nippa&pippa
31st October 2008, 11:06 AM
Exactly two years today we were just arrived in Christchurch airport to start our new but nervous life in NZ, after had a difficult flight which our son had bad allergy. Our friends remember clearly how exhausted we were when we first turn up at their motel and I never forgot moment when I saw a group of children dress-up in Halloween clothes doing trick or treat that dawn on me they do have a Halloween night in New Zealand! (Don’t ask why I think they don’t have Halloween! Must be my brain was still fuzzy after flights)
Two years on, my OH and I have sat down and discussed about our lifestyles in NZ. There has been lots going on, we gained a kiwi son now 14months old, brought a lovely house with lands in middle of rural Canterbury and have filled paddocks with 5 cows and 8 lambs. We also brought a puppy. Our 5 years old son started kindy, then now at school, he love it very much and our 2 half years old daughter finally got into local Kindy two weeks ago and she love it very much too.
Our families have come over and stayed including MIL stayed for 6 months, all of them agreed that we have better lifestyles for all of us than in UK, kids are happier because Daddy is happier. No more stressful job, no more long hours, no more long travelling to work and no more silly people!
Only bugbear with his job is his boss got no people skill, poor in communication skill and controlling the work skill. Don’t know why he is a boss! OH has managed to find the way around it without becoming a “nagging pom” and we are still living on low wage.
Best about his job is has allowing him to come home half day on Friday so he can start his weekend job on land and farming work while I do dealing with kids, housework and gardening.
Living in lifestyles block with 10 acres of land is not easy at first because we have two then young children when we arrived and knew nothing about looking after land and animals but we knew what we want and how we can achieve it. Now two years on with three young children, we have turned and still turning the place around, tidy up, doing fencing, brought animals, learnt to feed them, grew hays and cut it, set up four vegetable beds for our foods, and getting know our neighbours and communities. My OH have nearly finish his a year course (three more weeks to go!) on lifestyles course to gain skill in pastures control, chainsaw, calf rearing, quadbike, tractor, off-roading (He love it! Big boy he is!), relief milking, animal handling and many more. All cost just £200 altogether with company called Agribusiness. Under same company, I have just started few months ago doing Horticulture course level 4 in propagation, plant protection, weed control, pruning and many more and these courses have taken lots of my free times in the evening. I would recommend anyone to try these courses/company as they have been very helpful to learn how to deal with lifestyles block and to gain new experiences, they always there to answer your questions via phone or email. They been helpful in recommend the best way to deal the problems we have with our animals, lands or gardening, especially we have lost 8 pine trees on boundary recently and we don’t know why till one of them came over and inspected the trees for me.
My prize and joy, after my kids (and OH), is my vegetable gardens, I spent hours, hours, hours and hours with kids around me growing plants from seeds, using my new propagation unit (free!) from course and now they are growing well and get exciting to see new seedlings coming through. My eldest two kids had huge learning curve since we arrived in New Zealand. They know where meats come from (definitely NOT from supermarket or factory, ask your kids...), which meats come from which animals, they know the names to almost every single vegetable and fruits (remember that Helen?) They know the plants grow from seeds, and they were amazed to see seeds turn into seedlings and then turn into plants. So I went and brought sunflower seeds for them. Under my supervision, they grew their own sunflower plants…we have achieved what we want for our children, learn to how to look after themselves, better place and better quality of life.
Maybe to some people, that our house is small with just three bedroom but that what we want because land is more important than house to us because we are outside most of time anyway. Also smaller house mean warmer house with low electricity bills and easy to heat the house with the log burner. Two children’s rooms had heaters during coldest winter nights although. To get know our locals had help us to know where we can get what we need at cheaper price.
Only downside about living in New Zealand in my own opinion is my children’s allergies. Few people in this forum know how much battle I am having in last few months in trying to dealing with their growing lists of allergies without allergy specialist in public system in South Island, unless you prepare to pay $375 to see private allergy specialist! I will do another post on how to deal with allergies in New Zealand from my experiences, so other people know where to go for help etc. Our GP surgery has been great help in last few months.
Overall, do I love my new life in New Zealand? YES very much! :clap
Two years on, my OH and I have sat down and discussed about our lifestyles in NZ. There has been lots going on, we gained a kiwi son now 14months old, brought a lovely house with lands in middle of rural Canterbury and have filled paddocks with 5 cows and 8 lambs. We also brought a puppy. Our 5 years old son started kindy, then now at school, he love it very much and our 2 half years old daughter finally got into local Kindy two weeks ago and she love it very much too.
Our families have come over and stayed including MIL stayed for 6 months, all of them agreed that we have better lifestyles for all of us than in UK, kids are happier because Daddy is happier. No more stressful job, no more long hours, no more long travelling to work and no more silly people!
Only bugbear with his job is his boss got no people skill, poor in communication skill and controlling the work skill. Don’t know why he is a boss! OH has managed to find the way around it without becoming a “nagging pom” and we are still living on low wage.
Best about his job is has allowing him to come home half day on Friday so he can start his weekend job on land and farming work while I do dealing with kids, housework and gardening.
Living in lifestyles block with 10 acres of land is not easy at first because we have two then young children when we arrived and knew nothing about looking after land and animals but we knew what we want and how we can achieve it. Now two years on with three young children, we have turned and still turning the place around, tidy up, doing fencing, brought animals, learnt to feed them, grew hays and cut it, set up four vegetable beds for our foods, and getting know our neighbours and communities. My OH have nearly finish his a year course (three more weeks to go!) on lifestyles course to gain skill in pastures control, chainsaw, calf rearing, quadbike, tractor, off-roading (He love it! Big boy he is!), relief milking, animal handling and many more. All cost just £200 altogether with company called Agribusiness. Under same company, I have just started few months ago doing Horticulture course level 4 in propagation, plant protection, weed control, pruning and many more and these courses have taken lots of my free times in the evening. I would recommend anyone to try these courses/company as they have been very helpful to learn how to deal with lifestyles block and to gain new experiences, they always there to answer your questions via phone or email. They been helpful in recommend the best way to deal the problems we have with our animals, lands or gardening, especially we have lost 8 pine trees on boundary recently and we don’t know why till one of them came over and inspected the trees for me.
My prize and joy, after my kids (and OH), is my vegetable gardens, I spent hours, hours, hours and hours with kids around me growing plants from seeds, using my new propagation unit (free!) from course and now they are growing well and get exciting to see new seedlings coming through. My eldest two kids had huge learning curve since we arrived in New Zealand. They know where meats come from (definitely NOT from supermarket or factory, ask your kids...), which meats come from which animals, they know the names to almost every single vegetable and fruits (remember that Helen?) They know the plants grow from seeds, and they were amazed to see seeds turn into seedlings and then turn into plants. So I went and brought sunflower seeds for them. Under my supervision, they grew their own sunflower plants…we have achieved what we want for our children, learn to how to look after themselves, better place and better quality of life.
Maybe to some people, that our house is small with just three bedroom but that what we want because land is more important than house to us because we are outside most of time anyway. Also smaller house mean warmer house with low electricity bills and easy to heat the house with the log burner. Two children’s rooms had heaters during coldest winter nights although. To get know our locals had help us to know where we can get what we need at cheaper price.
Only downside about living in New Zealand in my own opinion is my children’s allergies. Few people in this forum know how much battle I am having in last few months in trying to dealing with their growing lists of allergies without allergy specialist in public system in South Island, unless you prepare to pay $375 to see private allergy specialist! I will do another post on how to deal with allergies in New Zealand from my experiences, so other people know where to go for help etc. Our GP surgery has been great help in last few months.
Overall, do I love my new life in New Zealand? YES very much! :clap