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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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)
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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...
12. 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...
13. 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.
14. What I previously understood to be a newsagents, is called a dairy here. Cute!
15. 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)
16. 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.
17. 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.
18. The 2nd of January is a public holiday...it's called 'Day after New Year's Day'. Need I say more?
19. 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.
20. 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.