Sugo

hey best time to come is spring, so you get the english summer then nz summer, its just a bit of a shock when it gets cold

sky

I think it must be the variety of pea that makes them mushy don't you, and the soaking process. Tinned mushy peas are yuck and nothing like the real thing.
I've looked all over the supermarkets and no one sells them so will have to give in a pay the british food shop prices.

sky

We had a rental with only an open fire (rubbish at heating) and no insulation when we first arrived and I thought I was going to die of hypothermia I was that cold. It rose up through the mattress during the night too so going to bed was an ordeal and I could hardly move I had that many layers of night clothes and socks on.
Our new house was better insulated but only relied on electricity for heating and it was warm but not to the same standards as our old house in the UK.

This house we're in now has a wood burner (fabulous) and lots of insulation so we never feel the cold indoors like we used to and we can go back to appreciating a nice sharp clear crisp day again.
It's totally miserable when you are cold indoors and we'd have def gone back to the UK by now if we hadn't moved to somewhere warmer.

Buzzy--Bee

IMHO the only good season in NZ (South Island) is Autumn, closely followed by winter.

Winter is freezing cold at nights because of lack of heating etc, but at least the days are sunny.
Spring is just wet damp mouldy and mildewy.
Summer is even wetter, 13 degrees with gale force winds and horizontal rain.
Autumn is nice, with sunny warm days and not much rain.

Just based on my experience of living in NZ.

Cheers

Buzzy

kiwichild

What I used to love doing was going to a good curry house in the UK after the pub. Can't get curries in OZ anywhere like the ones in London. Any luck in NZ with them yet? Have good curries taken off there at all yet?

sky

I can't find a decent chicken korma anywhere

kiwichild

This above all other reasons is why people probably leave NZ and OZ!!!

camelot

Yes. The proper chippy mushy peas are made from dried marrowfat peas.

camelot

Yes, it's marrowfat peas that go mushy after soaking and cooking. During the soaking process you add a couple a spoons of bicarb of soda (soak for about 24 hours) - I don't know if that makes 'em mushy during cooking or whether it gives that "eggy" flavour we all know and love (well us mushy pea lovers, anyway).

Yeah, those tinned jobs are gross, no comparison to the real thing at all.

Is there a Brit food shop that sells fresh cooked mushy peas?

Sugo

LOL i love it and its true, the closest curry to uk curry ive found is the cheap ones in the food court in westgate shopping centre, have tried currys from all over the place in welly and the hutt and they range from hot to even hotter and all taste the same, kiwi mates say they are more authentic here, they probably are but i just dont go there anymore, i do like the ones in the shopping cnetres and courtney place, good after a few beers, im sure they are well bad for you here.

as for my heating situation the night storage heater finally kicked in last night, however the sun came out today and my place has windows all around the house so came home to a tropical house, nearly died as i walked in, just cant win,

if i do buy here definately getting a wood burner and an insulated house, even if i find my dream house im not going for it unless its gonna keep my necassaries warm in the winter, dont want to many nights like last night

camelot

Me Too!! Oh that was such fun after a long night of boozing at the local nightclub at about 2am everyone ended up in the local curry house intoxicated, partying on, and abusing the indian waiters! hee hee hee...Oh happy days....I mean....nights...

I really miss that too. No we don't have that scene in NZ at all. It is more of a 'scene' back home, aint it?, it goes hand in hand with boozy fun-filled nights after the pub/club. Back home there's like a whole curry house sub-culture going on in the early hours.....it's so fantastic.....It's things like that I miss...(which is so dumb because I took it for granted when I lived there!)

I don't think Indian food has really "taken off" in NZ. They sorta like Thai and Med food (which is really peasant food, but they think it's incredibly exotic here, ha ha ha). I've had a few good curries here, but more bad ones. When one finds a good curry house here you tend to stick with it, coz some are crap!

The best curries are made in England. (well maybe India, but definitely England next)

camelot

Agreed, the food court curries are probably the best (and the cheapest).

Sugo

the nice thing with here though is less fights, i was amazed when i went into welly at night at how chilled it was, didnt see one fight, still havnt, i working in an emergency dept and we have alot less aggression here than the UK, more domestic abuse but less punch ups, so you can drink with a kiwi just dont marry one, (massive over generalisation dont mean to offend, however i think the statisitic is one in 3 women will be a victim of domestic abuse in their life time, firstly that insane, but true, ive seen women in my dept barerly recognisable by their own mothers, it is to some extent more prevelant in the maori, PI communities, either that or they are more likely to get help, difference here though is men are more likely to kick the woman when she is down, thats after knocking her down with a few left hooks. I hate it, and cant understand it at all. I definately wouldnt want to be a woman in New Zealand, scary for such a liberal country ).

mumomonty

Ice 3 nights running and we are in the north Island. It's shite.

camelot

I agree with you and it is nice to have less fights in public. I think the Brits have got to be the most agro race when it comes to drunken pub punch ups. I haven't seen any agro here when I'm out eitherl. Such a change to back home, a night out wasn't a night out without someone getting wasted or started on by some tanked up bully or gang of idiotic drunken louts. I don't miss that part.

But I do miss the general social scene minus the violence when everyone manages to behave themselves.

Here, though, they have house parties and there's trouble with drunken brawls at those - don't mean to be stereotypical but have you seen Once Were Warriors? It's not far from the truth of what you are saying about domestic violence, plus the drinking, and partying kiwi style.