lardyl

spot on - suppose it would be like a scandinavian or canadian going to the UK and saying
"gawd blimey you can't cope in this cold snap can you as everyone skates around on 4 inches of snow - plus your homes aren't well insulated are they"
would that attract a tumult of xenophobic language directed at whinging so-and-sos? maybe but *not* as universally as it does here I'd wager - where it is so endemic that the attitude is aped by us ex-Pats (believe me I shout the same thing at the missus on the odd occasion).
perhaps that is more of a problem or is it just a symptom of something else - Kiwis are less tolerant than Brits (in the main - probably something to do with goegraphy)??
believe me when you arrive in NZ you'll see that its not just the physical environment that is outdated - a lot of the predjudices are too!
must say I am with Mazi/mcuddy on this one......and I like the cold, the place and the kiwi "can do" attitude

Sue

Good grief if you read over my posts you will see I have no problem with negative posts! I think it's better to research the positive and the negative in order to be properly prepared. Plus we all need a little moan now and again, its only natural and sometimes the only people who will understand are fellow brits who have also made the move. However there is an appropriate way posting. The OP of this thread has made a polite post about his experience of winter, there's nothing wrong with that. The other post that was removed was only posted to cause trouble hence the reason is was deleted. Believe me we've run this site for 7 years I know what I'm talking about

deboltz

i grew up in london with fake central heating and aluminium windows which use to freeze on the inside

i think ill be ok

OH on the other hand grew up in iran - i wont tell him about NZ cold just yet

ceri75

best not...ease him in slowly

Woodlea

Surely Iran will be freezing in the winter at night?

dicknlyn

Ah, bliss... my sentiments entirely.

teambwr47

Could have gone on much more about things like people on various forums who moan about not making kiwi friends but seem happy to arrange 'ex-pat' nights out etc and some who 'don't know what they'd do with the forum'?

Can't go on much more or my moderator 'Nisey' will kick me where it hurts

malcoltom

God, that was a 'heated' debate!

dicknlyn

Well you obviously haven't read it all, Malcoltom...I've already cracked that joke!

lapsed kiwi

I think the OP made a very good point re the lack of heating but then let himself down a bit by whinging about every form of heating except good old British central heating. Heat pumps can be an excellent way to heat a house, provided you choose a model suitable for the ambient climate, you can even get fully ducted systems to heat the whole place. They're also extremely eco-friendly if you're living in a country with abundant hydro-power. Log burners similarly can be efficient, carbon-neutral, cheap ways to heat your house and if you have a heat transfer system you can spread the warmth.
Interesting point about warmth in shops etc. When I moved from NZ to UK at age 17, I hated shopping in winter. You'd get all dressed up for the freezing weather, then the instant you step into a shop, you're met by a blast of hot air from a heater over the door and spend all your time in the shop sweating your nuts off. You almost need hat and coat racks just inside the shop.

Him and Me

When i was growing up, we had "crying windows" which would ice up in the winter,so you could write messages on them and NO central heating, and only 1 gas fire in the lounge to keeps us all warm. I used to sleep in 2 layers of clothes and extra blankets to keep warm.

My parents still live in the same house and have only just got central heating and double glazing windows in the past 5 years

So i think i should be ok when we eventually get to NZ

Littletoe

I don't think I could live in the SI, unless we were buying/building and then I would have central heating. When hubby came over from NZ to the UK, he complained about central heating, he constantly had a sore throat and felt stuffy!

In our home here in Auckland, the girls' rooms have oil heaters plugged in, and thick pjs, so they stay nice and warm all night. We have a woodburner that is really effective. I like the smell of the fire, it reminds me of christmas! The heat goes up the flume, and takes care of most of the upstairs, and in our room we have an oil heater that we put on for about an hour or two before bed, so the bedroom is warm. And of course, the bathrooms have underfloor heating.

I used to live in the country in the UK and you'd be lucky if they bothered to come and grit the roads out there. Like most drivers, we learnt to drive to the conditions and there were rarely accidents out near us. Maybe that says something about NZ drivers?!

If you rent, maybe this is something to take into consideration for your next property? Or if you own, it seems there is lots more research to be done about effective and economical heating. Things with high price tags usually have some sort of payment plan because the average salary is so low here.

Oh, and don't forget your thermal undies from the Warehouse!

southerner

Hi slippery - I agree the council's gritting is a bit haphazard at times.

But it does seem to be a bit better than a couple of years ago when they were really caught out once by a late frost with black ice (which to be fair you can't do too much about if you were not expecting it). There was carnage.

I presume you come into town on the Northern route, which lets face it is a windy and steep road over a decent sized mountain. Have you written to the council to complain?

The problem is, there are a lot of roads in Dunedin, many of them steep, and many of them way out in the country as well. At times there just will not be enough manpower and resources to get the roads into good shape early every morning. We all benefit from having way fewer cars on the road than would be in Britain, with more roading per population. The flip side to that is that it becomes more difficult to maintain all those roads given the level of population and rates.

So in many ways, it is a fact of life, and you might need to grin and bare it.

With heating, all you can do is pay your money to put in the level of heating and insulation that you want. Thats what many of us do, and many locals are doing the same too. On the other hand (and this is not a criticism, just another way of looking at it) the level of heat that most people in the UK live in is extravagant (and personally I find it stuffy).

There is way to much energy used on home heating in the UK (and mainly fossil fuel based). Correspondingly in NZ there is probably way too little energy used (and it is mainly energy from renewable sources). Somewhere in the middle is probably about right.

Like some others have said, the type of heating used in the Uk might not be the most appropriate for use in NZ. And it would be interesting to see when the North Sea gas does run out, or Russia decides to stop pumping its gas west, whether heat pumps might the become the heating system of choice in the UK.

southerner

It still can be a shock to the system, don't underestimate it.

Andrew Cross

The only plus side for me, with no central heating is that back home we had it on very high for about 8 months of the year. I hate being cold. I had so many colds, chest infections etc and in 1.5 years in Nz I have not had one. I can only put that down to the fact that we dont have central heating in the house and the house has the windows open to allow it to 'breathe'. Now we have a heatpump, we shall see if that has the same effect...