What on earth is it like to live in New Zealand

[ApplesandOat]

Honestly been looking at videos etc on YouTube about New Zealand but I've decided to go on here and ask people who might have actually spent some time there.

Tell me all about it!

I had a colleague who went for a once in a lifetime holiday. They took a huge amount of leave, hired a camper van etc. when she came back she said it was indeed very beautiful, but dull. She said it was her greatest regret. She’s been all over the world as well, but thinks Europe just would have been so much more interesting.

My ex best mate lives there, she seems to have gone a bit mad. She is also married now to a controlling alpha male (I think this partly why she is an ex friend) which is so far away from what she once was.

Interesting. The UK online passport renewal system is based on the NZ one.

We have friends who lived there for five years and couldn't wait to come back to Europe. They never really took to it.

Beautiful but dull absolutely sums it up

British motorcycle gangs are entirely different from NZ gangs

Lived in Napier..the east coast of the North Island for 7 years.
Came back to the UK in 2013.
After the honeymoon period was over, I took a while to settle.
I loved the summers, lifestyle and generally laid back attitude. My boys were aged 4 and 11. My 4 year old went straight into kindergarten when he would have been starting school in the UK. When he started school in NZ at aged 5, the first couple of years was focused on learning through play, which we loved.
Lots of school outdoor activities. I once planned a trip back to the UK in June/July (NZ Winter) and braced myself to ask permission to take the kids out of school for three weeks. The headteacher said it was absolutely no problem at all as it was enriching for the kids to travel and see their families. I couldn't believe the laidback attitude.
I had an amazing group of friends. Lots of opportunities to meet people and make friends but only what I call surface friends. Lots of Brits there too, so I had a mix of Kiwis and Brits. Someone always has a bbq and everyone is welcome/invited whether they know you or not. (Just bring your own food and drink.)
DH and I both had very well paid jobs, yet we still found ourselves penny pinching. The mindset is "make do and mend" as the cost of living is high. I went to NZ not really knowing how to cook properly but I soon learned how to cook from scratch and was soon making my own bread and scones etc. There isn't much in the way of convenience foods, so was cooking with much fresher and healthier produce, buying my fruit and veggies from Veggie Shops.
Its very outdoory and sporty and community spirited. The day we moved in our house, a neighbour came around with a home made cottage pie and some "home baking" which is the norm.
Kiwis are extremely family orientated which is lovely but very hard when you are there with no family.
Domestic travel is very expensive and package holidays don't exist. Instead, it's camping or staying at a friend of a friend's "bach" ( holiday home)
Lots of Kiwis were leaving to emigrate to Australia where there are more jobs opportunities and cost of living not as high (or it wasnt) which I found unsettling.
My DH would still be there if it wasn't for me as I never properly settled. I just missed my family so much. My parents came out to visit twice, but the flights became too much for them as they got older. I did at times feel I was living at the arse end of the world, as it felt quite behind in so many ways, but bizarrely banking was very advanced.
There were two massive earthquakes while we were living there (Christchurch and Gisborne) and the Tsunami in Samoa. Napier, where we lived was completely destroyed by an Earthquake years ago, so I was terrified of every single tremor and rumble which we felt very regularly. Despite all that, if I had no surviving family left, I would probably be tempted to go back. It's a chapter of my life I look back fondly on.

I have friends there who love it but complain about how far it is from almost anywhere.

they also miss chat/news coverage of what goes on in the rest of the world (though the internet obviously helps with this). What I mean is the nightly news on Telly (and general conversation) tends to focus on pretty trivial and local stuff rather than important current affairs. Nobody is talking about Ukraine or trump or Putin and rather is concerned about the Chinese restaurant across the street closing. Just not in the thick of global affairs like we are.

My main impression was that everyone goes to bed around 9pm. It felt weird.

"NZ is great at implementing change and trying out new things and has a lot less bureaucracy."

It is and companies and the govt often try out new technologies in NZ - I think its a good size population with an excellent infrastructure to run stuff and see what happens. It also embraced neo-liberalism very rigoriously.

NZ was using "chip and pin" as its called in the UK (cute) decades before UK.

NZ banking was much more advanced than UK, but also I got charged a lot by the banks simply to have and operate an account - not sure if that is still the situation. Come to UK and once you managed to get a bank account (difficult) it was free to have most bank accounts (unless you choose to pay for extras) - the benefit of an economy of scale I guess.

I've renewed both UK & NZ passports recently - very similar systems.
Mind you NZ asked me to prove my 2nd daughter wasn't born via surrogacy in that process - which apart from anything else I found insulting and upsetting. Its more diffcult that you might think to prove you birthed a child - birth certificate is not proof. I've never had any medical records/paperwork showing I gave birth. I can't imagine the UK would ever do this but who knows.

yes this random kiwi simply "felt" all the crime perpetrated against her.
As did friends and family.
Guess we are just unlucky in our feelings.

I'll tell everyone we can prevent all the crime we are imagining happening to us in NZ by working on our feelings shall I?

Its record on violence and abuse to children and babies is like nothing I have ever seen before. Utterly horrendous.

Yes I noticed that. Everyone seemed to go to bed earlier, but get up in the mornings much earlier. Even at weekends.

"domestic violence" aka "family violence" (ie male violence to women & children) feelings crime is the highest in the OECD and this hasn't changed in my lifetime - despite 50% of current MP's being female & all the female PM's etc. Obviously violence is on the perpetrators but the fact all these strong female leaders have made no impact whasoever on the lives of NZ women, in the face of so much violence, irks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_violence_in_New_Zealand

You gotta get up early to play rugby or cricket 😁

You seem oblivious to the difference between random people’s experiences and averages.
YOU have sadly been very very unlucky but the facts are, NZ ranks as one of the safest countries in the world regardless of what you ‘feel’.

it’s safer than the vast majority if the world as shown by global measures. That doesn’t mean there is no crime. And sadly for you, it all seemed to have found you and your friends.

And to catch the garage sales with the sausage sizzle! 😆

DH has a couple of family members out there. Hugely expensive. If you smoke, consider giving up now. Scenery is beyond beautiful. If you’re outdoorsy, you’ll have an amazing time. Did you know that they do courses to teach your dogs to leave Kiwi birds alone, and once they’ve passed, they can go places other dogs can’t?

They do have their problems. https://www.state.gov/reports/2023-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/new-zealand/ The 2024 report isn’t out yet.

It is certainly very high compared to other developed countries, and that's a terrible thing.

The rate is skewed by gang communities and families. The gangs are very violent, and predominate in certain economically and ethnically marginalized groups. Outside those groups I imagine rates of domestic abuse is the same as the UK. You could say that for the last 60 years the UK has had a major problem with domestic terrorism but that wouldn't convey the true situation.

The way the world is I am very very happy to be “at the arse end of nowhere”
😂😂
I was born in the UK but have lived in NZ since aged 9.
i travel back to UK regularly.
NZ has its issues .. the current government is appalling.
it is an amazingly beautiful country… you can be on the beach and warm and there is snow on the mountains behind.
There is a sense of who we are and an embracing of Māori culture which adds to our identity.
When a terrorist attack occurred targeting the Muslim community people came together.
i live of 15 acres in a rural part of the country, 10 mins from nearest town and 40 mins nearest city. We have an acre of garden. It is worth less than a 1 bedroom flat in the south east UK.
Tomorrow night I am going to a concert in town.. NZSO is world class.
i am very happy… and would be happier if we got rid this government!

I don't smoke

My husband is a kiwi. He has lived in the UK for over 50 years. We have gone back 3 times. It is a beautiful country. I say every Brit should visit. It’s a kind of adverse mirror image. People are really nice, laid back. With a population of 5 million what’s there not to like. North island is more cosmopolitan, South Island more rural. I really like NZ and Kiwi’s, it just so far away. If I did not have family here I would go and live there. My husband, despite missing NZ and his family, still says he could never live there, he says he left because of the lack of culture compared to Europe. He is a total Europhile.

My first boyfriend emigrated there. I think this was a pretty smart move given how the world turned out.

I couldn't leave buzzy, vibrant Europe with all its faults for anything

Population of NZ is 5 million + . Sounds bliss compared to this overcrowded place. So not really comparing like with like, and with heating costs so high in the uk I imagine a lot of houses are cold in winter. I imagine they don’t have a ready supply of gas in NZ so have to ship oil and gas all the way out there so it’s expensive.

I was just about to say the same thing. I haven't heard anyone talk about "the motherland" since my grandmother, and she would be over 120 by now!! 😂😂

Where do people get this absolute rubbish from? If we were all to be "extremely guarded" against anyone we perceive as "foreign" we would be spending our whole life being "guarded". Where I live, a small rural town, there are people from every corner of the world, including many refugees from Afghanistan, and we all get along just fine.

I take it you've never spent time in Canterbury 😂