Browner_

I think I probably was too. But when you are brought up where I was (close to London) it has always been easy and cheap to travel.

So we knew the distances were likely to be more when we moved to NZ, but I think the whole financial thing has changed now we are down here. Its just not the same, and dont try and tell me it is. I have a good job in NZ but cannot 'escape' for holidays at all. And that affects your worldview - suddenly NZ looks like living in a corridor - dead dull and nowhere you want to go.

waikatoguy

More than fifty years later, the home or residential swimming pool is ubiquitous and even small nations enjoy a thriving swimming pool industry (e.g. New Zealand pop. 4,116,900 [Source NZ Census 7 March 2006] - holds the record in pools per capita with 65,000 home swimming pools and 125,000 spa pools).

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

Another statistical fact brought to you by Waikatoguy.

Bo-Jangles

Yeah but a she'll be right old tin bath with a fire underneath it, isn't exactly my idea of a spa pool.

bourbon-biscuit

Haha, you're just resolutely un-Kiwi, BJ!

When my then 11 year old was at school in Aussie they had a lesson involving labeling a blank map as a group and the kids (apart from my daughter who said she didn't want to look like a know-it-all at a new school) all agreed Tasmania was NZ.

It's not so crazy to link Australia and NZ though; Sydney is closer to Auckland than Sydney is to Perth is, for example.

BEVS

Point taken . My 83 yr old Smother-in-law once addressed a card to us as

Mapua
Nz
Canada.


It did arrive via Canada some time laters.

waikatoguy

I've actually got a sweepstake going as to when BoJa will say something nice about NZ on British Expats. We only have to be accurate + or - 12 months. So if we say 2020, that will cover the years 2019 through 2021.
I'll work out the odds later.

Bo-Jangles

I'm amazed you can spare the 10 cents

Charismatic

The income gap does seem to be more pronounced in recent years. Mind you we always get some of these negative threads when the weather gets miserable.

It seems to consume the young most, hungry for opportunity and career advancement. Australia has been a massive overachiever for the last decade or two but New Zealand is only slightly better than average. Short of a massive industrial crash in developed economies the situation is unlikely to change.

The thing I'd criticise New Zealand for isn't it's slightly-better-than-OECD economic growth but it's extremely conservative approach to capitalising on its points of differentiation. We've been way too slow to embrace changes, even small changes like stamp duty and capital gains tax.

They had that problem in Ireland when I lived there as well, the young and educated left making the country very conservative. The conservative nature of the country caused more people to leave and the cycle continued.


Look I've lived here for 9 years but New Zealand is wearing very thin for me. Accuse me of wanderlust (grass is greener etc.) but so about 1,000 kiwis a week it seems.

sr71

Half the problem is that many people have just chosen the wrong place to live in NZ, then they go to Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane and the difference is night and day for obvious reasons. Live in a country town in Aus, 100-200km away from the major centres and you'd be making a better comparison to most of NZ.

Of course it's ridiculous to suggest that Australia and NZ shouldn't be mentioned in the same sentence.

-Shared history, Captain Cook, former British colonies, ANZAC etc
-Geographical proximity
-Open economic borders
-Many organisations are shared - Australian & NZ College of Physicians
-Very similar culturally

And I really don't get the big deal about salaries. Do people not move from Hull, Bournemouth, Manchester etc to London because of the massive difference in salaries? Economic migration takes place everywhere, and has been going on for eternity.

Caz8NZ

I've been reading this thread and not commenting yet but Well I have to admit, that before I came over this side of the world I did believe that Australia and Nz were similar - I would refer to it as Australasia after my experience of meeting Ozzies and Kiwis doing their OE in the UK. I did think they were closer than they are and much more linked than they are.

In all honesty - when I think about it - a lot of people in the UK think the same thing - both countries are all the way over here and quite remote to other places. Maybe the gaps are getting smaller now that its more common for holidays to Thailand etc due to cheaper flights. There was a time when travel to South East Asia and this side of the world really was reserved for the purely adventerous traveller.

I would hope that people who are planning on emmigrating and uprooting their entire lives do look into it in more detail before they take the plunge, however I think many assume that as both countries have been populated by many brits and are english speaking, they must be the same as the UK but just hotter! Well - we all know that's not true of NZ - weather wise at the very least!

It took me quite a while to adjust to the cost of living here - stopping converting the cost of something in $ to pounds. Also realising my worth in the workplace and working out what is considered a good salary in NZ. Lack of NZ experience is frustrating, but I also get why they say it - its a different culture here so they want someone they know is going to fit in with the NZ way of doing things.

I didn't know that travel would be so hard from here - you can pop on a cheapo flight for an hour to another country.

However I say all this as someone who arrived here with a backpack and a working holiday visa and not much else. I didn't need to do my research as I was on an adventure to see where it led me and I arrived here after travelling for 18 months. My intention was never to settle here - in fact I was supposed to get a visa for Canada to see what that was like...never quite made it there as once I got here, NZ took a hold of me.

What I do want to say is that I think its not unsual for people back in the UK to not really think too much about Aus and NZ - it does tend to get a bit clumped together whilst being aware they are two different countries, but I would hope that anyone who was wanting to uproot their entire life did their research before taking the leap.

simonsi

You see those two as being progressive changes and helping to create value and therefore wealth? Or am I misunderstanding you??

scrubbedexpat094

I always refer to India, Pakistan & Bangladesh in the same breath, as does the rest of the world

simonsi

Now now, don't go spoiling the thread with a few facts....

scrubbedexpat094

ExKiwilass

this is silly.

Australia & NZ are mentioned 'in the same breath' because they're culturally similar (similar NOT the same), ANZAC history, same part of the world, etc. Right now economically Oz is doing much better but who knows what the future holds.

Same as how people see Canada and US as closely related - which they are, but not the same.

I would have thought the fact they're two different countries - rather than one - indicated they are not exactly the same, but hey.