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5 yr plan to move to NZ permanently- some questions :) - Page 2

post #21 of 56
4/9/10 at 4:38am


So what, do you call them indoor plants or container plants?

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post #22 of 56
4/9/10 at 4:57am
Being barefoot here is no big deal I go all sorts of places with no shoes on. I didn't even realise there was the term "barefooters" until recently on MDC . It's just something that we do and think nothing of it. I go to mall, gas station, local shop, around town etc all with no shoes in summertime.

Here are some of my suggestions of where to live.

Waiheke Island - I'd love to live here! It's an island in the Hauraki Gulf which is off Auckland pretty much. DH isnt keen on living on a island though. This area is probably as crunchy as it gets in the North Island
http://www.waiheke.co.nz/
http://waiheke.aucklandnz.com/

hmmmm where else....there's some places just north of Auckland that would get you the land you want, but are very pricey. Dairy Flat, Coatesville, Stillwater, Albany

Or you could go out rural West Auckland - Kumeu, Huapai, Waimauku

I've suggested around Auckland as this is where I live and I love it It can be quite rainy at times, although last month is the driest March in decades. Auckland is said to have Four Seasons in One Day. It doesnt get too cold, maybe a few frosts each winter. You can still venture out in the winter (barefoot even ).

I'll come back if I think of anything else
post #23 of 56
4/9/10 at 5:02am
Forgot my hometown! I grew up in place called Raglan. It's on the west coast of the North Island, and it's beautiful!

http://www.raglan.net.nz/
http://www.raglan.org.nz/
post #24 of 56
4/9/10 at 8:34am
Quote:
Originally Posted by nathansmum View Post


So what, do you call them indoor plants or container plants?
we would call those potted plants. or house plants, if they were indoors. I had to laugh when our landlords said they'd come back in a few days for their pot plants.

we're going up to Auckland this sat-mon, I think we really need to do the ferry to waiheke island -- I'm not sure we can leave NZ without having done that... speaking of which, having a 10 hour drive tomorrow I really should go to bed!
post #25 of 56
4/10/10 at 8:08am
You should check out Hawkes Bay, it's the region in the center of the east coast of the North Island. I moved here to Napier just over a year ago, and I'm loving it.

There are 2 cities just 15 minutes from each other - Napier and Hastings - and between them they've got everything you'd ever need. But just 5 minutes out from each you can be very rural. It's a very agricultural area with lots of orchards and vineyards. You can grow year round here. Right now it's feijoa season. Yum. The kiwifruit in our backyards will be ripening in the next few months. Our citrus trees are packed with fruit year round. And in the dead of winter we'll be harvesting broccoli and leeks.

I'm not sure about homeschooling in the area, as we send the kids to Montessori. There is also Steiner schooling in Hastings which I think goes all the way up to high school.

My kids loooove the barefoot thing here. They'll even stay barefoot through winter. We can never get them to wear shoes.
post #26 of 56
4/12/10 at 12:41am
Thread Starter 
So dp and I have been obsessing and watching lots of youtube videos from NZ from all over. We live in a very beautiful area in Canada- probably the purest there is here (with people) or amongst the few purest places, and it is very easy to put together an amazing video of the wilderness and of some areas of town and some of a town north of us that would make many people drool, but even so, we are just in awe of NZ. Dp keeps saying, "Ugh, we're in the wrong place- again!"

We've been watching personal youtube videos people put up to get a feel for the humour and culture of the kiwis and we are now pretty sure that when our grandparents had the choice to go to Canada or to Australia, they picked the wrong hemisphere. If we'd been in Australia, it wouldn't have taken us so long to discover NZ. That and in talking with dp, it turns out that it isn't just my family that has never acclimated to the climate in the north, but also his. So, essentially we're two immigrant european families that live indoors most of the time and wish we didn't because we came from places that are far milder than in Canada. We're first generation Canadian-born, so our families have not been here long, but it seems crazy that we're all not comfortable. What's the point of that???

We are eagerly awaiting the release to North America of This Way of Life (trailer) and Boy. Those children in TWoL are really fabulous; they're so free and capable. I can't wait to see the film... but we have to since it's still just screening in NZ, so it'll be a long while before we can watch it here.

We watched an ad for L&P that had us in stitches too. And a neat guide to NZ by Liam Finn. And also one by Scribe that had a different feel, and was also enjoyable.

The variety and freedom of expression of people there is very appealing. It seems that overall, the reality of being- just being- is prevalent. It seems to be a 'slow' culture- as in relaxed, confident, human. I'm aching to go and wish it wouldn't take so long to get there, but dp and I laughed today as we realised that it'll take at minimum the same amount of time for him to finish up his schooling and our not-yet-born baby to be toileting independently. I had quipped that I would rather not deal with diapers during this transition, and it turns out that, ideally, I won't.

Thanks for all the new links and places to check out, and at the 'hot plants.'
post #27 of 56
4/12/10 at 1:02am
I came over with a huge sense of national pride reading your post

You'll love it here.

This is another funny L&P ad. Reminds me of my childhood - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9crEwkyoHBw

This is a good one too - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKnPS...ature=related"
post #28 of 56
4/12/10 at 1:44am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Castle View Post
You can grow year round here. Right now it's feijoa season. Yum. The kiwifruit in our backyards will be ripening in the next few months. Our citrus trees are packed with fruit year round. And in the dead of winter we'll be harvesting broccoli and leeks.
This blew our minds. Sourcing food up here is probably equal to our difficulties with the climate. We can and have, but it is hard; the growing season is very short and the whole territory has run out of potatoes since March, and we won't have any again until BC begins harvesting. Picking fruit and veggies from the garden year-round would be revolutionary.

I have to look up feijoa; I have no idea what that is. Same with the ocean creatures there- no idea, except for things we have here too like lobster and cray fish.
post #29 of 56
4/12/10 at 1:59am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Melly24 View Post
This is another funny L&P ad. Reminds me of my childhood - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9crEwkyoHBw

This is a good one too - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKnPS...ature=related"
Those are great!

We really liked this one too.
AND we learned some more kiwi vocab!
post #30 of 56
4/12/10 at 2:03am
Quote:
Originally Posted by PreggieUBA2C View Post
Those are great!

We really liked this one too.
AND we learned some more kiwi vocab!
Ah yip the undies vs. togs one is very funny!
post #31 of 56
4/12/10 at 2:15am
LOL at togs vs undies - I saw a dude the other day who must have been down for a swim at the beach (would have been about 7am as I was out for my early morning walk) and he was running home with just his togs on - as he turned off the road just across from the beach they certainly became undies lol!

I haven't seen This Way of Life yet either, but really want to. My cousin is friends with the couple that made that movie.

Oh, and I found out recently that feijoas go by another name in other parts of the world - pineapple guava or something like that? Yum, our feijoa trees are almost ready too!

Re lingo - I had to google last night what the heck "hydro" is in regards to why Canadians would have it and why they'd be turning it off!
post #32 of 56
4/12/10 at 4:55am
We saw Boy last week, it was wonderful, but very Kiwi! It will be interesting to see if the references translate! My parents are now waiting on the dvd release to take it over to Aussie!
post #33 of 56
4/13/10 at 12:17am
you mentioned developing a kiwi accent -- for the first week we were here, I could NOT stop talking like a kiwi (badly, I imagine) but only when we were alone. In public, a few times I accidentally slipped a kiwi accent into conversation, and it feels like you're making fun of it, so I quickly stopped doing it. we've all picked up a lot of phrases, but I wouldn't say any of us have developed an accent, and I can't really imagine that we would. I was talking to a woman on the phone who had a really strange hybrid Tennessee/NZ accent, after having been here for 12 years, but I have another american friend who has been here 12 years and she still sounds very Florida.

Quote:
Originally Posted by *Jade* View Post
We saw Boy last week, it was wonderful, but very Kiwi! It will be interesting to see if the references translate! My parents are now waiting on the dvd release to take it over to Aussie!
I think that's what killed the second season of 'flight of the conchords', it got really kiwi and a lot of the humor was lost on their north american audience. Boy looks awesome, and I haven't heard of 'this way of life' but it looks really good too! have to check that out!

this thread is making me really sad to leave!!!
post #34 of 56
4/14/10 at 2:21pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by nathansmum View Post
LOL at togs vs undies - I saw a dude the other day who must have been down for a swim at the beach (would have been about 7am as I was out for my early morning walk) and he was running home with just his togs on - as he turned off the road just across from the beach they certainly became undies lol!

I haven't seen This Way of Life yet either, but really want to. My cousin is friends with the couple that made that movie.

Oh, and I found out recently that feijoas go by another name in other parts of the world - pineapple guava or something like that? Yum, our feijoa trees are almost ready too!

Re lingo - I had to google last night what the heck "hydro" is in regards to why Canadians would have it and why they'd be turning it off!
It is weird to say 'hydro' but it's supposed to be an abbreviation of hydro-electricity, which in many places here it is not, and we don't call it coal-electricity then, so I don't get it either. Funny though, when people run 'alternative sources' they just say 'solar' or 'wind' also in reference to electricity, but few people actually say 'electricity'. Maybe it's too complex. Just kidding.

I've been reading the blog of the couple who made the documentary and now dp and I have a few others we want to see of theirs when they are finished and released. Close-range anthropological documentary making is something I have wanted to do for ages and thought my education would allow, but then I had babies. There's still time; hopefully there's still an audience when I get around to it. In the meanwhile, I love watching what others have done, especially when it's so raw, like this one seems to be.

Nobody here wears 'togs.' We call them 'Speedos' for the brand name and because they are not popular except for competition- racing and water polo, for instance. Up here, most men would not like what happens to their *ahem* anatomy in these temperatures.

And the feijoas look yummy!


Quote:
Originally Posted by *Jade* View Post
We saw Boy last week, it was wonderful, but very Kiwi! It will be interesting to see if the references translate! My parents are now waiting on the dvd release to take it over to Aussie!
I wonder too. Have you seen The Royal Tenenbaums or The Life Aquatic? Really any Bill Murray movie from the last ten years? The humour in those is pretty lost on most people here, but I looooove them! When I saw the trailer for Boy it seemed that the humour was similar and had dp and I laughing really, really hard, but we know that most of the population here would be confused by our laughter. I saw The Royal Tenenbaums with my brother in a theatre and we could not stop laughing while the theatre was emptying, with people complaining that it wasn't funny.

I think it's the plain, innocent, authentic humour that really appeals to me. It's when nobody seems to be trying to be funny that I am prone to laugh at what they do. I've learned since I was very young to keep it to myself though; most people don't like being laughed at when they're not deliberately making a spectacle of themselves or for just being...

I have always been a people-observer, and I love these movies that capture the things I never otherwise laugh out loud about, because in a movie I can! People do weird stuff all the time that is really funny! As we walk into the grocery store with its automatic doors, my children nonchalantly put up one arm with their hands wide open and their feet in a lunged position because they are using their 'magic' to open the doors. They do things like that all the time. Weird. Funny. And they're not doing it to be funny; they are completely serious. Adults do weird stuff all the time too. If my face were more expressive, I'd probably look amused nearly all of the time.

Quote:
Originally Posted by tiffani View Post
you mentioned developing a kiwi accent -- for the first week we were here, I could NOT stop talking like a kiwi (badly, I imagine) but only when we were alone. In public, a few times I accidentally slipped a kiwi accent into conversation, and it feels like you're making fun of it, so I quickly stopped doing it. we've all picked up a lot of phrases, but I wouldn't say any of us have developed an accent, and I can't really imagine that we would. I was talking to a woman on the phone who had a really strange hybrid Tennessee/NZ accent, after having been here for 12 years, but I have another american friend who has been here 12 years and she still sounds very Florida.
I guess that's okay... Our friend from Boston says we sound like people from South Dakota, or for our reference, from the movie Fargo. Eek. I think it might be fine to have another accent (of course I didn't know I had one to begin with, but who does...?), but if I can't get one naturally, I guess I'm stuck with Fargo. Too bad. I had hope.




Our boys are barefooting now with mud and ice all over. They come in for a warm-up when their little feet turn red, but mostly they move over to a dry hot spot where the sun has been warming the dirt, stand there for a bit, and then they run off again.

We're renovating. So much going on! It's all part of the plan.
post #35 of 56
4/14/10 at 6:43pm
all bathing suits are called togs here. that's one phrase we've definitely picked up -- when going to the pool or beach "run gitcher togs!" or "toweltogsngoggles?" it's much more fun than bathing suit.

togs, rubbish and rubbish bin, "sorted" -- for getting something organized or worked out... "we'll get it sorted tomorrow" are all phrases that we've picked up...

what I can't get into is saying "do you need to go toilet?" (not "do you need to go to *the* toilet", but toilet as a verb) ... I went into a corner store on a roadtrip and asked where the washroom was (washroom being the canadian term) ... when he looked at me blankly, I said "bathroom? restroom?" (trying out my original american terms) ...and a guy said "toilets 'round the back!" RIGHT! I always forget...
post #36 of 56
4/14/10 at 8:28pm
LOL at the toilet thing. I was thinking about this last week. I find it weird when I hear if people can use the bathroom or washroom - considering that a lot of toilets here are in a room on their own it could be confusing not knowing if they want the wash basin in a bathroom or to use the toilet! I personally say "do you want to go to the toilet" if I'm speaking to the kids or "i'm just going to the toilet" not "I'm just going toilet".

Re speedos - we use that word when we are specifically talking about mens racing swimwear - but in a take-the-piss kind of way - like NO ONE is seen dead in the things kwim? lol
post #37 of 56
4/14/10 at 11:04pm
Thread Starter 
So what does that mean?

Quote:
Originally Posted by nathansmum View Post
- but in a take-the-piss kind of way -
Aren't the shorts-style of swimwear called 'boardies'? I'm confused. What's the difference between togs and speedos? And are women's one-piece suits called togs as well? OH wait, did tiffani mention this already? (...yup)

Quote:
all bathing suits are called togs here. that's one phrase we've definitely picked up -- when going to the pool or beach "run gitcher togs!" or "toweltogsngoggles?" it's much more fun than bathing suit.
...All swimwear is togs and then the distinctions are within that larger category? This is all so complex. I think I have it now.

It was interesting to me that a lot of people here use the term toilet to refer to the room with it in it, but there are a lot of people who immigrated from europe here, and like dp's family, had different rooms for the bath and toilet at home. So even here, I am sometimes saying multiple labels for that room.

'Getting things sorted' is also a familiar phrase to dp. I think he'll find lots of things comforting there, things that remind him of his grandad and nana especially.

That L&P ad with the children at the pool mentioned cheese and tomato sammies and I nearly fell over while dp said, "don't say aaannyything." His obsession with cheese and tomato sammies has been a running tease between us for our whole marriage. It seemed so random to me, especially when there are so many combinations possible for a sandwich, but he will forego every option for a cheese and tomato sammy. So are we in for backyard cheese and tomato sammy parties? JK.
post #38 of 56
4/15/10 at 12:56am
Don't seem to have the concentration today to read all the posts
but we just moved to Napier from Alaska (Hi Castle ) in February.
This website was a HUGE resource for us in terms of getting through the process-
http://www.emigratenz.org/forum/

Good luck!!
post #39 of 56
4/15/10 at 1:03am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by vivalamama View Post
Don't seem to have the concentration today to read all the posts
but we just moved to Napier from Alaska (Hi Castle ) in February.
This website was a HUGE resource for us in terms of getting through the process-
http://www.emigratenz.org/forum/

Good luck!!
Well then we used to be neighbours! I'm on the Canadian side of that border but I imagine we'd have a lot of cultural and climate-related things in common.

I've bookmarked the forum. Thanks!
post #40 of 56
4/15/10 at 1:59am
[QUOTE=PreggieUBA2C;15299864] So what does that mean?

LOL....ummm...take the piss means, take the micky? Or teasing mercilessly...

Oh, here you go...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taking_the_piss
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