LukeandJo

Some real nice comments there!
I can't wait to leave the UK, leave behind my crap going no where job and the people I work with and getting on with my life!

cappuccino

I once left my handbag on the bench in the gym changing room, forgetting to lock it in my locker in my haste to get to my exercise class. Bag contained passport and about $200. Bag was still there, intact, when I returned to the changing room after the class!!

LukeandJo

In the Uk that would have been a terror alert and your bag would have been destroyed!

Stormer999

After 2 years of research and investigating NZ and relocating to NZ I have reached the conclusion that the UK as is and as will be with Europe intake over the next 10 years is a def no go for me and wife. I have been fairly sure that NZ is the place and after a trip over we decided to go for it. What reservations I have had deep down have just been dispelled by reading this post. Thany you...

Sherlock Holmes

Scuse me butting in from across the water, but what a nice thread. A very pleasant change. All the good points go for Oz as well.

Stormer999

We were in AKL, the big city, on a holiday to look see. We had stopped on a main street with a city map out looking for directions for the ferry to Devonport, a suited city type came over and offered help and pointed us in the right direction, he was so pleasant and helpful he brightened up my day.
South Island we had stopped at a bar in Fairlie the only people in the bar were a couple of farm workers they invited us over to their table to join in the conversation as we were strangers to the town. We were having a beer in a bar at Lake Te Anau and chatted to a sheep farmer for a while. On parting he told us to drop by his farm in the morning to look see how a NZ sheep farm works and if he wasn't around go in and make ourselves a coffee until he gets back as the door is never locked.
I spent over a week trying to get used to this friendliness as I was always looking for the "real reason"....I eventually realised this was for real.... At this point I started to wonder why I distrusted in the first place........
But I came back and soon realised why....

drrobert

Yes, unfortunately, NZ is beginning to change, especially the supermarkets.

When I arrived three years ago, my shopping was always packed for me at New World. After a year or so, the packers were less frequent. Now half the checkouts are 'self service'... UK service here we come!

Still, I'm very much enjoying the service at other stores while it lasts!

jmh

Slightly off the point, but I laugh every time my mum comes to the UK and we go shopping and she just stands there like lady muck expecting her shopping to be packed. Of course that's what she expects at home.

She shops at New World so she might be in for a shock. Hope not.

Stormer999

More and more people giving up trying to go supermarket shopping in the UK and having order home delivered. Heavy traffic to get to store, fight for a parking space, run the gauntlet of basket fighting in the overcrowded isles, try to find products that havn't been opened for a quick sniff or worse a finger dip, then join the inevitable queue to reach a checkout of 6 manned tills out of the 18 available, pack your own shopping and get to the car and home before it gets dark......

gocebe

public toilets in the middle of nowhere. clean, unvandalised, untagged, no syringes, no broken glass. often with toilet paper.

KayC

This post has really made us smile We are coming over in February and are now looking forward to all of this even more than we were

cappuccino

I often wonder who/how the cleaners get to these really remote toilets

Another good/funny thing I experienced on Sth Island a couple of years ago was driving with some friends in a 4x4 filled to the brim with people/luggage etc. A police car appeared from nowhere, put his lights on and flagged us down. My friend was panicking thinking we were in trouble for overloading the vehicle. It turned out that something had fallen off the roof-rack a few miles back, someone walking saw it fall, picked it up and noted the car make and rego, then handed it to the police who were nearby, whilst they went off home. The police then decided to drive on and find us and return the item.

Expat Kiwi

Any word about the Palmy North school caretaker that was involved in a drive by shooting yesterday? must've been quite an ordeal for the kids when the school went into lockdown?

Same sort of thing happens over here too unfortunately, is nowhere safe these days ?

Genesis

Discharged, however pellet still in arm???? Not a very 'cool' thing eh?

cappuccino

Yes this is sad but doesn't need to be part of the 'cool' thread!