[noobie]

I'm curious whether some of the little things I'd like to get away from here in the states are also problems in NZ.

* Noise. Noise pollution is truly bad. We have people who drive down the streets in $3,000 cars that have $7,000 stereos installed in them and pump out bass you can literally hear blocks away. Motorcycles with their mufflers intentionally removed to make them sound "cool." People who leave their dogs outside all day and they bark for hours and hours on end. Every single store you go into will have music playing. One of our local booksellers (a chain) always has such obnoxious, loud music playing that I can't concentrate on reading!

* Selfishness. A lot of the popular marketing compaigns over the past few years have focused on "you deserve it" and "it's all about you." Heck, even the Army's slogan right now is "An Army of One" (and with their recruitment numbers, that's not too far off the mark). A lot of people have an attitude of "I don't care if this inconveniences you, because I want to do it." This may just be human nature. ;)

* Sprawl. Everywhere you look it's a new Wal-Mart or monstrous houses all packed close together. We have a housing development a few miles away with huge houses on it. One of them was over 5,000 square feet and was on a .4 acre lot, selling for $1,145,000US. .4 Acres! This is not at all unusual.

Of course the really important things that are affecting my decision to move are politics, religion, healthcare, etc. But some of these other things affect quality of life as well.

[StevieD]

Probably the same things as you have in the US noobie - but the bits such as loud car stereos and noisy cars/hoons are a thing that NZ has in abundance - over to you NZ members!!

[Avalon]

Noise:

Just wait till you hear the hoons :nice1 Once away from thier noise however - cant say its been that bad really. Mind you - its fair to say that Im not luikely to hear much noise here - excapt a few cows. One thing though - due to the flimsy way houses are built - you may find noise in the home to be more a problem than you are used to.

Dont tend to get noise in shops though, and bookshops here arent for reading in anyway.

The biggest noise hassle imho: bl**dy tc adverts. They litterally scream at you :mad:

Selfishness:

Havent particulaly noticed this. Apart from on the road - yes - they do own it - and tough if you are in the way!

Sprawl -

Not yet - but I can see it coming.

[jess]

This doesn't answer the ?, but Noobie, I was just talking with a friend about how every other US commercial says something about deserving the product. There are the taglines 'you deserve a break today' and 'because you're worth it', and tons more. A trend to make consumerism even more blatantly tied to feelings of self worth. And it also reinforces the idea that we Americans should be able to have everything and have it cheap. People must like to hear it or they wouldn't market that way. ...Anyway had to pipe up that I know exactly what you mean!

Rant over. :o

J

[sweetpea]

Haven't experienced the noise, and have found that most people I run into are amazingly selfless, but sprawl -- Palmerston North has sprawl. Subdivisions being put up at the periphery and then the country being divided into lifestyle blocks. Granted, I live in the country and I'm only 10k or so from town, but... it feels like its coming.

There's still lots and lots of space, though.

If you're not a big box fan, well,... you won't share my fondness for the Warehouse, where a Kiwi can buy anything s/he needs up to and including gumboots (I went native and bought a pair yesterday). Big box stores seem quite well established, although they're generally not US names you'll know.

HTH,

Laura

[Moorf]

Hi Noobie

Noise - in town it can get very noisy with the aforementioned hoons (my personal pet hate!) and their screeching of tyres (how do they afford to leave so much rubber on the road?), their loud exhausts, stupid turbo noise making thingys and thumping bass. Thankfully, out in the sticks, you do still get the odd one but they're usually passing your property at 120km/h so it's a quick hit and then silence returns (that "rural" silence of baa-ing, mowing, moo-ing and a humungous John Deere combine-harvester in the distance!).

Noise and dogs - one other little annoyance, and I do tend to tune into it so I might well be more sensitive, is barking dogs. In fact, we were warned off some of the more densely populated rural areas such as harbourside and outlying places, as dogs are left outside all day whilst owners are at work and there's alot of barking. I noticed this in Chch, although it was not an annoyance in terms of noise levels, more that I don't see the point of having a dog if it's tied up outside all day.... I'm a dog softie... :o ... and yes, if we do have to leave ours she has the run of the house and I panic if she's alone for more than 4 hrs.

Noise and books - unfortunately I haven't come across a bookstore in which I can sit and read. I use the libraries for that. And you'll find that, at least in Chch, that many of the newer ones have cafes in them along with kids gaming areas and they are not the quiet libraries as per those in the UK.

Selfishness - not something I'd like to generalise about, and definitely not something that has come to the fore in my experience.

Sprawl - again, hard to comment as we haven't been here long enough to see a difference. Having said that, locals are very much up in arms in certain areas where huge amounts of land are being sectioned - many of them will tell you about the suburbs of Chch now and how they were "rural" areas 10 yrs ago and that Chch is sprawling out of control. Certainly, in the small rural town closest to us (about 11km away), the locals are pee'd off because yet another small "estate" is springing up... so yes, "sprawl" has certainly reached NZ - but with all us immigrants coming in and deciding we want to build a nice new house in a nice new section with nice new central heating and mod-cons of home then they do have to build them somewhere :D "Sprawl" was one of my pet hates from back in the UK - we lived in a tiny hamlet of a few houses, in a rural area, and suddenly we find a developer wants to buy up all the land and put in an estate of ghastly red brick, fake Victorian bay-windowed detached 5 bed, double garage monstrosities in a village of a few crofters cottages and "individual" properties... bah... don't get me started. One of the "better" aspects of sprawl here, in my opinion, is that at least the houses are all different - unlike the awful Barratt estates etc in the UK...

[lisa]

NZ has all of those things, it's just that with such a small population density (depending on where you are) they are not always as obvious.

[noobie]

Thanks for the comments. I guess one can't have everything. :)

[veronica]

[Of course the really important things that are affecting my decision to move are politics, religion, healthcare, etc. But some of these other things affect quality of life as well.[/QUOTE]

these things and their attendant problems are here too you know.

[jess]

these things and their attendant problems are here too you know.

Yes, though coming from the US, they are very different political, healthcare and religious issues, so there is still a big change taking place. Sort of trading for problems I would rather deal with.

[Diny]

NZ has all of those things, it's just that with such a small population density (depending on where you are) they are not always as obvious.

Totally agree !!!!! Whatever problems you get elsewhere in the world you will find them ALL alive and kicking here in NZ. It's inhabited by the human race after all.

Diny

[jen]

Yes, though coming from the US, they are very different political, healthcare and religious issues, so there is still a big change taking place. Sort of trading for problems I would rather deal with.


I really like the way you put that, Jess.

I'm not expecting there won't be problems with all of the above issues in NZ, but I am pretty confident that New Zealand is not going to invade another country and spend themselves into debt for the next generation to install a new government there, and that if I lose my job in New Zealand I will not also lose my medical coverage unless I pay huge insurance premiums - which makes a couple improvements over the US (just in my opinion of course).

[Howie]

Noise - Yes

Selfishness - No

Sprawl - Smaller houses, higher density, but yes still sprawling in Auckland.