Views of New Zealand

06/02/12- 10/02/12

Ok so our time is coming to an end in New Zealand and as I look at the news reports of the weather in the UK I find myself asking why oh why would we want to return to that? Our friends and colleagues also take great delight in reminding us that we will freeze upon our return. Well I think they may be right. After 12 months in almost constant temperatures of 15-30 degrees I think we will need some form of re introduction programme. Please can all the people we will be staying with take the lagging of there hot water tanks and have them ready for us.

So New Zealand. It’s warm but also on the other side of the world. Now if we did not have family and friends we liked back home I would be the ideal place to avoid people. As that is not the case we are rather looking forward to catching up. As you can imagine a good plan of activity is being formed. Night with family and friends being booked, job applications being made and slots found to catch-up with old employers to see if they have a job they need to be filled. James thought about going on the dole but soon realised that the housing business somewhat precludes him from drawing that.

Ok back to New Zealand. It’s fantastic even if geographically remote. The people are really very friendly, the lifestyle relaxed and the sun shines quite a lot. We have good friends here and we have got so many social engagements that we now plan our nights and weekends around when we can stay in as opposed to when we can go out. We have also learned that gay men can be ok. Previously I was rather sniffey about spending time with them as those who I had encountered were rather queeny for my taste. No so we were just meeting them in the wrong place… the gay village of Manchester. As Amy said “are you being homophobic?”

The things that are less good about Kiwi land has to be the driving. Put simply they can not drive. There are signs ant intersections advising people to “merge like a zip.” For goodness sake it’s not hard to combine two lanes of traffic. Our friend Ross suggests the problem may be that the lack of traffic in a huge country combined with a macho approach to driving (“only puffs give way”) has resulted in the derisible driving style.

The houses are also rather odd. All wooden construction, now insulation, not double glazing, no central heating. In other words impossible to heat! Leaving NZ in summer may be a blessing really as whilst winter may not be UK cold we would require some heating. The upside of the houses are that they are all on quarter acre plots and have an obligatory lemon, orange and other fruit tree. The vast expanse of grass is nice but by god it grows quickly.

Other then pondering our return to the UK we have been as usual working and gyming. A few second hand dealers have been around the property and after some negotiation I have sold the furniture for $1000. It will be collected the Friday before we leave and considering it cost just over $2000 to buying the first place it’s not a bad deal. Next up is trying to sell the car. Fingers crossed on that front!