[Jaywalker]

So, what are the best things about New Zealand? We're flying out a week Monday and are terrified! Give us a positivity boost!

Matt & Jack

[Jaywalker]

Blimey! That many?

:D

[Trigirl]

:)

All those kiwi types are asleep right now! I don't think those of us that haven't gone dare say anything (tempting fate and all that!)

[StevieD]

Yeah only Kiwis you find around will be foraging in the forests of Northland for grubs at this time mate!! :laugh Or insomniacs.... ;)

[gil]

Hi Matt and Jack,
You could always watch Billy Connolly's world tour of NZ :D
We're flying a week Saturday (18/11) so can't tell you much yet. Good luck. Where are you flying to/from?

Gil

[Trigirl]

Despite the tempting fate thing – my thoughts on the “good things” about NZ:

As a tourist I loved:
Breathtaking scenery
So many different things to do and see
Safe to travel alone
Lovely fresh food, widely available, not horribly expensive to eat out.
Easy to get around the whole country
Very friendly people

As a migrant I’m hoping for:
A house I can afford without an enormous mortgage
A short commute to work
Less crowded city
Access to better facilities for swimming and other sports
A more outdoors lifestyle
Some new and different experiences

[Ana&Steve]

So, what are the best things about New Zealand? We're flying out a week Monday and are terrified! Give us a positivity boost!

Matt & Jack
It's not the US?
/ Oh, I'm just joking
// a little :D
Seriously, though, it was just something in the air, for us. I hate to sound cheesy, but just visiting the countryside and breathing it all in, it made me feel more hopeful than I've felt in a long time. :o



You could always watch Billy Connolly's world tour of NZ
I am having a hard time tracking it down in the US :( will keep trying.
Ana

[Ana&Steve]

Despite the tempting fate thing – my thoughts on the “good things” about NZ:

As a tourist I loved:
Breathtaking scenery
So many different things to do and see
Safe to travel alone
Lovely fresh food, widely available, not horribly expensive to eat out.
Easy to get around the whole country
Very friendly people

As a migrant I’m hoping for:
A house I can afford without an enormous mortgage
A short commute to work
Less crowded city
Access to better facilities for swimming and other sports
A more outdoors lifestyle
Some new and different experiences

It's like you wrote down what was in my head! :)
Ana

[felix]

So, what are the best things about New Zealand? We're flying out a week Monday and are terrified! Give us a positivity boost!

Matt & Jack

Its soooooooooooo far removed from the UK//like in miles and general day to day living. Always somewhere to park, empty beaches...kids are kids for longer, highly child orientated place, apparently happy, unstressed folk, the wide open spaces, the lack of crowds, the space, an unbelievably diverse country, the space..did I mention space?? A house and neighbourhood that I would have to be a millionaire to own in the UK... endless, endless things to do for both kids and adults alike..the beach is only 40 mins away..mountains are the view from my back garden, we have a swimming pool, no traffic, hugely better quality of life both spiritually and fiscally, great food and wine, a slower pace of life..loadsa space, zero crime that impacts us daily as a family..(we were up to our eyes in it in Northampton) a country that still seems to have an identity, we as a country are not in bed with the US..we are small and independent..the only people are those that don't like NZ and all the others we beat at so many sports!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is no where else on earth that could give us everything we have here. Do you get the impression we like it here..19 months on and it just gets better!!

NZ truly rocks...especially when accompanied by an earthquake!! :raebanana

[wilson182]

As a migrant I’m hoping for:
A house I can afford without an enormous mortgage
A short commute to work
Less crowded city
Access to better facilities for swimming and other sports
A more outdoors lifestyle
Some new and different experiences


We gained all of the above and then some..............

[veronica]

you can still do some deals on a handshake. although I would always be wary

people are generally helpful. -one of the ski shop customers left his skis up the mountain. next rental we had going out volunteered to bring them back for us -
a friend left the petrol cap on the forecourt pump on the way to arthurs pass, realised it at their lunch stop and phoned the garage who sent it on to them with the next person who was going that way.

while life everywhere is complicated it does seem simpler here.

theres loads of other stuff too, otherwise we wouldn't all still be living here.

[KerryS]

As a city girl through and through I have found that I love the countryside! I'll never leave the city, but I'm fully enjoying having the countryside on my doorstep for me to escape to whenever I want.
I have easy access to the beach, and often go after work for a quick surf - especially now the nights are longer and the weather warmer.
I like the fact that I don't spend an hour a day commuting to work in heavy traffic. I get the train and 9 times out of 10 can be the only one in the carriage. Bliss compared to the London Underground!
I love the food - I don't miss Tesco, Sainsburys and the like with their vice like control over the purchasing habits of the British consumer. I buy more from local shops and cook from scratch all the time.
Eating out is fantastic - excellent restaurants and cafes on every corner.
Work is good for me too. I've progressed far beyond anything I would ever have hoped to achieve back in the UK. Maybe I'd just gone a bit stale and was jaded - here I have improved and moved up the career ladder in a very short space of time.

In a nutshell - a far better standard of living. Better employment, an increase in disposable income and more leisure time.

[gil]

I am having a hard time tracking it down in the US :( will keep trying.

Ana

Ana,
Have you tried Amazon.co.uk? Here are the links for the DVD itself and for shipping charges. Hope it isn't too costly!

Gil

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Billy-Connolly-World-Tour-Zealand/dp/B0002W1ADW/sr=11-1/qid=1163140771/ref=sr_11_1/026-4276586-5647649
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html/026-4276586-5647649?ie=UTF8&nodeId=11072991

[Diny]

So many good things. Can't say I echo everything I've read above - but what I find good others may not. At the end of the day, the 'success' of a new home will be down to you.

However, if I have to nominate one thing that really is wonderful (compared to the UK) and that's the local fish & chips. Believe me, they're to die for.

Hope you have a great time finding all your 'good' things.

Diny

[Ana&Steve]

Ana,
Have you tried Amazon.co.uk? Here are the links for the DVD itself and for shipping charges. Hope it isn't too costly!

Gil

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Billy-Connolly-World-Tour-Zealand/dp/B0002W1ADW/sr=11-1/qid=1163140771/ref=sr_11_1/026-4276586-5647649
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html/026-4276586-5647649?ie=UTF8&nodeId=11072991
Thanks Gil! I did check out AmazonUK, and the dvd won't play in our US player :( AmazonUS doesn't have it. I even checked ebay! I think no US distributors have picked it up and reformatted it yet. I've been keeping an eye out on the Indie channels, though. :)
Ana

[willsken]

Seriously, though, it was just something in the air, for us. I hate to sound cheesy, but just visiting the countryside and breathing it all in, it made me feel more hopeful than I've felt in a long time. :o

Ana

Ana this was how I felt 100%. For the first time in a long time I felt content being in the place I was in.

[Lupin]

Thanks Gil! I did check out AmazonUK, and the dvd won't play in our US player

I might be wrong (and I'm really short of time right now but will pop back) but I think there's a thread on this forum about making your DVD player multi region?

Anyone?

[Carol]

Most of it!


Seriously!

[sarahw]

Well, where do I start?!

Pretty much everything is good.

That people still talk to each other (strangers - I've had many a half-hour conversation with shop assistants, other customers and people I've never met before in shops, pubs, on the beach etc.)

The laid back attitude - I used to be quite uptight & focussed on getting things done & now, ahh well I'm way more relaxed!!

Morning (and afternoon) tea!! Yum!

Trust - I've said it before but there's a heck of a lot more trust out here than in other places - we came home with a v. expensive roof rack fitted to our car - at the shop we were told, nah, pay me when you come back to get the bike rack! The guy only had our mobile number!

The way you never get judged on what you have or haven't got - people aren't so materialistic (OK, in some parts of Auckland maybe). No one cares what you do for a living, or what car you drive or how much your house is worth - people judge you for you which is so refreshing - I remember people at home asking me what I did for a living to be driving the car I was driving etc. WHO CARES?! Its just a bit of flippin' metal!

The outdoor life - the way we can just nip down our road with the kayak & jump in the water!

Space!!

Empty beaches!!

Fishing for your dinner

Xmas holiday - being able to spend Xmas on the beach.

Being able to own a house with the most stunning view & feeling like we're on holiday every day where we live - sometimes having to pinch myself that this really is my life! (still 2 years on!)

Savignon Blanc - need I say any more?!

Friday afternoon drinks...

Being able to grow lemons in your front garden year-round!

Being able to do a job here that I could have only dreamed of doing in the UK.

I could go on all day!!!

[Moorf]

For the first time in a long time I felt content being in the place I was in.



That pretty much sums up how we feel living here - over two years down the road and you'd have to drag us kicking and screaming back to the UK. :)


The way you never get judged on what you have or haven't got - people aren't so materialistic (OK, in some parts of Auckland maybe). No one cares what you do for a living, or what car you drive or how much your house is worth - people judge you for you which is so refreshing - I remember people at home asking me what I did for a living to be driving the car I was driving etc. WHO CARES?! Its just a bit of flippin' metal!

Yes, yes, yes!!

Savignon Blanc - need I say any more?!


Pinot Gris for me!! :cheers

[Lisa&Andy]

Felix
What a great post so positive :cheers Just wondered where in NZ you are?

Lisa

[felix]

Felix
What a great post so positive :cheers Just wondered where in NZ you are?

Lisa

Sorry for the delay Lisa...been to the beach for the weekend............never did that in the UK!! We are in a place called Palmerston North...lower part of north Isle...as you can tell we adore it here and just spent the weekend with some friends we met on another forum in their awesome beachside desres!

Palmy does not have the beach but its only 40 mins away..in the Uk we only saw the beach once a year..honestly!!!!

Thank you for your kind words. Are you coming over???? :cheers

[MB]

Just in the order they occur to me as I sit here:

- cabbage trees in so many gardens and streets

- our wee cottage with its lemon tree slap in the middle of the front lawn, its chipped-lime drive, its exotic plants of whose names I am cheerfully ignorant, and its polished totara floors

- the Waikato's bright green-ness

- the quiet smiley-ness of so many of the folks walking on Queen Street

- corrugated iron rooves in green and red

- so many kids and teens barefoot

- calling corner shops "dairies"

- Maia out of Shortland Street

- workplaces having communal morning tea

- being given a small glass jug of fresh milk, along with our key, when we booked into a small-town hotel

- the hundreds of 'ordinary' Kiwis' autobiographies available in libraries and bookstores - teachers, nurses, vets, etc. - many of them written between the 1950s and 1980s

- in some ways, the fact that things are a little pricier here and the range of products not quite so wide... makes me think even harder before spending money!

- the people on the IRD phones being really prompt, efficient and polite (genuinely: I must have phoned them at least a dozen times in recent months, and they are always great)

- folks being informal and trusting (e.g., in our local pub, the staff telling me to hold onto my Eftpos card or cash until just before we leave, without knowing us as customers all that well and without taking our card details)

- our neighbours being such nice, helpful people

- small local libraries (see Puhoi or Leigh, for example)

- just looking at NZ hillisde vegetation as we pass in the car or on foot, with its ferns, cabbage trees and palms so integral to the patchwork

- Kiwis (the people and the birds)

- cheap ten-packs of alkaline batteries at The Warehouse, and the yellow-sticker CD super sales they have from time to time whereby you can get double sets of '70s and '80s hits, or back-catalogue recordings of The Magic Flute, for about $1.47. But that might well just be me.

- seeing goats chained by the roadside, pigs and cows in front gardens, and horses in so many small paddocks

- the word "paddock"

- the NZ accent. I know, I know. It's been said so often before, but I love it. (By the way, I've been amusing myself for the last ten minutes by laughing over the way that I originally -- and genuinely innocently -- phrased this item on my list. I was trying to say that I love the accent, and that the word "Yes" is usually pronounced "Yis", and that I find that lovely, especially when the pronunciation of that simple term emanates from the female. But the way I actually made that point, and almost posted it until I realized what I'd typed, was: "The NZ accent. Especially Kiwi girls, when they say 'yes' ". :laugh :laugh :laugh Oops.)

[sarahw]

Ha!!! Matt!!! You'll get in trouble!! Certainly made me smile! Great post - I love reading what everyone else loves about NZ as well.

Just to add a few more - Moorf you reminded me - Pinot Gris is great! and Pinot Noir!! Oh and Lindauer!! (I'm not an alcoholic - really!!)

I love the accent too - the way eggs is prounounced 'iggs' and I love all the little sayings such as 'good as gold', 'turn to custard', 'awesome' etc. they crack me up!

The fact that they really grill their politicians - nothing better than seeing a chat show host really giving the politicians a hard time!

Watching Tuis feeding in the flax in the garden.

Being able to see for miles & watch the weather (however awful or good) coming in. Instead of being crammed in a housing estate & hardly seeing any sky.

Skinks (so cute!!)

Banks that you go into & sit down at a desk opposite the cashier, with no glass or counter in front of you in the middle of Welly city! (OK so probably an armed robber's dream! but SOOOO refreshing).

Phoning companies & having the phone answered by a friendly sounding person (Kiwi) rather than a machine or some call centre in Asia who can't understand what you're saying!

[MB]

Ha!!! Matt!!! You'll get in trouble!! Certainly made me smile! Great post - I love reading what everyone else loves about NZ as well.


Sarah, :o . Even the way I was at pains to explain my near slip-up sounds a bit suspect, on reading it through. And it was such an innocent little point to make! But -- am I very noble or very stupid? -- I'll tell Mrs MB, confident that she'll laugh her socks off. Fear not.

Re. "good as gold", another one I have heard from a Kiwi is "good as wood".

Re. wines, and if we can extend the appreciation to include Oz wines 'cos of our budget right now, howzabout some of the Shiraz? Love it, but I mention Oz 'cos we are at or near the "bottom shelf" price range at the mo, and to be fair much of that is Australian. But I still love it!

[StevieD]

Matt - colourful descriptions as always - love it!! I love the accent, but will admit to being a bit confused at first. I don't know if it is age creeping up on me but I finding it diffucult to understand people with strong accents lately. Never really had the problem before. Got a south African dentist, so good practicing accent recognition with him.

Good to see the Oz wines are cheap, unlike UK where they tend to be expensive http://bestsmileys.com/drinking/2.gif

[Hannah]

New Plymouth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (sorry, had to add that in as I know Matt and Jacq are heading there......and they won't be disappointed).

I echo all that others have said, esp. the stuff about not being judged by your job, car etc. I drive a really old banger in the UK and remember at work once when I was going to a council meeting where we were hoping to haggle some money out of them for a joint health improvement project and my boss at the time suggested we go in her car as it wouldn't give the right impression if we turned up in my old heap. Not sure what impression we were trying to give but clearly my old fiesta wouldn't help us get cash out of the council coffers!!!!

I love the fact that you can walk out of the swimming pool in your togs and a towel wrapped round you and get into the car and no-one really cares.

I love hearing eggs pronounced as 'iggs' too! I started to think in a kiwi accent after living in NZ for a while.

I love the fact that Linda from the forum went to view a rental for us the other day and took photos....the agent left after a few mins and left Linda to it asking her to pull the door to after she'd finished taking her pics. She was left in the house alone with the present tenants expensive gear which included large flat screen plasma TV etc! "Just pull the door to when you go" - doesn't that just sum the place up. Fantastic!

I love blue sky too. And NZ has plenty of it in my experience!!!

[MB]

Good to see the Oz wines are cheap, unlike UK where they tend to be expensive http://bestsmileys.com/drinking/2.gif

Steve - I think that about the cheapest price for a supermarket bottle of wine is $5.99 if it's on sale. Those tend to be the big-name Oz wines, sometimes Oz-and-NZ wines (maybe even pure NZ wine from time to time? Not sure).
I have heard it said that many ordinary Kiwis drink boxed wine, which tends -- this is a very rough-and-ready guide -- to be about $15-25 for a 2L-3L box at the supermarket. Might try that soon.

Back to the bottles, and moving a bit above the bottom shelf: the prices seem to go up in quite steady increments of a dollar or two per bottle. If you can afford slightly more than the very cheapest, there seem to be some good bargains in the $8-18 range (i.e., there are worthwhile, and sometimes excellent, reductions in this price range, such as the Montana label range that has been more or less half price in Woolie's recently).

[jess]

I just felt like giving this thread a bump up, since we got some one sided attention in the press...

[Ana&Steve]

I just felt like giving this thread a bump up, since we got some one sided attention in the press...
Good idea! Call the paper and demand a balancing article! :D
Ana

[Avalon]

Ill even add a pov if you like:

We went to the "local" beach the other day. It was windy - but sunny. Blue skies, clean water and in 2 miles of clean sandy beach - we were the only ones on it. Just the two of us, walking for ages down an amazing beach with aquamarine sea.

I just cant get over it. And I cannot really put into words how amazing it is.

And its the same with most beaches we go to. Emptyness and a feeling of space. Just being able to sit down and watch the water and hear the waves.

I love it.

[lollypop]

[QUOTE=sarahw].

The way you never get judged on what you have or haven't got - people aren't so materialistic (OK, in some parts of Auckland maybe).

Not in the 'parts of Auckland' I live in.

[Island Jon]

It's not the US?

lol! Amen! :p

so many kids and teens barefoot

Wow, your whole post, but specially that, sounds so idyllic. I just can't imagine anyone walking barefoot over here. Probably get some horrible disease or something. And the fact you can grow lemons in the place tell me the climate is just perfect, such silly, little "comfort-zone" plants they are. Of course, like Hannah mentioned, I don't mind the blue sky either. Watching the changing weather is a hobby of mine, but give me clear, blue skies any day. Thanks for this post, guys, like the OP, I was having doubts myself, as I explored (online) the reality that is modern New Zealand, but seeing all the nice things you guys wrote makes me think the good far outweights the bad in this beautiful spot of the South Pacific. :D

[Sam B]

Just found this thread - what a life saver. Was having such a wobbly day and now feeling really happy and excited. Rose tinted specs back on...