[ruthyroo]

Well it's new to me anyway. Read it this weekend and really enjoyed it as it articulated a lot of my experiences since moving to NZ. The author (Jeffrey Masson) is an American academic, who moved to Karaka (north of Auckland) a few years ago, so he has a certain perspective (especially about animals) that not everyone might agree with, but interesting reading nonetheless. Despite the title, it wasn't all rose-tinted specs.

Slipping into Paradise : Why I Live in New Zealand
by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

Key points for me were:

NZ is not a place to come if you are interested in 'big ideas' - about humanity / society / etc. Kiwis just aren't interested. They have good writers / commentators, but it generally doesn't filter down to Joe Bloggs in the street. The example he used was that he has several thousand books in his house from his various academic and other interests - whenever his neighbours come to visit, they tend to comment on the quality of the shelving rather than the books... except to be amazed that anyone could want to own / read so many!

He and his wife budget / plan to have at least 1 month out of NZ each year getting a kind of shot in the arm of 21st century life - but they usually end up pining for the sheer physical beauty and emptiness of NZ compared to Oz / US / Europe, and for the friendliness of the people.

A lot of NZ advantages in NZ are simply a result of its lack of people - 4 million in a land mass the size of the UK means a lot of space per head of population. And clean green NZ comes from this - accident rather than design.

Kiwi egalitarianism is great in many ways - but cutting down tall poppies i.e people that are really good at what they do - doesn't help the society move forward or upwards. And it can be a real disincentive to succeed as an entrepreneur - or in any other way.

And like me, he has become a full on twitcher since coming here - NZ bird life, decimated though it is by cats, dogs, stoats, rats, ferrets, etc is still pretty fascinating! Having just been to Stewart Island, and had a wee taste of what NZ might have been like before all those pesky pests were brought over, I can agree with that.

[David with a dream]

Ta for that Ruthy, will have to check it out on amazon...... :nice1 .....David

[Howie]

This was the book that really "pushed us over the edge" when we read it a year ago. We sort of had NZ in the back of our minds before, but this book really convinced us to seriously consider NZ.

Susan

[Questor]

Just ordered a copy from Amazon, along with a copy of the Xenophobe's guide to Kiwis :)

Ta muchly!

[foolsgold99]

read this book after getting as a Xmas pressie in '04.

I don't think I've ever disliked a author by the end of this book as Jeff. Pompus smug academic spends whole chapters explaining what wrong with just about every country in the world. As an example he disliked Germany, because the german accents made him think about the holocust, this upset him as a jew, you'd think he might have anticipated it before he moved there.

[Moorf]

As an example he disliked Germany, because the german accents made him think about the holocust, this upset him as a jew, you'd think he might have anticipated it before he moved there.



And he's an academic? :uhoh Thanks for saving me the $$....

[ruthyroo]

Yep, I'm glad I got it from the library rather than buying it, in that respect. He's got some unusual views to say the least - and is very good at setting extraordinarily high standards that he seems to expect everyone else to live up to - while making lots of exceptions for himself... at least that's the impression I got. Though to be fair, he was describing his experience in other countries in the context of why they like NZ so much. It was interesting reading from an American p.o.v. as well - the safety aspect of moving to NZ was a much bigger deal for him than it ever was for me, and that's an impression I get from American posters here.