[Tia Maria]

I think we can all agree that natural New Zealand is a fantastic place, but what has been your impression of man made New Zealand?

Cheers

Tia

PS Talking about everything from houses to shops to small villages to large cities etc etc

[Moorf]

Ohhh good one.

I'd err on the side of tatty, but more from neglect as there's lots of great architecture that just seems to need some TLC.

There's also lots of lovely aspects too, but my overriding impression is defintely erring on the side of tatty. Not in a graffitti-ridden, dirty sort of way, but in a "needs doing up" sort of fashion.. if you get my drift... :uhoh

But, I have definitely got used to it... :yes so I voted tatty but used to it.. and it's rather endearing too, I think.

[Trigirl]

mmm - difficult one. i took some photos at the weekend to try and show mum and dad how different hataitai looks to the bedfordshire village we emigrated from.

http://www.flickr.com/gp/30565080@N00/oC68L4

yes i think it looks a bit tatty but also very colourful. plus i'm not sure just how much of that is me not being used to wooden housing and being instead perhaps a bit too used to regimented identical rows of shoe box houses.

i've certainly not come across anywhere manmade thats as pretty as some of England's beautiful old villages - we had a few near us in Bedfordshire, gorgeous old farmhouses, proper thatch, old stone walls etc but i've never been privileged enough to live in one.

[zardell]

When we first arrived, I looked at things through my UK eyes and found things architecturally speaking, that both amused and amazed me.

As far as housing was concerned, I did think that some of the housing was 'tatty', but then again other homes were too stunning for words.

We are house hunting and now, when I look at houses through my newly accustomed NZ eyes, I find myself happy to go and look at a property that I certainly would not have entertained a few short months ago.

Maybe I'm beginning to believe the estate agents jargon...............:laugh

Julie

xx

[Moorf]

when I look at houses through my newly accustomed NZ eyes, I find myself happy to go and look at a property that I certainly would not have entertained a few short months ago.

So true, when we first drove through Darfield, now my local town which I love, I put my foot down and struck it off the list of places to live!

Trigirl - higgledypiggledy - my fav word.. ;) it's true, the lack of regimented housing styles and the variations of colour really make it look charming. The wooden houses remind me far more of American towns than any British village.

[willsken]

This is a hard one. I certainly found some of the buildings and towns strange to get use to. I find the place we live in far more pleasing to the eye than where we came from but there are still some houses here the I would love to take a paintbrush to! I have to say though I do think I am getting used to the look of the place and my tatty radar isn’t as strong as it was. I think the only thing I really didn’t like when we arrived were the tin roofs. I don’t mind them anywhere near as much now though.:roll

[Park City Partner]

I didn't want to be too negative but frankly the shops etc are really not very impressive. People seem to be talking mostly about the houses in this thread which I'm not very taken with either but the shops and "strip malls" could look so much better than they do.I have seen the odd shop with nice frontage but on the whole I think it looks very tatty...on the plus side I now know a new word...tatty!

[Sam B]

Well, Cornwall had its fair share of pebbledashed hell, but it also had quaint stone villages that enhanced the natural environment. I haven't seen anything here that enhances the natural environment. It's not just shabby and makeshift, it's sometimes really ugly - I'm mainly thinking of the sprawling industrial and commercial zones that surround every town and city - acres of fast food joints, big warehouses etc.

The scenery is fantastic here, but I haven't seen one manmade structure that excites me. I used to love visiting National Trust places and old churches etc in the UK and I can see that there is nothing like that here. I do like the old colonial style villas, but many of the modern houses seem a bit of an eyesore.

The towns and cities are much cleaner than the UK on the whole, much less litter, less grafitti. But sadly lacking in beautiful buildings. Definitely something I will miss.

[sarahw]

Well hmmm - the first impressions I had of Welly upon landing was the colourful haphazardly placed hillside houses, which to me was magical, but to someone else may look untidy or even tatty!!

Some of the architecture here is fabby from new to old - I love the old boat 'sheds' by the waterfront, as well as Te Papa and the strange (stuck in an 80's timewarp) Michael Fowler building, the beehive & parliament buildings. The beautiful shops, cafes, restaurants & houses in Thorndon area & the beautiful old observatory I used to work in. Eclectic mix of the boat sheds round Pauatahanui, Titahi Bay and Haitaitai. Some of the housing does look tatty (and could do with a really good do up) and at first getting used to seeing corrugated iron roofs on houses rather than garden sheds was strange.

We had such a wealth of fantastic architecture everywhere in the UK, although there were some very tatty areas and some of the out of town shopping areas just looked like they'd been plonked on the landscape - however, I can't say that the Kiwis have perfected that art either!! A big shopping mall to me never looks pretty.

Overall, although I miss the 'old' buildings, I think that NZ has a style of its own - and the unkempt beach house or rustic old agricultural shed can look quite beautiful...

[Tia Maria]

Zardell wrote:

We are house hunting and now, when I look at houses through my newly accustomed NZ eyes, I find myself happy to go and look at a property that I certainly would not have entertained a few short months ago.

I wasn't keen on villas when we first arrived, but living in a heritage area we had to get use to the idea pretty quickly also. At first I found the rusty tin roofs an eyesore, but I've got use to them now and look past them to the sea views behind.

I find Auckland CBD a big disappointment, it is clean and neat but sooooo dull. No opera house, no London eye etc. Once you've done the few main sites there's not much else to do apart from shopping.

Obviously its a relatively new city compared to the european ones, but why can't it have a theatre district or some kind of square you'd want to sit in with lots of cafes and street entertainment like Covent Garden? Hopefully someone will be inspired to do something with the harbour front other than have rows of containers.

I think the town shopping streets look a bit like film scenery sometimes, as though they are just facades with nothing behind. But then UK high streets are probably just as naff!

What I do like about it is its very distinctive, very much its own style. I saw a film the other day claiming to be set in the USA but I spotted it was set in NZ straight away.

Cheers

Tia

[Debbie]

Great post.
The urban look of NZ broke my heart when we first arrived.
I thought that the hap-hazard houses all squashed together, built as infill in anothers garden were terible. House hunting was a nightmare. I wanted a house with some privacy and so many of them are so close to their neighbour that you could reach out your window to pass that borrowed cup of sugar!.
Rusty roofs and rather shabby frontage reminded me of an overcrowed, poorly maintained mobilhome site. And I hadn't realised how ugly a mass of wires and cabels festooned from telegraph poles could make a place. It seems typical of the kiwi way, why go to the trouble of digging a trench for all your wires when you can sling them from concreat poles down every road.

(It definatly wasn't love at first sight). On the plus side the areas I've seen have been generally very clean, litter free, and have had a safe feel to them.

The shopping malls and retail road areas I think just look bland with more than the occational touch of shabby. I was spoilt in the UK, I could shop in Bluewater if I wanted clean modern convienience or Canterburry if I wanted old world little boutique.

That said I have very little frame of referance, I've only been here 6mths and because of what NZ does have to offer have spent very little of that time searching out retail therapy. But they don't even seem to put the effort into things like making attractive window displays. Very much a feel of if you want an item you go to that shop, no effort to capture window shopping, casual trade.

I've just read this reply back and it sounds very negative but it is as I find it. Strange that because I am just getting to a point where I'm beginging to realy like living here. It's amazing what you can grow used to.
Debbie

[Debbie]

P.S I should add that comming over the Harbour bridge into the city and seeing the harbour and skytower still take by breath away and I could and do spend hours walking along the viaduct. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I thing it's just stunning.
Debbie

[Tia Maria]

Debbie wrote:

I wanted a house with some privacy and so many of them are so close to their neighbour that you could reach out your window to pass that borrowed cup of sugar!.

Very true! :laugh :laugh :laugh

Cheers

Tia