll be right",heating, etc. Thanks though for reminding us to prepare to BE shocked though!

  7. #7
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    Listen and learn... Thanks for sharing and I hope you'll find a way out of "the hole" (been there, done that).

    I concur with the excitement, stress etc. involved in the process of getting where you want to be and that it requires a change in mindset from moving to settling once achieved. But you must have had good reasons to go through all this. Dreams and plans can get forgotten in the process of resettlement.

    At the end of the day and when dust settles you tend live life the way you used to because that is what you know (get up-go to work-come home). No matter where you are, the concept is the same. The difference can be found in how you experience live in a new surrounding and how you find your place in this doing what you envisioned when you started your relocation process.

    Good luck with that.

  8. #8
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    Thanks for the post - honest and realistic

  9. #9

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    All sounds pretty good to me if the only bad points are the lack of central heating and the standard of driving! It sounds a bit odd that your house takes that long to heat up with a log burner - maybe you need to splash out on insulation, double glazing etc. Or install central heating of course! All that stuff's available in NZ, but I think the main difference is that in the UK it's almost impossible to find a house that doesn't have it, so you don't think about it. Whereas in NZ you need to factor in the cost of improving insulating and heating when you buy a house.

  10. #10
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    M'side(UK) - Welly - Waikanae
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    thanks for sharing - it's really helpful because it makes me realise just how much we/I take our comforts for granted and how in the first year if possible it'd be best to go the extra mile to protect ourselves - with all the stress of a new job, new home, loss of family and friends, immigration, new culture we all need all the help we can get in those first few year -best of luck - concentrate your attention on what's surrounding the hole rather than peering closely at the hole!

    PS
    I'm thinking when we arrive we really must get a house which is well insulated

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