Ramblings from NZ and Australia. All welcome in the midst of winter!

[dontevenblink]

So I know there are quite a few of us living here in NZ or Kiwis in the UK who might want to join in. Would anyone fancy a chat thread? I know there was one a few years ago but nothing I can see anymore.

I've been out here about 4 1/2 years, were on south island, now on north but not in either of the big cities. Weather is sunny but cold today. It was so cold last night our taps didnt run this morning properly until a load of orange gunk came out, we now have hot water again luckily. How do you stop the pipes from freezing without central heating? The house was empty for years before we got it and the pipes had burst apparently. Luckily we just rent it. I've been onto the landlord to ask for a heat pump as there is no heating apart from the plug in oil radiators we have and you can see your breath in the mornings! Did anyone else also have a crazy amount of rain this week? We've had nothing for ages so the farmers were all worrying so was definitely a good thing for them.

On the very plus side it has been mainly still hot here and this is the first week I haven't wanted to venture out with the dog (although obviously still have). Still love walking and seeing the beautiful surroundings we live in, never gets old.

It's that time of year again (where did the year go?!) when all the toy sale catalogues are coming out and dc have been flicking through debating already what they want for Christmas. I normally buy a few things to put away for Christmas so as to spread it out but not sure I can be bothered yet [lazy emoticon]. Plus they keep changing their minds... It normally feels christmassy too at this time of year which puts me in the mood, but not as much this year for some reason. Does anyone else do layby?

Anyone else want to join me in my kiwi ramblings?

That sounds amazing kiwis! We used to have a get together in Christchurch with expat friends (although nowhere near as big as yours!) but we haven't met enough peolw here yet

People not peolw, my autocorrect is crazy!

It is pretty special, most of us were in London doing our OE at the same time. We have added a few couples along the way too. We were the first to arrive in 2005 and the last to leave 7.5 years later. All but two of our families live in Auckland, I def don't have that many friends where we live! In fact in the 3.5 years we've lived here I've only made one set of really close friends and they moved to Christchurch in April (gah!) I think we got used to not having a lot of friends around when we lived in the UK and DH doesn't have the need to socialise like I do. I need to be more proactive but making friends in your 30s is hard!

Hi everyone, thanks for the replies and apologies for my tardy reply!

It's definitely a dream of mine and my mum to emigrate - mum has always wanted to go back, she grew up in NZ until 14yrs old and my grandfather now deceased is kiwi...

We've put together a rough itinerary for our trip of:

Land into Melbourne, book a driver to visit a few suburbs, particularly around good rated schools.

Drive Melbourne to Sydney in a camper an over 5 days staying in hotels on the way. Could anyone advise expanding on this perhaps? If we emigrated it a key wish is to live by the sea... I imagine a fairly small coastal community but close to a city with all amenities... Suggestions welcome!

Fly Sydney to Brisbane - visit Brisbane suburbs then spend time on Gold Coast & Sunshine Coast...

Then over to South Island followed by North Island, we still need to decide definite order for NZ and where we need to visit for definite...

I don't really want to emigrate anywhere too cold.. Where does that rule out?

Love this thread!

Totally agree kiwis it is really hard making friends in your 30s, I'm struggling. Made a few good ones in Christchurch but then we moved again... I've met one friend through walking the dog here I see most days and have a few people I see about, but no one I can just ring for coffee and cake like used to have. I've just joined a local choir which I'm hoping will help! I think you're right though, I think you do get used to being an independent unit and I'm quite introverted too so that probably doesn't help. Much easier for DH working with a group of people he likes every day.

newmamatobe generally the further north you go the warmer it is in NZ. Different areas have different climates, Christchurch has quite defined seasons, can be pretty cold in winter (though nothing like UK imo) and very hot in summer (up to low 30s). Is also pretty dry but is fairly windy. Dunedin is colder, although it was prettty warm when we were down at Christmas. Auckland is warmer but wetter (I'm sure people living there can advise more). I'm on east coast of north island and we have a climate thats supposed to be similar to Bordeaux and is pretty nice but might be a bit isolated for you if you want to be near a big city, we're 4 hours from Wellington, 5 from Auckland, although you can fly.

Hi everyone, another one from Melbourne. Originally from here but left when I was 8, lived in Italy, Canada and the last 5 years in the UK.

I'm freeeeezing at the moment, our heating is hopeless!!!!! DH and I are going to move to Brisbane next year. I love seasons too, but the older I get the warmer I want to be!!

I've lived in NZ too, and it's just so beautiful. I remember the Bay of Islands, Lake Taupo, Auckland, Queenstown (these are childhood memories, but they've never left me).

It's nice to be able to chat to people in the same time zone and season!!

I must admit at rolling my eyes quite a lot when I read people on here saying' I could never live in Australia, I'd miss the seasons so much', like its 40 degrees all your round all over Australia. I read a think once that the Noongar indigenous people from SW Australia actually have six seasons instead of four, which seems pretty spot on to me!

Yy glasto I read that too. Def makes sense in the south west. We have a small farm in Bridgetown so are here quite a bit. In Perth we are east near Guildford. Absolutely love it but really struggled for the first year. No friends, unfriendly school (different suburb to where we are now), felt like we lived in the last stop before the end of the world.

Now we're in The new house it's been a massive change. Very friendly school, making friends, enjoying it, love Perth... It's all slotting in to place.

dont I'm so glad the lemons are going well! I think I said on the thread that I had frozen some whole but hadn't tried defrosting them whole. I can report it works really well, leaving them out to defrost over night or so. They do come out quite soft but usuable.

Most of my close new friends are or have been expats. They just get the making friends thing!

Glasto Amen. It was 4 degrees when I left home at 8am, and is only 10 degrees now, but it's beautiful during spring and autumn and is generally in the late 20s/early 30s during summer. Perfect four season.

newmama With the Melbourne-Sydney stretch, I would avoid the typical highway route (that goes through Albury-Wodonga and not much else), and either take the Great Ocean Road route, or the inland/Snowy Mountains etc. route. They are both longer, but you see a lot more and can stop in at quaint little towns all along the way. By the sounds of things, the Great Ocean Road (coastal) would be more up your alley. It's so beautiful.

Thanks for that Jan I'm going to go stick some whole ones in the freezer now!

Glasto I think some people don't appreciate the size of Australia and just assume its all got a desert climate! Mind you my sister was buying thermals for her trip to NZ in the summer as she said it would be too much of a shock after being in Aus (bearing in mind she was coming from Melbourne not Darwin)

That's funny about thermals! Doesn't Melbourne have a similar climate to NZ?

I did point that out but she was adamant... then moaned she was hot Apparently her friends told her it was the same temperature as Scotland! Invercargill maybe... but Auckland?

Impossible to really compare Melbourne and NZ as one is city and the other a country. I think what unites them is definite sense of four seasons.

Taking Wellington as the middle of NZ, enough to say that summer temperatures in Melbourne are hotter by about 5C. To sum up, Wellington gets colder in winter ( and windier all the time) and Melbourne hotter in summer.

Today I saw an early tea-tree blossom that had escaped the possums. It is usually associated with early spring and the run of mullet in Port Phillip Bay.

I bloody loves South Island NZ. Would live there tomorrow. FIL is from north island and SIL was born there.

newmama we drove it 18 months ago. It was bloody great. You MUST do the great ocean road, it's brilliant. Also highly recommend stopping off in Tilba Tilba (where river cottage Aus is filmed) and Mollymook for lunch at rick steins place. We went with young DC and they weren't the only ones in there and they fell over themselves to be well behaved child friendly.

On route!
Researching my AUS/NZ leg of the journey and see lots of school holiday activities for children at the moment .I know school doesn't correlate with our and the UK hols so just wondering when they will end ?
Is there much snow on the alps ?

I was wondering if a trip on the transalpine is too much for the young children ?
Mine have never seen real snow outside ( indoors thanks to the fakery of SkiDubai ) .
Is there any good place to go to just muck about in the snow.
We aren't really equipped ( or can be bothered with the faff ) of skiing as it's only me with two children.

There's another week left of school hols habibi her in NZ, not sure about Aus. There are 4 terms in NZ with 2 weeks hol in between each apart from 6 weeks summer hol.

Just had a look on metservice for mountain regions and looks like there is definitely snow on the alps but possibly not as much as normal. Looks like Mt Hutt one of the main snow fields in Canterbury has snowmakers out! We've had far less snow this year, said in news last night that tourism centres have been having to plug activities such as tubing due to not great skiing this year. We used to take our dc to Castle Rock to play in the snow, it's an amazing place anyway even if there isn't snow.

Tranzalpine would be fine for kids, we haven't done the journey but we looked round the train on an open day a couple of years ago, the carriages have room to move about in, there is a buffet cart and also an open viewing carriage so you'd be able to move around. You also don't have to go all the way, you could go to Arthur's Pass which is nice and has walks and a cafe then go back. Not sure where best views are though. My mum did the trip a few years back and said it was absolutely amazing! Pricy though.

You can see some recent pics of snowfall on Mt Hutt here m.metservice.com/mountain/ski/mt-hutt/snowcams

NSW school hols end this weekend, although we have an extra day on Monday for teacher training, so school is actually back on Tuesday.

Can't answer for Victoria though!

Brrrrrrrrrrrr 15 degrees in my lounge at the moment. I think it's warmer outside! (But blowing a gale so tricky decision to know where to go...)

I am Irish but have lived in Perth for the last 4 and a half years. We lived in Wellington for 4 years and my 2 boys were born there. We are going to have a little Aussie in November. We love it here, the boys go to the local school and we have made lots of friends through them.

Hi shellybr! Quite a few of you Perth way it seems. Exciting for November Have you found much difference between NZ and Australia?

On a different note does anyone else have a volunteer fire station where they live? Still find it makes me jump a bit every time the siren goes off. Went off very early this morning and it took me a minute to work out what was going on! The dc love hearing them though

We do have a volunteer RFS (rural fire station) not that far away from us, but not near enough to hear any siren, if they even have one (I don't know if they do). I should find out now though!

Quite hot here today! Unusual for the time of year - actually had to take coats and jumpers off outdoors!
Went out to Norah Head lighthouse today to see whales going past - but they were a bit far away, could only see the spray as they surfaced and blew water from their blowholes. Still cool though!

lostinthecolonies just saw this about the slide at Margaret Mahy playground i.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/82214797/safety-supervisor-employed-at-margaret-mahy-playground
Looks like they've found a way to reopen it, might be a bit ott though