Moving to New Zealand
In April 2014, after 11 months
of travel, I landed back in England with a bump. My plan was to get a job as
quickly as possible to start replenishing my savings that had been depleted, on
my 23 country, trip round the world. I had thought the hardest part of taking a
year off to travel was making the decision to go, on reflection I realise that
the hardest part is having the adventure end.
To cut a long story short,
whilst we were in the process of job hunting in England, Michael got offered a
role on the other side of the world in Wellington, New Zealand. A brief period
of soul searching, deliberation and visa research ensued and then the decision
was made to move to New Zealand. Three months on, Michael’s contract was
extended and we signed up to stay for an additional 12 months. Once living in
Wellington and having recovered from the jet lag, I found a job which enabled
me to pay my way and start building up the savings again. It is slightly
unsettling not knowing what is going to happen beyond November, will we be
still in New Zealand or back in England or somewhere in-between. It is hard
having this decision taken out of your hands but we keep reminding ourselves
that life here is pretty good and to just live in the moment.
Wellington Life
New Zealand’s population only 4.5 million compared to 64 million in the UK.
In Wellington there are 400,000 people compared to 13 million in London. This
means that there are approximately 3 times more people packed into London than
in this entire country. And what’s more, New Zealand is slightly bigger that
Great Britain!!! This means that there are only 14 people per square kilometre
here compared to 240 in the UK. What I am trying to say is that there is a lot
of space here and not many people, and it turns out that I like space. This
means; bigger houses and more space, quieter roads and fewer crowds.
Home Life
I miss having my own garden a
lot but I am missing having my own place less than I thought I would. In fact
it has been rather liberating. We have very few possessions here and are
working hard at keeping it that way. I guess we are paying a little more rent
that I would like to but the advantage is the place is fully furnished in an
excellent location.
In New Zealand you pay
rent weekly rather than monthly like in the UK. And we also get paid weekly or
bi-weekly which is an added bonus. Our little house is perched on the side of a
hill in Worcer Bay on the Miramar Peninsular. There is a beach at the bottom of
the hill and we overlook Wellington Harbour so we regularly wave to the
InterIslanders as the chug by. The Beach itself has a little life saving Club
on it and there are often children kayaking and sailing. It is a pretty idyllic
place to live and only a 15 minute drive from the city centre
Work life
I don’t miss my commute to
London on an overcrowded train, which on too many occasions was delayed, and
being funnelled onto a hot and smelly tube system, having to navigate through
thousands of people who were in too much of a rush, speeding in every
imaginable direction, often dragging cases behind them which were specifically
designed to trip me up!
By contrast, in Wellington, I
have a gentle 2 minutes stroll down to my bus stop by the beach, where I wait
for my bus (which has been late a total of 2 times in 9 months, and that was
only by a maximum of six minutes) I get to watch the dogs getting their early
morning walk and open water swimmers and kayakers doing their thing. The
bus ride is a very civilised affair. The driver (the same one everyday) knows
his regular passengers and he waits for them to run to the bus stop if they are
late or stops mid way between bus stops as he passes them running along. In
return everyone will echo “thanks driver” as they alight, and they even bring
him gifts of chocolates or alcohol on their last commute before Christmas. By
the time we pulled into the bus station on 19th December
he had quite a stash. And even though I live at the beach in the suburbs my
total commuted takes a total of 45 minutes.
Life on two wheels
Living in Wellington we quickly
realised that we didn’t really need a car and as we thought we were only going
to be here for four months we thought that getting one would be more trouble
that it is worth. Wellington is small and the bus system is extensive. Having
spent 8 months travelling through India and Vietnam on a motorbike Michael was
craving two wheels, so we took the plunge and purchased a Suzuki DR650. We also
purchased a tiny hiking tent and a couple of sleeping bags to pack onto the
bike and we have been on a couple of camping trips on the bike; we had a couple
of nights in Cape Palliser and a two weeks on the South Island. Having spent
too many hours on the back of Michale’s bike I decided I should probably learn
to ride myself and we bought a Suzuki GN150 for me. It is much smaller, and in
my opinion much cooler and a great little bike to learn on. I passed by basic
handling test and my theory test and can now be seen chugging along behind
Michael on the streets of Miramar.
Life far away from EVERYWHERE
New Zealand is far from
everywhere, this means that I am far from home and friends and family. (NZ
would be almost perfect if Australia and England could just switch places
geographically) Transport cost means that the price fresh fruit and vegetables
is pretty high for anything that cannot be home grown and has to be imported;
everything has to come a long way to reach us. (Although why our local
supermarket is importing kiwi fruit from Italy is beyond me) All goods that
have to be imported are really expensive, from clothes and electronics to all
the parts Michael has sourced for the bike (another reason to not collect too
many possessions).
Wifi is not great here either,
it is slow and expensive, and one consequence of this is that Video Shops are
still surviving here. Netflix who? One consequence of this is that we have
developed a bit of a rental habit. What’s more, on a Tuesday it is $1 a disc so
one of us will stop off at the video shop after work to get the weeks supply of
films to box sets. This has lead to me introducing some classic British TV to Michael;
he has enjoyed the Inbetweeners, An Idiot Abroad and even Miranda.. And while
we are on the subject of British TV there are at least three channels dedicated
to this subject, so if I chose to, which I don’t, I could keep up to date with
Corrie.
Life as tourists
One advantage of living in a
new city is that we still feel a little like tourists, although that feeling is
fading by the day. We still get excited seeing the seals at the Red Rocks and
have visited Te Papa on numerous occasions (including for Michaels Christmas
Party) We joined the Little Zoo so much that we joined and often go and visit
the chimps having their lunch.
We also have a very long to-do
list for travelling around the rest of the country, there is so much to see
here from mountains and volcanoes to whale watching and star gazing and endless
tramps.
Life in the roaring forties
At the moment (Easter) we are
enjoying a bit of an Indian summer. Back in January there was a heat wave which
was a heat wave and I would go as far as to say that there were two weeks that
were actually too hot. This was very welcome as I read about the freezing
temperatures back in London. In contrast to when I left England at the end of a
sunny June last year and arrived in the middle of the winter in New Zealand. I
would describe a Wellington winter as wet and windy (very windy, it is not
called Windy Welly for nothing) the temperature never really dropped that low,
however the sideways rain did prevent us from leaving the house on many a
weekend. The climate here is not ideal, probably more similar to northern
England. Oh and the sea is Freezing, I guess I will just have to move to
Indonesia, or Fiji or Samoa!
Hobbit Life
The Hobbit is the reason I get
to live in New Zealand, I have never been a fan or actually remotely interested
in the books or films, and in fact in a former job the LORT DVDs caused me much
stress. I have to say, now I am living in New Zealand, I am very
grateful to the little guy for bringing me here. I would go as far as to say
that I even enjoy seeing the trolls and Gandalf Statue around the place and
gotten mildly excited about seeing some dwarf costumes in our local
cinema and have even partaken in some LOTR/Hobbit Tourism, I trekked
19.4km past Mount Doom and walked the Paths of the Dead!
Life is good.