Wales to New Zealand: 2013

Sunday 30 June 2013

Part 22 - 20 things you have to love about New Zealand

When you are emigrating to a new country it's really important to do a fair bit of research about the country you're moving to...not only so that you know what you're letting yourself in for but also to limit the 'settling in' period - it's not such a shock to the system.

I was a bit addicted to the different expats forums prior to moving (namely http://britishexpats.com/forum/ and http://www.enz.org/forum/ and http://www.expatforum.com/expats/new-zealand-expat-forum-expats-living-new-zealand) and they provided a plethora of information which was really useful both during the information gathering and visa application stages as well as during the transition geographically and later on when settling in.

What I am hoping to achieve with this post is to give you some insight into living in New Zealand (specifically Invercargill & Auckland) and some of the things that stood out for me...based on my previous 29 years living in Wales, UK.

There's nothing worse than people constantly complaining about what they miss about not living in their home country anymore (although we're all slightly guilty of it) so please don't think I am doing that...it's just my insight into the things I have come to know and love about my new home country and more specifically, the Kiwi's who I have met.

So here they are: 20 things you have to love about New Zealanders:

No one crosses the road without the little green man telling them that it's ok to cross. This is understandable to some degree in a busy city like Auckland, but I witnessed the very same thing in Invercargill and it's the same in Auckland on tiny roads which are clearly visible. You even get a countdown after the green man, saying how long you have left to cross. Everyone pushes the button to cross and waits to be told before they do. Even the dogs here know the sound of the beep and know they can cross the road. If you feel like risking life and limb by crossing without the green man then everyone watches you...I'm sure they are admiring the courage and rooting for the individual to make it across but you feel like an outsider doing it. I now wait for the green man every time...I feel like the kiwis know something I don't.
The language is quite old fashioned. I have never before used the words 'stockings' to indicate 'tights', 'slips' and 'singlets' to indicate undergarments, 'pants' for trousers, 'lollies' for sweets, I have never owned a 'pantry' (I've always just had kitchen cupboards) - and yet these are now in my everyday vocabulary. In fact I didn't even own a slip until very recently and yet it's a staple piece of clothing here to wear under your dresses.
We use truly seasonal fruit and veg. In the UK we were used to getting any fruit and veg required at any time of the year for the same price month in, month out. Yet here we have seasonal veg, seasonal prices. You can still buy a telegraph cucumber in winter but you'll pay almost $5 for it. It has made me so much more interested in using different veggies that I hadn't even considered before.
People talk about it being 'freezing' in winter. When we lived in Invercargill we had a flurry of snow and hail and it was pretty cold (we emigrated from a severe UK winter to a pretty cold Invers winter). Since living in Auckland I have gone soft...as have most of the people around me. So far I think the lowest temperature we have had this winter has been 9 degrees (we may have had one day last month where it was 5 degrees in the morning) but it's usually about 16 / 17 degrees by the afternoon - yet I am guilty of saying how 'freezing cold' it is! The other evening I had to pop out in the car at about 7pm on a Saturday night and I was really feeling the cold; checked the outside temperature gauge on the car and it was actually 16 degrees. That was the same night I got my flannelette (there's another old fashioned word for you) winter pjs out of the closet ready for winter.
They say 'no' to Starbucks. This is a bit of a generalisation but I don't know anyone here who would choose to go to Starbucks over one of the local coffee shops (of which there are plenty!) The coffee here is damn good and it's no thanks to Starbucks.
We officially use UK English here in NZ to spell words (like colour, flavour, etc) and yet the pronunciation of many words is in US English (eg garaaage as opposed to garage, darta as opposed to data, etc)
The bars get away with charging insane prices for alcoholic drinks and no one complains. In fact, there is a British bar in Auckland CBD called The Spitting Feathers and they have extremely cheap drinks and great meal deals (Wednesday night = steak night, a sirloin steak and real chips with 2 pints or 2 glasses of wine or 3 bottles of beer for $20) and they were banned by Auckland Council for advertising their drink prices on FaceBook because 'they're not competitive' - basically other local bars had complained because they couldn't compete on price. They just ended up being very creative with their advertising and putting up a picture of Heineken bottles with an image of 3 male deer next to it...3 bucks for Heineken. They are back advertising freely again now so I assume it was overturned.
Auckland is a truly multicultural city...yet the amount of tabloid style racism or multicultural angst I have come across is nil. I'm not saying it doesn't exist, I'm saying I've never heard it. The UK could learn a lot about living happily alongside other nations from New Zealanders.
No one is in a hurry. This is completely awesome...unless you are in a hurry. This is probably best illustrated when you're waiting behind someone at a red traffic light...the light turns green and for a few seconds nothing happens - they don't have their foot on the accelerator waiting for it to turn green so that they can speed off...people just take their time.
The men are very gentleman-like. In the office I work in we need to get into lifts to get to the relevant floor that we work on and I noticed recently that the men usually hold back and wait for the women to get into and out of the lifts before they do. I was heading to work the other morning and I walked through the mall underneath our building...as I was about to get onto the escalator there were 2 school boys heading towards it as well from another direction - I didn't even notice them until one made a point of waiting until I had got onto the escalator before he did. His friend had already hopped on - so it's not the same with everyone but it struck me that it was quite beyond his years to have done that. They were only about 15. I'm not one of those people who think that women should necessarily go first and I find it quite awkward to go in front of someone who was waiting before me (male or female)...that's the queuing Brit inside me...but it's quite endearing. This isn't to say that people aren't gentleman-like in the UK...it's just something I've noticed here.
New Zealanders pronounce 'e' as 'i'. This is purely an accent thing (and I am not one to talk on this subject!) but it has resulted in some comical misunderstandings...when simple terms like 'check in' become 'chicken', 'bed' becomes 'bid' and 'pen' becomes 'pin'. I won't even mention the confusing about going out on the deck in the summer...
We have loyalty cards for everything. In the UK we had loyalty cards for supermarkets, like Sainsbury's and Tesco where you earn points which eventually convert into a 'reward' voucher to spend in store. Well...this is on a whole new level - I have a loyalty card for Countdown (supermarket) and I use my FlyBuys card at New World (supermarket) and Z (petrol stations) but I have also been coerced into having loyalty cards for my favourite coffee shops (every 6th coffee is free), the Asian vegetarian shop (spend over $20 and you get a stamp...when you have 10 stamps you get $10 off a shop), fast food outlets like California Burrito (buy 5 burritos get your 6th free) and Pita Pit (like Subway but with filled pita breads...divine). People have huge wallets here and I think it's due to the amount of 'loyalty' cards they have...
There are 2 songs that you need to know to fit in at a sing song here, and the lyrics are questionable. You can learn them here (Dragon - Rain) and here (The Exponents - Why Does Love Do This To Me). We first heard these songs in a social club in Riverton and the whole crowd went insane singing at the tops of their lungs. So we made a point to find out what they were and learn them. Now I can be like a real Kiwi at a sing song.
What I previously understood to be a newsagents, is called a dairy here. Cute!
We have chips...and we have hot chips, and neither of these are what we know as real chips. So chips here are what I know as crisps and hot chips are kind of like chips you get in a chippy in the UK - except more often than not they are frozen. This is not a sneaky hidden thing...many of the chippies are proud that they use 'McCain' frozen chips and advertise it. Hence why we were so excited when we found real chips at The Spitting Feathers (still haven't found any curry sauce though)
Loads of the restaurants have BYOW (Bring Your Own Wine) and they charge a minimal corkage fee for you to drink it on the premises.
Everyone is willing to help. Maybe I have just been very lucky in the friends I made both in Southland and in Auckland, but it has struck me that everyone has time for everyone else. Nothing is too much trouble.
The 2nd of January is a public holiday...it's called 'Day after New Year's Day'. Need I say more?
They don't beat around the bush and have quite relaxed radio / TV regulations which allow for this. The first time I heard swearing on the radio here was in the morning - on the way to work, I was very surprised - but glad that they didn't feel the need to put crazy rules on everything. Let the people decide what they want to listen to. I was watching the news the other week - and they were showing the queen at one of the BBC Live Lounge shows...and it all looked pretty awkward...the NZ commentator said "the queen enjoyed this not at all awkward concert at the BBC' - say it like it is.
We celebrate mid-winter Christmas. In fact we had a mid winter Christmas with friends last night - it's winter so it feels festive and we got together for a nice roast and a few glasses of bubbles. We pulled crackers, listened to Christmas songs and watched Elf. It's July. I questioned the whole mid-winter Christmas thing when we lived down south and was told that 'it feels Christmassy in winter so we have another celebration then' which baffled me even more...it's Christmas at summertime here so how has it come to 'feel Christmassy' when it's cold? I guess it's because the population is largely NZ Europeans so their roots are in the northern hemisphere. Anyway, I'm not complaining, I heart Christmas so I am more than happy to have 2.

I am not saying that New Zealand is without it's issues but this should provide you with a snippet of the things that I absolutely adore about my new home. I hope one day you'll come and visit and experience all of these things for yourself.

Saturday 30 March 2013

Part 21 – Easter: time to relax and recuperate

Well hello my lovelies! I know it has been far far too long … I blame my Kindle (more on that later).

I'm going to start way back at Halloween and give you a little taster of what that's like for us here in New Zealand. I absolutely love Halloween and in the UK would spend a wee while in the lead up to it preparing my pumpkins and stocking up on sweets for the kiddies – this all stems from when I lived with my mum, who used to go all out decorating the porch with fake spider webs and a spooky pumpkin lantern on a stool greeting the kids (and occasionally adults dressed up scarily too!)

It's somewhat different here – the Kiwis haven't hugely adopted the trick or treat lifestyle and in 2011 we didn't have many trick or treaters at all – maybe 2 (I can't really remember). But 2012 shocked me – we had around 18 callers! Luckily I had stocked up on enough sweets ('lollies' as they're called here) to cater for everyone and the costumes were fab.

Because it's coming into summer for us when Halloween happens the nights are very light so pumpkins don't have the same effect...they're also out of season so quite expensive to waste! Needless to say my pumpkins have stopped...but I do eat them all the time now so that more than makes up for it!as I would never have dreamt to eat pumpkin in the UK!

Change isn't necessarily a bad thing though – I also don't have any fear of being egged over Halloween here...I remember in the UK you would be less likely to pop to Asda on Halloween night for fear of the gangs of kids deciding you were an easy target but I have gladly seen no evidence of that malice here.

My pumpkins in the UK - 2010

Witch pumpkin - 2009

Wolf pumpkin - 2009

Halloween was followed by bonfire night – you can only legally buy fireworks in New Zealand for 3 days of the year (prior to bonfire night) and during those 3 days a number of little stalls pop up on the sides of the road and in shopping centres where you can purchase to your heart's content.

As we live on the North Shore and have pretty awesome views over the city we decided to just drive up the road and watch from afar, it was lovely. They don't seem to do bonfires here though – just the fireworks (not that I have seen anyway).

Not long after bonfire night the OH (Other Half) and I had a free weekend and made a last minute decision to go to the theatre. One of my favourite films is Little Shop of Horrors (the Rick Moranis spoof version...not the black comedy) and it Auckland Theatre Company were performing it...and there were 2 seats left for that very night...perfect! When we got there were assumed it must have been a cancellation as our seats were on the very front row at the side of the stage...our feet were literally on the stage! It was an awesome show and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. We came out of the theatre into the bar area and there were canapes being served and drinks lined up along the bar...turns out it was the opening night and we were free to help ourselves! That was a turn up for the books! The cast were around enjoying a drink with family & friends and the director got up to make a speech...it was all very fun and a very random evening! You can read a review of it here.

November was busy in work as I had 80 or so summer interns starting and I look after their initial induction day – but they're a great, fun group to work with!

In November we also had a total eclipse of the sun in new Zealand for the first time in 25 years – we were all watching it out of the window in work but it was super bright! The day was quite overcast but I managed to get a better picture through the cloud is it gave some respite from the glare.

Auckland, New Zealand - total eclipse of the sun November 2012

November usually signals the start of the cruise liners too – and we have many of those throughout the summer season. I have a pretty good view of the docked cruise liners from my kitchen in work.

View from the kitchen in work - often accommodating cruise liners

December starts with the unofficial beginning of summer – Crates with Mates day. The idea is that you get together with your mates and all bring a crate of beer to celebrate the start of hopefully an amazing summer! Quite a nice start to a season I think (although I'd prefer a nice NZ sauv...)

In December we headed down to Whangamata for the weekend as we had been invited to a friend's 60^th birthday celebrations. The theme? Americana! So I decided to dress up as Sandy from Grease and the OH went as Barack Obama (what a couple eh?!) Christine (whose birthday it was) and her husband John had arranged to book up all of the baches around theirs and a load of us headed down for a weekend of celebrating.

We got there on the Friday and settled in with a few drinks then on the Saturday the OH and I headed to the beach for breakfast and coffee before we all reconvened at Christine & John's for the activity they had planned for all of us. Basically it was a treasure hunt around the local town – we got into groups of 4-6...one person needed a camera and one needed to drive – the others were to complete the tasks laid out. We were given our packs and sent on our way! The pack contained an American flag hat, a list of things we needed to collect (think pine cone, staple, flexy straw), a map of the local area and a list of the activities and photographs needed to complete the task...things like leap frogging over a stranger, pictures with strangers on a roundabout, etc etc. It was all great fun!

The activity ended with us all having to go to a local pharmacy which had already been given the heads up that we were going to be arriving and printing out our photographs and returning to John & Christine's bach to be judged.

The group are quite a competitive lot and this was apparent when the judging was announced! We all had to agree that the creativity of the winners was unparalleled and we celebrated with a few drinks (and a nap in my case!)

Saturday night was party time and we all got dressed up and had food and drinks into the early hours. All in all it was an awesome weekend. HUGE thanks to John & Christine for the invite and for such a fabulous time.

Whangamata beach

Christmas crept up and before we knew it we were wrapping up in work and preparing for the festive season (my office closes down for 3 weeks over Christmas). I had pretty bad toothache coming up to Christmas and ended up having a root canal a few days before Christmas day which made it all better! Aside from that Christmas was awesome.

It usually takes a wee while to wind down after work and ease into the Christmas holidays but this year we started our holiday by driving up to Paihia in the Bay of Islands after the last day of work and spent 2 glorious nights in a hotel up there. The result? Instant relaxation! I hadn't been there since we went for Valentine's day when we were here on holiday in 2010 so it is filled with happy memories for me and this trip was no different.

Lazing by the pool in Paihia

We had been invited to celebrate Christmas day with the kiwi family (like last year) but hadn't had a Christmas just the 2 of us since 2008 so decided to do just that. We awoke on Christmas day, had eggs benedict for brunch then headed for a walk along Takapuna beach while dinner was cooking. The day was quite overcast so it was perfect for a roast! Well, it was still very warm but no blazing sunshine so a roast seemed do-able!

My main gift from the OH was a Kindle. I absolutely love reading and have never really looked into getting one for myself – I love cracking the spine of a book, it's all part of the enjoyment. However, now that I have a Kindle I absolutely love it. Books are quite expensive here in NZ (you don't get the great deals you get in Asda!) and the Kindle allows be to indulge in my passion for reading without costing me a small fortune! For fear of sounding like a Kindle advert – it's just so convenient to take on the bus to read on the way to and from work and I head out at lunchtime to lounge in the sunshine and catch up on my latest characters. I have just checked my archive and I have read 28 books since Christmas day (see, I am a real book worm!).

A festive Sky Tower

Festive Lily

Mmm ... Christmas dinner

For New Year we also decided to have a quiet one and invited Ange & John over for a nice relaxing evening of bubbles, beer and games! At midnight we took a walk up the road and watched the fireworks from the Sky Tower and across the city, then headed back home to teach Ange & John how to play Oh, Hell (cards) and finally called it a night at around 4am!

New Year's Day the OH and I brushed off the cobwebs with a couple of hours out cycling in Long Bay on the craziest mountain bike track I have ever been on...some of the hills were so steep I was far to scared to ride down them and had to get off my bike and run down! We did find a nudist beach though which I found rather amusing (childish, I know!)

At the top of a scary hill

The OH taking on a hill like a pro'

Beautiful views

The OH was working in between the public holidays over Christmas but I finally was on leave until 14 January – it's pretty quiet all around Auckland until the kids go back to school in February (after their summer holidays) as everyone heads North for the summer.

During the Christmas break our landlady told us that she was selling her house (next door to us) and going travelling to the UK and Europe so we consequently decided to move house. We knew we were going to move in 2013 anyway and thought it would be good for her to have secure tenants in the unit while she was away so we just brought our plans forward. We just needed more space. I may have mentioned previously how crazy the housing market is here (both buying and renting) so apologies if I am repeating myself! When you are looking to rent a place here you really need to get stuck into it because the houses are snapped up within hours.

I started looking while on Christmas break and found a few places which were gone before I'd had chance to even look at them but managed to squeeze in a few viewings. We found a place just up the road from the unit we were living in and it had just been listed so I arranged to view it at 4pm that same day and by the next day we had sent in our application forms to live there (yep, you apply to rent and they choose who they think is the most suitable tenant) and by the following morning we had it secured. Within 3 weeks we were moved in to our new 4 bedroom house (well...3 beds and an office space really) with a spacious garden and decking area. Perfect!

Lily has settled in quickly and loves all the space she has to roam around, and she didn't go missing (bonus!)

Lily

January saw Auckland Anniversary weekend when we headed to the Auckland Seafood Festival with Ange & John and had a great time eating seafood, drinking bubbles and listening to music. It was a great day out and I managed to taste my first ever oyster at teh Bollinger & oyster stall! The Bollinger was lovely, the oyster...not so much! To be fair it wasn't as slimy as I thought it would be but it just tasted of the Tabasco and vinegar which I put on it so I didn't really see the point. I may try them again somewhere else 'cause the OH loves them so I'd like to see if they grow on me!

Auckland Seafood Festival 2013

Mmm ... scallops!

Great music

Then Waitangi Day followed closely in early February – we spent the day at the beach and then headed home to discover that we were under tsunami watch as there had been an earthquake off the Cook Islands. We didn't have a tsunami thankfully.

February was crazy in work as we had our 90 or so graduates starting with us and again I look after their initial induction day – again, they're a good bunch of new joiners to work and interact with and a good day was had by all.

We also headed to Devonport food & wine festival in February with some fellow Welshies Clare & Ben. Great food, great wine, great company and topped of with music makes a fun day out! We also randomly met a guy who has lived in New Zealand for 10 years but is originally from Blackwood (where we lived before we emigrated) so it was good to chat to him and his wife – and their friend Scottish John!

Devonport Food & Wine Festival 2013

Throughout summer we also managed to get tickets to see Stephen Merchant live on his Hello Ladies tour - he was absolutely hilarious. For those of you who can't quite place him he co-wrote The Office with Ricky Gervais as well as Extras (which he also starred in). If you get chance - see him, he is funny!

Waiting for Stephen Merchant - yes the room did full up!

We have been to the Silo Cinema at Silo Park in Auckland a few times over the summer - it's a great Friday evening out. Basically there are tall silos at Silo Park and each Friday they project a film onto it - people head over there with pillows, duvets, bean bags, snacks and drinks and settle in for the night. They have food stalls which serve up some pretty tasty food (the Hungarian breads and clay oven cooked pizzas are personal faves!) and a couple of market stalls too.

We went to watch Top Gun there a few weeks ago and it was like being at the cinema with a HUGE group of naughty (but funny) people...they were swit swoo-ing and whistling when Tom Cruise was getting lucky with Kelly McGillis and singing along to the theme song Taky my Breath Away. It was great fun. We spent Valentine's Day there too as they were showing The Princess Bride (one of my favourite films from my childhood) and the OH had never seen it! It was a perfectly lovely evening.

Silo Park, Valentine's Day

In February we headed out to see Auckland Lantern Festival - it was a great reminder of how busy places outside of NZ can be! I don't think I've seen that many people in one place since I moved here...there were literally thousands of people looking at all of the amazing lanterns and the food stalls were swarming with people...it was quite difficult to get around and see what was on offer!

Auckland Lantern Festival 2013

So summer is now over for us and we are heading into autumn...you'd never know it though, we have had an absolutely outstanding summer (even according to the kiwis I know!) and the sun continues to shine – much to the dismay of the farmers who need the rain. We have been officially declared a drought zone due to the lack of rainfall. I am absolutely loving the weather but I do feel for the farmers and the animals who are out in the dried up baron lands.

In March we headed to Diamond Day at Ellerslie again (we went last year with the OH's parents and the kiwi family) and enjoyed dressing up to go to the races with friends Ange & John and Andy & Heni. It was a beautifully sunny day and a couple of people had wins which is always nice!

Diamond Day at Ellerslie

The day after Diamond Day I had signed up to run the Round the Bays fun run again along with around 70,000 other participants. I wasn't sure if I'd feel up to it after a day at the races but I got up and ran the 8.4km and even knocked 3 minutes off last year's time. You can't really be competitive with the run as so many people prevents it – you don't usually get to the start lines until around 5-10 minutes after the start gun has gone off and for the first 3kms or so you are ducking and diving between people to find some space. It's great fun though and all for a good cause. The OH declined running it this year, opting instead to have a coffee and sit in the sun on the decking!

I was able to spend a fab evening catching up with a friend who I used to work with in 2008 last month - Stacey - who was here with her work. It's so nice to see a friendly face from the UK. You always take for granted having lots of family & friends around and when you emigrate it becomes apparent how much you miss just being able to catch up with people as and when you feel like it!

One thing I must mention (it would be rude not to) is the amazing rugby match that Wales won on 16 March 2013 to secure the 6 Nations winners title again for the 2nd year running. They played a spectacular game against England (who were looking for a 6 Nations grand slam) and beat them 30 - 3! Simply amazing - well done Wales! Now I'm not a Daily Mail reader but you can read a pretty spot on account of it here and a more accurate moment by moment replay courtesy of the Guardian here.

A couple of weeks ago the OH went out on a stag do and I went on a hen do for friend and her fiancé who are getting married next weekend which was good fun. The stag do consisted of early morning golf (the OH sat that one out) then a day at the cricket, then drinks in town and the hens night was quite sophisticated starting out at a very nice Italian pizzeria , closely followed by drinks in town and ending with her dancing on a bar ... 'nuff said. So we are looking forward to our 1^st kiwi wedding next weekend – should be fun!

But first things first it's Easter weekend this weekend. Last night (good Friday) in the absence of family we had friends over for dinner and drinks – I managed to successfully cook a leg of lamb and potato salad followed by my very rich chocolate mousse. Ending the night at around 2am singing Delilah with guitar makes it a good night by my books!

We're out for dinner this evening with our fellow Welshies – heading to Tanuki's Cave in Auckland … awesome place, amazing food & great atmosphere!

Tomorrow I am hoping we'll get chance to catch up with a friend who is here on holiday with her husband and son. Also planning to head to the beach over the weekend for a nice stroll or two as next week is going to be a little hectic in work – I'm heading to 3 of the other offices to facilitate a programme in the space of 2 days so I am planning on resting and recuperating as much as possible over this long weekend.

Luckily, Easter in New Zealand means that you are forced to relax – none of the shops are open on Good Friday or Easter Sunday by law which I think is great. Coming from the UK where you can pretty much shop 24/7 (even Christmas Day sees some local shops open) it's lovely not to have that option available to you. The dairies and essentials are allowed to open but none of the big supermarkets are open and many of the bars close at midnight on Thursday before Good Friday and reopen on Tuesday morning. You are not allowed to buy alcohol anywhere on Good Friday or Easter Sunday.

So I am now going to head off and relax. I wish you all a happy, healthy, relaxing Easter … with a bucket load of chocolate thrown in for good measure.