Newcomers need to meet Kiwis
Hello,
We are a family of four - two boys, 7 and 5. I first came to New Zealand in October last year for about a month to check things out. Our residence had been approved (Skilled Migrant) back in May but then we got cold feet. It seemed a huge task to move away from friends and family, especially since we didn't know a soul in NZ. By February, my wife and I had beaten the horse to death: to move or not to move? It turned out that we didn't have a choice to begin with. We were just fooling ourselves with the discussions. We had to move.
We are from a very religious society and we are agnostics - or at least I am, wife is a bit agnostic about calling herself anything. I really shouldn't say any more because we are in the closet and can't safely come out yet. Life was becoming impossible under mores that were more intrusive and disruptive by the day. Against our wishes, our children were being taught religion at school - private school - and invitations to religious activities were rampant. There was nothing we could do to ward off the onslaught without arousing suspicion. To be labelled an apostate in that society, even if we didn't declare it, could be both alienating and dangerous. Especially for the kids. We had the choice to move to US, Ireland, UK, or NZ. Respectively, we found the first three too violent, too cold, and too wet. After my October trip, Aotearoa qualified on all counts. I am an IT consultant with an independent income and therefore we are not geographically restricted at all.
So here I am now, in Tauranga, looking for a house - Pillans Point, Matua, and Otumoetai school zones are our priority. The family will be arriving in May. Finding a house or a school is not my biggest challenge - those things are easy to research and manage. It is rather finding like-minded people who could become friends. I am not looking necessarily for expats from our part of the world. That would be a bit ironic. My experience with my own expats is that they usually hold dearly to their religion and turn to it even more in the new land to deal with the challenges of loneliness and non-acceptance. We have no such crutches to fall back on, and we really can't afford to move in that circle. It would kill the whole purpose of moving.
We have lived in several countries for a few months at a time - US, Canada, Japan, Russia, Ireland, UK - and traveled in several more. This process has removed as many prejudices from our makeup as perhaps it is humanly possible to remove. We are done with prejudices, ours and others'. We would love to make friends with any and all people in New Zealand who have a similar attitude to life. We adore the outdoors as well, almost any recreational or sporting activity, and that could be another foundation for friendship. We love and respect nature and are often willing to give up anything that makes a difference for the environment. I've only been in Tauranga two weeks, but I've already covered most of it and the surrounding areas on bike. Bicycle, that is. I've only put 34 km on my car during this period. I am staying in Otumoetai in the residence of a wonderful senior who is renting me a room for the duration of house hunting.
I welcome all responses, and especially those open to meeting and catching up. My wife's arrival here couldn't be more pleasant than with the knowledge that we have already found potential friends.
Regards,
Rash Kiwi
(RASH stands for Rationalist, Agnostic, Skeptic, Humanist - as I make no distinctions among them)
