lardyl

calm down........really you do make my (and others') points on Kiwi's defensiveness so well.............pity you can't read other people's posts or choose to read into them what you will or come to think of it that all the time you spent overseas didn't knock some of the "Kiwi-is-best through-clenched-teeth" attitude out.

Get away from the defensive, insecure attitude and you might just see the wood for the trees. NZ as a country is less sophisticated than the UK, US and most of Western Europe. Get over it and come to terms with it - stop personalising it (as clearly you seem to want to) and make a judgement if you can. I'd say that per capita Kiwis are also less "sophisticated" as well and lots of them are proud of being just that. I like that approach, which you could pick out of the rest of my original post - its kinda hidden but its there.

We can't have everything here and it's silly to think that everything we do have is the best in the world. Time to put your monocle back on or at least clean it..........your attitude throughout this board is a clear sign that Kiwis can give criticism but sure as hell can't take it.

Anyway you'll find that much of the healthcare system in NZ is underpinned by ex-Pats from a variety of places and these professionals are often more skilled than their NZ-er colleagues.

englishheaven

3 Good things- Uncrowded beaches
Less traffic
Less Muslims

3 Bad things- Wages
Distance from Europe
Weather

crap coffee

More Chinese here..........

Am Loolah

3 Good Things;

Wine
Wine on Beach
Wine on Beach in Sun

3 Bad Things;

Running out of Wine
Running out of Wine When on Beach
Running out of Wine When on Beach and Sun Goes in

Ash1

Greats.

My lifestyle couldn`t be more different(for the better)
Low crime and less fear of it (where we are)
Friendliness. Generally speaking, people seem happier to talk to and at least acknowledge eachother.

Not so greats.

The standard of building on the average house (used to be a builder)
Other whinging pomms who complain that you cant get a decent sausage when we all know that you can get them in Parton Road Papamoa
The "toughen up " attitude of some kiwi`s.

I`m over the bad driving. Once you get your head around the fact they`re gonna pull out on you , you get ready for it......no ,expect it. I find the boy racers with their Phat exhausts hilarious but only because they don`t have a big impact on my life.

love30stm

ha ha you sound like my kind of friendl

love30stm

noithing wrong with chinese people

Mgee

Can't wait to try out both the good and the bad things

Bobs Chocolate

Watch out, I'm coming!

whitesand

Genesis, 'shedesque' great description, I'll remember that!

AH30

It surprises me that some Brits think that NZ has a poor quality and choice of grocery items. As a Kiwi living in the UK that's one of the thinks that I thought was worse in the UK. The quality and selection of meat in particular is better in NZ, in my opinion anyway.

Genesis

There's nought wrong with the shops here mate. Complaints are from the 'extra fussy' contingent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the meat IS truly wonderful aye?? And affordable. Be lucky!!

Perry Groves

I also do, it was an experience I would not recommend. Actually it was the maternity ward. Our 2nd was born outside London, it was like being in a different country!

lardyl

affordable .......come on.......home kill aside........which most people dont have a go at.......What's the price per kilo of a joint of lamb, say, compared to *your disposible income* or your grocery budget *expressed as hours worked* living in NZ compared to that in the UK?
For us it must be twice the "true" cost. It certainly is more hours of work for either of us earners to pay for the groceries every week.
That is a very common "complaint" of ex-Pats on here and in the "real" world and its not just people being "fussy", its pretty much a fact of life for lots of people struggling to make ends meet in NZ. Particularly now the recession is biting hard.
But then we are all different I suppose and we all move from one place to another.
The UK supermarkets may have the market stitched up and their suppliers by the short and curlies but they do provide choice that is wider than most of the rest of the world (don't take my word for it check out the experts who discuss these things on, erm real radio, you know Radio4, not NZ National - wait a minute, much of the programming there is re-cycled from the BBC, so you might catch that......just like many of the newspaper articles.....) - I digress....
I will say that I find some of the luxurys are nice, like the cheapie ice-cream, biscuits, fruit and veges in season, etc but they are more like luxuries than they ever were in the UK.
The meat from places like Mad Butcher, where lets face it lots of people shop, can be woeful and the prices at independent butchers are generally higher than at the supermarkets......although we try to stretch to that when we are after a joint, etc.
Aside from the essentials, I suppose that the electrical goods are reasonable in price as the £ is now pretty weak and the expected price increases as the NZ$ has plummetted have not fully appreared ....yet.... but don't count your chickens on that one .
Most other goods are much less affordable and less available here - take kid's shoes, how far do you need to travel to get your kids' feet measured and some decent shoes on them? I know that's a Kiwi thing about going barefoot but hey some people have standards.....and don't want the problems later in life.
We've been through the whole debates on undies, mid-priced clothes, etc but its pretty clear (to me at least) that we live in a place with less competition, a smaller market and I hate to say it again, less sophisticated consumers......hence we have to spend more of what we have to spare to get less and we have less choice in what is available. IMO of course.

southerner

The good:
No rat race
Wonderful environment
Feel safer

The bad:
Lower wages
Distance from Europe
Crap TV (as you can see I was struggling for this last one )

I see again that the word sophistication has been used a lot on this thread, as if it was somehow a single objective measure on some axis of good. In my view its not! What is sophisticated society to one person might be totally backward to another. For example the same country that first put a man on the moon, has almost total freedom to own a gun and generally encourages citizens to drive huge gas guzzling vehicles, and to have less than 2 weeks annual holiday. Is that a sophisticated society, or backward, or a bit of both?

Or take Italy (probably my favourite country to visit) with its wonderful cultural history, its 'la dolce vita', and its leadership in modern style and fashion, but it has terrible problems with litter, corruption, mad drivers, over development, etc.

I guess my point is that depending on your perspective different subjective factors will determine what is sophisticated to you or not, and whether more development or less, or more or less complexity, or whatever it is that is 'sophistication' to you, is good or bad.

Sorry Lardy for getting all 'quasi-philosophical' (spic) on ya