I thought I'd share this lovely email with you. It's from an ex-colleague of mine, whose daughter and family moved to NZ a couple of years ago. She goes over for a month every 2 years and I asked her for her honest opinion of life in NZ. Here is what she said: (it's rather long)
I spent a month in NZ- whole of Feb running into April. I have never been to South Island, and exclusively spent my time in Auckland and the Coromandel. So was there in good weather and daylight saving time. As I was with family, I probably had more of a “Kiwi” feel for the place – I was in guest houses only in the ‘Bay of Islands and Rotorua and in daugher’s sister in law’s holiday house in Whangamata. [sort of NZ Hermanus and as near to Aukland as H is to CT].
I think the bottom line – is not so much what one is going to, but what one is leaving behind. When one feels threatened, then it is time to leave.
Children are a responsibilility – and that very much embraces physical safety, reliable medical care, education availability of a certain standard, and job opportunities.
What scares me the most is the violent crime. Criminals are unchecked psychopaths, bent on unspeakable cruelty and horror, and they are watching……
But you knew that….
My eldest son and his wife and their kids have just come back from NZ. Visiting his sister but also checking out the possibilities. They go with my blessing, should they decide to go!
My NZ experience??......
Beautiful country and exquisite coastline. Small farms [picture-pretty] dotted around the immediate Auckland area.
Really good food. If you earn NZ$ meat, veges and fruit are inexpensive and are top grade and without blemish. [Fruit and Veg can hang their heads in shame]
Excellent multi-nationality restaurants and eating places. If you earn NZ$, these are good value. Most do a takeaway service. The food hall in central Auckland is AMAZING. Foreign dishes, plastic chairs and tablecloths, good vibe, speedy service, kiddie–friendly, and cooked while you wait. Lots of stir-fries. Cheap –so maybe you won’t have to cook every day!!
Nice street-cafes in Auckland and tourist-spots. The Kiwis do a good breakfast known as “the Works”. If SAs remember braai and chutney, then Kiwis will remember steak pies with mashed potato, all crispy-grilled, replacing the top crust.
Cooler weather. Because the islands are narrow the seaboard is near –therefore a milder climate than CT although basically on about the same latitude and same rainfall volume.. Can be damp. However, this means a good gardening climate. I suspect that it rains like hell in winter. Auckland has some pretty nifty gardening shops.
If you like fishing and watersports – this is the place to be. Almost everyone in Auckland seems to have a yacht/skiboat/whatever. There are yacht clubs all over the place. As the Kiwis have the Pacific [calm] on one side and the Tasman Sea [wicked] on the other – they have the option to paddle around or give it hell and live dangerously.
Housing is expensive, but then everyone is in the same situation- which reflects a bond to income ratio.
Houses are generally constructed of wood. Houses on a slope or split level will have a bricked lower level. NZ is a young country - oldest buildings are about 130 years old and Victorian. Many [really many] houses are ‘panhandled’ with subdivision of large but long plots.
As houses are of wood, and wood is a reliable, available and high-quality product, many owners extend by putting a chainsaw through their property and whacking on the extra space. [You do need approved plans] You can start small and add-on.
Public transport is very reliable. It can be slow. Busses run in a loop and if you are are on the tail end of the loop [although this destination is nearer than other stops] then you will take for ever to get there.
Auckland traffic is appalling. Many residential areas are accessed via bridges over the waterways/ marshy land. This means traffic choking on an inadequate system.
Late arrivals home, indirectly mean late housework -and longer daycare/ crèche/ running around in the streets for kids.
Cars, incidentally are cheap.These come in as second hand cars from Japan etc. as they upgrade yearly. [In the land of Honda and Subaru, they only drive new and therefore no second-hand market to speak of, so it goes to NZ]
Daycare for children is expensive!! I’m not sure whether schools have aftercare facilities. Many employers, [banks for example have a crèche on their premises.
Domestic workers are non existent. You can hire a cleaning service. They charge per hour and not per job. When your hourglass empties -they hit the road!
Small houses therefore have a certain virtue in that there is less to clean. You will probably cut your own grass as well.
TV is up to date and multi-channeled. I have an idea, it’s pay TV. Son in law is glued to the cooking channel and often runs out to buy a cut of meat he has viewed in a cooking ritual. This accounts for the 4ks I put on in 4 weeks! There are supermarkets [SPAR sizes], but also smaller owner butchers – rather like rural England. NZ has a rather English feel about it. Really huge malls [eg Century city] don’t exist.
Don’t drink the Kiwifruit equivalent of our Liquifruit. It looks like pond-slime and only tastes marginally better!
All services, operate efficiently. Post, busses, roads, policing, law, traffic, refuse [I seem to remember you have to sort or take to a central point], health, schools, university, environment You name it they do it efficiently.
Kiddie health and pensioners [not sure about the ‘in betweens’] are attended to at clinic level. You consult a doctor on an appointment time. Facilities are central to your area, and clean and tastefully decorated. Parking is immediate and ample. You will get a prescription and will have to find your own chemist. If your child has over a certain number of consultations, you will be carded to consult a paediatrician, or receive a high alert consultation. Grandson [perpetual snotty-nose] is a priority patient. I have been to the clinic with my daughter - Very user-friendly in 2006. Not exactly sure what the upfont charge is, if any??
NZ has 4 million+ inhabitants, Auckland is your largest city, with over a million. People are friendly and don’t mind the SAs. Local butchers have cottoned onto droė wors and biltong. Boerewors is becoming entrenched!
NZ at one time had an almost static population. Their young people left in droves for the high life in OZ. Repercussions were that the University was a non-viable institution. Numbers were implemented [keeps classes and education choices open] by accepting foreign students. Asiatics and the Chinese seize this opportunity and swell numbers at “Uni”. The backlash of this is that a 4 year course enabled such students to legitimately apply for residency. Brothers, sisters parents and aunties could follow. The Chinese are generally disliked in NZ. They remain a very closed and non-integrated community.
Society is very uniform in NZ. There really isn’t any mining or ‘empire-building’ resources in NZ. Most people are employed in the “system” – be it Administration, Health, Farming, Banking, Forestry. Entrepeneurship tends to be small -bakeries, shops guesthouses etc. It’s a self-contained society that pleasantly goes about it’s own well regulated business. At worst there may be some promotion angst, in larger institutions – employee pecking order! Welders and professors can expect to be mates and next-door neighbours. There is little, if any, social discrimination. Circles of friends appear to be large and well networked
Attitudes are ‘provincial’. Theatre and the arts are somewhat backwater, which has as much to do with the geographic isolation as it has to do with a lack of sophistication. Sophistication is sometimes the hallmark of a fiercely competitive society- which NZ is not.
Kiwis often take holidays in the East- Bali, Singapore etc, or fly Sydney, or fly islands such as Fidji. Travel-wise they have sophisticated and affordable options.
Young Kiwis flee NZ because they are regulated and bored! And traumatized South Africans move in and are thankful and appreciative of the order and peace, as they well should be!
Job-hopping seems to be quite common. There does not appear to be any discrimination regarding career changes, or trading to another branch in order to be nearer to one’s home.
Shacks and shack dwellers are UNKNOWN in NZ! Poorer communities live in houses that are reminiscent of the outskirts of our poorer white communities. These are often Maori communities. Maories are friendly and often multiply tattooed, incuding facial tattoos. Rotorua is the only city [+- Stellenbosch size] that has a >50% predominant Maori inhabitants. Maori is an optional language at school up to +- grade 9. [Heresay my taxi-driver!]
It may have since changed, but after 5 years in NZ one could automatically permanently enter OZ. Perth is the new Cape Town.
NZ is, in my opinion, a very viable option.
Things to consider:
Your house and property assets have a lowered market value in our current market. It is a ‘cut your losses’ decision. [It may also be a better price now than a year from now – who knows?]’ Consider how you will manage your existing pensions.
You will not have domestic help or own-house daycare. Domestic equality can loom as an unknown territory!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You will completely lose your identity. No one will know your history. They will never have heard of your workplace, your school, your residential area, your holiday resorts, your Church your favourite restaurants, The Argus, The Two Oceans, your malls, theatres………- the list is endless. It explains why expats cling to each other and have websites.
You will MOURNE the loss of your identity, before you will make room for the new. Traumatised people [the victims of violence, rape etc] transplant more easily, because their identity has already been ripped away by invasion of their being.
