Please List Positives (ONLY) of New Zealand
#16
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 2,813
Re: Please List Positives (ONLY) of New Zealand
Feijoa?
You use a spoon? I bite off the end and squeeze out all the jelly goodness then tear open the skin and scrape the 'flesh' out with my teeth. Feijoas, mmmmm.
#17
By name and by nature
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 1,852
Re: Please List Positives (ONLY) of New Zealand
Because if you close your eyes at a cat they take it as a sign of friendliness and most people who don't like them automatically close their eyes (even just blinking is enough) when a cat stares at them So...... they make a beeline for you My husband told me this years ago and I've since found it to be true.
I love the Auckland skyline too - we're big Stargate Atlantis fans and the first time I saw it I thought it looked like Atlantis rising out of the sea
I'm also married to a Kiwi who had been away for 13 years and although he really wanted to come home, I was the driving force behind WHEN. I couldn't wait to get here - I knew all the negatives and sometimes I look back on old posts and it's pretty much the way I thought it would be. We don't have children here so I don't have any advice/experience on that score but otherwise I think it's great. I think it's a bit easier for those of us with Kiwi family here - even if we used to be 12000 miles away from the mother in law and now we're only 12 minutes!
Anyway, good luck with your decision - there's lots of us here in the same boat so if you've any questions ask away.
I love the Auckland skyline too - we're big Stargate Atlantis fans and the first time I saw it I thought it looked like Atlantis rising out of the sea
I'm also married to a Kiwi who had been away for 13 years and although he really wanted to come home, I was the driving force behind WHEN. I couldn't wait to get here - I knew all the negatives and sometimes I look back on old posts and it's pretty much the way I thought it would be. We don't have children here so I don't have any advice/experience on that score but otherwise I think it's great. I think it's a bit easier for those of us with Kiwi family here - even if we used to be 12000 miles away from the mother in law and now we're only 12 minutes!
Anyway, good luck with your decision - there's lots of us here in the same boat so if you've any questions ask away.
#18
Re: Please List Positives (ONLY) of New Zealand
Because if you close your eyes at a cat they take it as a sign of friendliness and most people who don't like them automatically close their eyes (even just blinking is enough) when a cat stares at them So...... they make a beeline for you My husband told me this years ago and I've since found it to be true.
I love the Auckland skyline too - we're big Stargate Atlantis fans and the first time I saw it I thought it looked like Atlantis rising out of the sea
I'm also married to a Kiwi who had been away for 13 years and although he really wanted to come home, I was the driving force behind WHEN. I couldn't wait to get here - I knew all the negatives and sometimes I look back on old posts and it's pretty much the way I thought it would be. We don't have children here so I don't have any advice/experience on that score but otherwise I think it's great. I think it's a bit easier for those of us with Kiwi family here - even if we used to be 12000 miles away from the mother in law and now we're only 12 minutes!
Anyway, good luck with your decision - there's lots of us here in the same boat so if you've any questions ask away.
I love the Auckland skyline too - we're big Stargate Atlantis fans and the first time I saw it I thought it looked like Atlantis rising out of the sea
I'm also married to a Kiwi who had been away for 13 years and although he really wanted to come home, I was the driving force behind WHEN. I couldn't wait to get here - I knew all the negatives and sometimes I look back on old posts and it's pretty much the way I thought it would be. We don't have children here so I don't have any advice/experience on that score but otherwise I think it's great. I think it's a bit easier for those of us with Kiwi family here - even if we used to be 12000 miles away from the mother in law and now we're only 12 minutes!
Anyway, good luck with your decision - there's lots of us here in the same boat so if you've any questions ask away.
I have always known that Owen wanted to come home, its been a case of financial side more for us, although we probably could have done it before now, I think we were just waiting for something to push us over the edge, and that happened this time last year, and here we are.
Owen likes SG Atlantis, and now that I think about it, you could well be right there
It takes time to get used to mother in law being so close when as you say been over the other side of the world for so long
and back to the thread topic...I had never tasted Feijoas till I got here, and they are looverly
#19
Re: Please List Positives (ONLY) of New Zealand
I like feeling different, I'm like a new person.
Since stepping out of the rat race, I feel healthier and happier.
Back home, routine was, in from work at 5.30pm, so knackered ready for bed by 8pm. I have a life now.
Since stepping out of the rat race, I feel healthier and happier.
Back home, routine was, in from work at 5.30pm, so knackered ready for bed by 8pm. I have a life now.
#20
Re: Please List Positives (ONLY) of New Zealand
My OH tells me I am less stressed with the day to day general things in life...so that has to be good surely
#21
Re: Please List Positives (ONLY) of New Zealand
I have never had a feijoa but i will this winter if they are that nice, and now I know how to eat them
I just love this place, climate, lifestyle, countryside, beaches, little places that you stumble across and get blown away by the beauty of it, and there is NO-ONE else around, so for the time that you are there it is all yours.
No poisonous stuff to worry about.
Getting on the Devonport/Auckland ferry then dossing about for the day in the parks of the city, listening to free Jazz concerts, having a glass or two of yummy NZ wine, then back on the ferry to go home, and feeling at the end of the day that you have been on a 'mini break'
Oh and the food, for the first two years we ate out at least once a week, so reasonable and fresh and tasty. Now we have a new(ish) addition to the family we only eat out once a month but its better in a way as it's more of a treat.
The little islands dotted all around this stretch of the coast line, on a clear day they look so close you can make out the terrain of them, and other days its as if they are not there at all. Bit like the Isle of Wight from Portsmouth
Well, things like this make it for me, even on my worst day I can raise a smile by just looking around me.
I just love this place, climate, lifestyle, countryside, beaches, little places that you stumble across and get blown away by the beauty of it, and there is NO-ONE else around, so for the time that you are there it is all yours.
No poisonous stuff to worry about.
Getting on the Devonport/Auckland ferry then dossing about for the day in the parks of the city, listening to free Jazz concerts, having a glass or two of yummy NZ wine, then back on the ferry to go home, and feeling at the end of the day that you have been on a 'mini break'
Oh and the food, for the first two years we ate out at least once a week, so reasonable and fresh and tasty. Now we have a new(ish) addition to the family we only eat out once a month but its better in a way as it's more of a treat.
The little islands dotted all around this stretch of the coast line, on a clear day they look so close you can make out the terrain of them, and other days its as if they are not there at all. Bit like the Isle of Wight from Portsmouth
Well, things like this make it for me, even on my worst day I can raise a smile by just looking around me.
#22
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 402
Re: Please List Positives (ONLY) of New Zealand
Today is Friday, I have spent the week travelling various wineries around the South Island. I now know most of the wine makers here in NZ and it is my job to sell them equipment.
When I get home, to Renwick near Blenheim, my wife Melissa, tells me about her day working in the vineyard as we share a beautiful bottle of wine. She also is very enthusiastic about her recent success in training ex trotting horses to be ridden for a local horses trekking company.
We will spend this weekend, fishing and diving for crayfish. Sunday we will go to the local farmers market, get some excellent produce and enjoy a great dinner out in the garden, some more wine (of course) and listen to some great Kiwi music - (MAZI is right!).
I have to pinch myself sometimes......I am a long way from Sheffield and I never knew life could be this good.
When I get home, to Renwick near Blenheim, my wife Melissa, tells me about her day working in the vineyard as we share a beautiful bottle of wine. She also is very enthusiastic about her recent success in training ex trotting horses to be ridden for a local horses trekking company.
We will spend this weekend, fishing and diving for crayfish. Sunday we will go to the local farmers market, get some excellent produce and enjoy a great dinner out in the garden, some more wine (of course) and listen to some great Kiwi music - (MAZI is right!).
I have to pinch myself sometimes......I am a long way from Sheffield and I never knew life could be this good.
#23
Re: Please List Positives (ONLY) of New Zealand
Today is Friday, I have spent the week travelling various wineries around the South Island. I now know most of the wine makers here in NZ and it is my job to sell them equipment.
When I get home, to Renwick near Blenheim, my wife Melissa, tells me about her day working in the vineyard as we share a beautiful bottle of wine. She also is very enthusiastic about her recent success in training ex trotting horses to be ridden for a local horses trekking company.
We will spend this weekend, fishing and diving for crayfish. Sunday we will go to the local farmers market, get some excellent produce and enjoy a great dinner out in the garden, some more wine (of course) and listen to some great Kiwi music - (MAZI is right!).
I have to pinch myself sometimes......I am a long way from Sheffield and I never knew life could be this good.
When I get home, to Renwick near Blenheim, my wife Melissa, tells me about her day working in the vineyard as we share a beautiful bottle of wine. She also is very enthusiastic about her recent success in training ex trotting horses to be ridden for a local horses trekking company.
We will spend this weekend, fishing and diving for crayfish. Sunday we will go to the local farmers market, get some excellent produce and enjoy a great dinner out in the garden, some more wine (of course) and listen to some great Kiwi music - (MAZI is right!).
I have to pinch myself sometimes......I am a long way from Sheffield and I never knew life could be this good.
Blimey you've given me goosebumps! That sounds like heaven! What a life hey? I'm so pleased for you (and jealous! I still haven't had crayfish!).
You mention Sheffield, well, it was whilst working in and living near Sheffield for a year that we decided to come here. It was the furthest place from Sheffield we could think of! It started as a joke but ended up happening much to our amazement!
Last edited by Jude J; Jan 18th 2007 at 9:42 pm. Reason: clarification
#24
Re: Please List Positives (ONLY) of New Zealand
NZ Positives:
Relatively unpopulated
Isolated from many of the world's problems
Relaxed
Outlook is positive
Great place for kids
Scenery makes you go Wow
Dominant "middle class" values (I use the words middle class because I can't think of any alternative, there is little class distinction in NZ)
Relatively unpopulated
Isolated from many of the world's problems
Relaxed
Outlook is positive
Great place for kids
Scenery makes you go Wow
Dominant "middle class" values (I use the words middle class because I can't think of any alternative, there is little class distinction in NZ)
#25
Re: Please List Positives (ONLY) of New Zealand
Today is Friday, I have spent the week travelling various wineries around the South Island. I now know most of the wine makers here in NZ and it is my job to sell them equipment.
When I get home, to Renwick near Blenheim, my wife Melissa, tells me about her day working in the vineyard as we share a beautiful bottle of wine. She also is very enthusiastic about her recent success in training ex trotting horses to be ridden for a local horses trekking company.
We will spend this weekend, fishing and diving for crayfish. Sunday we will go to the local farmers market, get some excellent produce and enjoy a great dinner out in the garden, some more wine (of course) and listen to some great Kiwi music - (MAZI is right!).
I have to pinch myself sometimes......I am a long way from Sheffield and I never knew life could be this good.
When I get home, to Renwick near Blenheim, my wife Melissa, tells me about her day working in the vineyard as we share a beautiful bottle of wine. She also is very enthusiastic about her recent success in training ex trotting horses to be ridden for a local horses trekking company.
We will spend this weekend, fishing and diving for crayfish. Sunday we will go to the local farmers market, get some excellent produce and enjoy a great dinner out in the garden, some more wine (of course) and listen to some great Kiwi music - (MAZI is right!).
I have to pinch myself sometimes......I am a long way from Sheffield and I never knew life could be this good.
I too (boring now) married a Kiwi and I've badgered him for nearly 20 years to "Go Home" in an ET stylie!!
It roughly took 3 weeks for our kids citizenship by descent certificates and their NZ passports to come back, very straightforward.
My residency, as the alien in the family, took rather longer, 3 months, but got there in the end.
#26
Re: Please List Positives (ONLY) of New Zealand
just insert Glasgow for Sheffield.
Karma to you - that post made me smile even more.
#28
Account Closed
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 1,585
Re: Please List Positives (ONLY) of New Zealand
SCARY. That was my 666th post. And as I type this it is midnight according to my computer.