Re: Canada or NZ
 

Why would you go to the land that time forgot ?

Re: Canada or NZ
 

Which one is that?

Re: Canada or NZ
 

Both.

Re: Canada or NZ
 

I liked this:

"Canadians are similar to New Zealanders in that they're often mistaken for their cruder and brasher neighbours. Consequently, they spend most of their time alternately emphasing that they're not, and taking umbrage, which doesn't leave much room left over to develop a personality. They're generally largely inoffensive, though."

http://talk.notthetalk.com/discussion/list/9740?start=0

Re: Canada or NZ
 

I didn't say it was incorrect, I said it was laughable. :p What, you've never been amused by someone having a different perception?

Re: Canada or NZ
 

You can't really explain it in English because it never gets that cold in the UK. The English language wasn't really designed to cope with it. Anything colder than "freezing" is described as "frigid". But there is a really big difference between -15 and -45, no question.

Basically, -5, no problem (cool), -10, no problem (chilly) and you can even think that's warm on days after it has been -25. At -15 it starts to get uncomfortable. -23 is really the tipping point, that is the temperature inside most freezers and the reason -23 is used is because that is the temperature at which skin freezes really quickly. When it gets that cold you have to wrap up completely.

Below -23 it starts to get painful. Not just because of it freezing so quickly but also because the air is incredibly dry. In the -30s you can start to feel the inside of your lungs when you breath and it becomes hard to look up unless you are wearing goggles. When you get into the -30s and -40s you have to start being careful when you take your jacket off, basically you take your jacket off before you take your gloves off if you've been outside for any length of time because the outside of your jacket is so cold. I also tried moving a metal cabinet once and it was around -30, I took my glove off, put it on the cabinet and that was a serious error. People talk about "freezer burn" but that was the real deal.

Lots of interesting phenomena I've encountered.

The one that comes to mind was when I was driving down 22X and there was a rapid drop in temperature, went from 10 C to -10 C in less than two minutes, the windshield on my car cracked, because it's laminated. Guy at the glass replacement place said it was really common for it to happen during rapid drops - they can come in pretty quickly.

Also causes power outages, because the transformers short out.

Re: Canada or NZ
 

I remember this friend of mine who grew up in a small town in the Yukon telling me about how his dad was taking him to school one day and the back axle on the pick-up snapped because it was -60 that day, so they had to stop and try to start a fire which was really hard until someone drove by and could give them a lift, etc. And anyway he got the end of this tale of woe and I went: "Er... you lost me when you said you went to school in minus sixty."

Re: Canada or NZ
 

It's when you need to know this information from a practical standpoint because you're actually standing there and it's -48 that you realize it's time for a vacation.

Re: Canada or NZ
 

Hi everyone. We are in the same position between NZ and Canada. We have a potential job offer for rebuilding Christchurch in NZ but we have also been also interested in Canada for a while now and noticed that there is a advertisement for my oh's job at the canada expo coming up in Manchester.

He is a plant operator which i think they call a heavy equipment operator in canada. So we're just doing a bit of research to see if what opportunities (if any) are there for us.

The two are very different places obviously and both have negatives and positives so just trying to weigh up the options. Obviously i know Dave has to have a job offer first and a LMO before we can look further into areas and visas but just trying to do some general research at the moment. The main being wages vs cost of living for Canada. Seems to be high cost of living and low wages in NZ.

One thing im wondering about is does construction work stop during the winter and if so how long for? We are a young couple with no kids and looking to try out a different country for a few years and if we enjoy it hopefully aim for PR

Any comments or advice would be great :)

Re: Canada or NZ
 

Head to BC. That way you'll have the best of both world's as you'll be surrounded by Antripodeans!

Re: Canada or NZ
 

Go to NZ, too many people going to BC and this is pushing the prices of houses up. Defo NZ.

Re: Canada or NZ
 

House prices on Vancouver Island are expected to fall again this year.

Re: Canada or NZ
 

I really like the sound and look of BC especially vancouver but very expensive housing puts us off slightly so its good news that they're falling a bit. Although wherever we move to we'll be renting for a long time probably. Anyway its good news for anyone else whos planning on buying there :)

Re: Canada or NZ
 

Excellent news, defo go to NZ, the houses are over valued on VI.:rofl:

Re: Canada or NZ
 

I would very seriously consider the downsides of life in Christchurch. It's pretty bleak and depressing here, and the chances of another large quake are high. People have really suffered, as has the city and suburbs. Just start looking at The Press (the chch paper) website to get an idea of the day to day stories - and in fact we've stopped buying it as we find it too falsely positive!

Buying or renting here is very hard at the moment, as over 6000 households are trying to buy after being turfed out of their suburbs, and there's tens of thousands of houses that need long term repair/ rebuilds, putting up demand for rentals, and therefore the price.