[nippa&pippa]

What your friendship with your closest/best friend is like now after moved to NZ?

[Joanne100]

There isnt one, we email often, ive rang her once and thats it, can u really carry on a close friendship wen ur this far apart?

[shakyle2906]

Hi

I am in contact with most of my friends from the UK.

Each month, I email about 20 or so people that i am still in contact with, with news on what we have been up to, as well as keeping my blog updated regularly.

I am lucky to say that yes, i am in regular contact with my close friends, either my email, MSN, webcam or simply texting on mobile. I miss my mates a lot and am so lucky that we keep in touch and hopefully always will do. It is hard to continue a friendship from the other side of the world i admit and perhaps i have been lucky so far!

I have made some great friends at work but obviously you're history with them is only as long as you have met them. I have made one true friend, a lady i work with Silvy, who funnily enough is english. She has been fantastic to me, shared her knowledge of the area (she has been here 25+ yrs), met my family and gets along great with them, shared my emotions with me and is like my adopted mum and best friend all rolled into one. I wouldnt be with out her for the world, she is fab!

I am also lucky that the people that i work with are fantastic and its like we have always known each other. It was hard starting a new job in a new country but they have been very supportive and i couldnt ask for a better bunch of friends/work colleagues also.

Sharon

[Sam B]

I will never lose touch with my best mate. I email her weekly, text daily and ring about once a week - more recently as she's just had her first baby. I miss her SO MUCH. She's coming for 3 weeks next Christmas, can't wait. We've known each other since school and are used to living apart, as we went to different unis, lived in different parts of Britain etc. When I cried on Christmas day, it was her I was missing, we used to spend every other Christmas together in a rented cottage.

The rest of my friends get weekly emails with photos and occasional phone calls. They all plan to visit at some time. They are more important than ever.

[K&CS]

Stangely, it's my best friends that I don't hear from that often. We try to catch up by phone a few times a year and when we do eventually meet up, I'm hoping that we'll be the same as ever (one lived 200 miles away in the UK anyway so we weren't in each others' pockets). The person I'm in touch with most, I'd only known for about a year before we left. It's strange the way things turn out.

I think once you get to my age, if you're still in touch with someone you've known for over 20 years, then you'll stay friends whatever happens. I don't necessarily judge a friendship on how often we speak/email. We all have busy lives, don't we?

Kate

[marcia]

My best friend came with me!!!

My hubby Kev :D

[peebles16]

You know I'm just about feeling that for Duncan (OH) now but will it be the same after we move to NZ in 2 weeks?? :D
Karenx

[Annierobrigado]

You know I'm just about feeling that for Duncan (OH) now but will it be the same after we move to NZ in 2 weeks?? :D
Karenx

of course... unless he leaves you at home to deal with the mess the movers have made... and then he turns into your worst mate. hehehehe.

am just joking though - my best friend is also my husband, and even if i don't see my other mates that quite often, it's like i see them too when ric emails them and then tells me what they've been up to in a more picturesque way than they really are! haha.

cheers and welcome to nz!

annie

[Moorf]

My best friend came with me!!!

My hubby Kev :D

Ditto :D

[Leccy-Lee]

What your best friend is Marcia's Hubby Moorf? LOL :p

[Moorf]

:o

I don't know him THAT well :laugh

[britchik]

I think once you get to my age, if you're still in touch with someone you've known for over 20 years, then you'll stay friends whatever happens. I don't necessarily judge a friendship on how often we speak/email. We all have busy lives, don't we?

Kate[/QUOTE]

My sentiments exactly !!

I probably speak to my mate of 25 years less than newer friends. Often having people commenting that we couldn't have been that great mates if we speak to each other less often than other people I have known for a lesser time.
Yet I know, without a doubt, even if we lost touch for over 10 years we would pick up exactly where we left off without a moments hesitation.
Not so sure about newer friends ??

[Joanne100]

Stangely, it's my best friends that I don't hear from that often. We try to catch up by phone a few times a year and when we do eventually meet up, I'm hoping that we'll be the same as ever (one lived 200 miles away in the UK anyway so we weren't in each others' pockets). The person I'm in touch with most, I'd only known for about a year before we left. It's strange the way things turn out.

I think once you get to my age, if you're still in touch with someone you've known for over 20 years, then you'll stay friends whatever happens. I don't necessarily judge a friendship on how often we speak/email. We all have busy lives, don't we?

Kate

Totally agree, well said!
Joanne

[jubjub]

I have got what I would call three best friends that are not in NZ.

One I have known for nearly 30 years, one for nearly 20 and the other for just over 10, we manage to stay in touch and when we went back to UK for our hols it felt as if I had only seen them the previous week! One of these friends is on Oz, and I hadn't seen her for nearly 2.5 years and again, we met up and felt like we had seen each other the week before.

I have someone else that emails me regularly that I used to work with, we were never bosom buddies, but I enjoy hearing from her and we have a giggle or two!

It does surprise you who keeps in touch, and who doesn't... its one of the hazards of moving....

[JoanneG]

I think friendship is changing now it's so much easier to stay in touch.............I have travelled a fair amount during my adult life and learned to accept that some friends are forever now matter how long you are out of touch, other friends you let go as you move on.

Often you become friends with people out of circumstance and when your circumstances change that friend leaves your life and others come along. Personally I think it takes at least two years to get to know someone and begin to build some history.

Now with the internet it is so much easier to stay in touch which is wonderful and I chat with friends that would probably have left my life long ago. The weird thing is that we haven't actually seen each other for over 15 years. In fact, recognising them face to face could be interesting!

It is wonderful to stay in touch with people particularly special people in our lives but does this prevent us from making more effort to make new friends??

Hopefully, my closest friend will get a job offer soon and drag her, kicking screaming husband over to NZ. If not, I'm sure we'll always be friends anyway! :D

[Familyofmonkeys]

My best friend came with me!!!

My hubby Kev :D

Ditto....but apart from hubby, we talk to our closest friends on Skye as often as we can and phone and e-mail very often. They are closer to us than any of our family and we would never lose touch after knowing each other nearly 20 years. Other friends (mostly old school/Uni friends) I e-mail most weeks and phone occasionally....just how it has been for the last 12 or so years since we all left school and moved to different parts of UK. I miss the occasional get togethers, but they will all visit at some point in the future, I am certain of that. Still keep in regular contact with a couple of more recent friends from UK..only known them about 3 years, but such nice people it would be sad to lose touch.

I think because friends from Uni are all over the world, we kind of got used to keeping in with people, even if we didn't see them for a couple of years or so. When you do see them it is like you saw them a few weeks ago and not at all awkward. It feels just the same now we are here in NZ and certainly not a new thing to us.

[alan999]

Strange, but friends from the UK, even some close family just never reply to my e-mails. When coming out i regularly got in touch to let them know my progress but if anybody answered it was just "got your e-mail, will reply fully soon" type of reply. It's so bad that outside my wife and children still back there I have zero communication.
Even stranger, when I went back for christmas and saw all my old mates things were just as they always were, as though I'd never been away!

[jubjub]

Alan, I think you may be suffering from the fact that men just dont "do" the communication thing much (in general)... DH has several mates he went to primary school with, he gets an xmas card and the odd email... but when we went back for our hols, you couldnt separate them!

whereas I am on email, or facebook and sending texts pretty much every day!

[The Hodges]

Yes I agree, Sal about the men. Where as I email, text and use face book almost everyday.

But true friends will always stay in touch no matter how far away and how much or little you are in contact and when you meet up its always like you have never been apart. Its nice to knowing you have friends like this :yes

[Carol]

What your friendship with your closest/best friend is like now after moved to NZ?

The first year we were here we only had a fax machine each and we religiously faxed every week with a catch up. (I still have all the faxes).

After 18 months she sold her car to pay for all 5 of them to come out.

She is in touch with my parents regularly to check they are OK - and they are with her.
For example when her daughter had a car accident recently they were on the phone that day to see if there was anything they could do.

Since the early days - we have moved to email/phone.
She is the first person I ring if I have a problem or if I am down.
We txt at least weekly.

When I go back to the UK it is her that I see first at the airport.

In 378 days time she is arriving here again for a holiday - we are going to the South Island this time.

I love her dearly......outside of my marriage she is my absolute best friend.

And the answer to your question is exactly the same as it was - but oh my goodness - we miss each other terribly - even after 12 years apart.
:(

The last time I was home - I was looking for an eternity ring - but we ended up buying matching friendship rings. Got the eternity ring when I got back to NZ.

True love - be it between your partner or your friend - will last.... no matter what the distance is or the time difference or even the length of time since you last spoke....


Thank goodness!

[Sam B]

Totally agree Carol.