Q's about New Zealand

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It's acutally in Holland.

What is Old Zealand?

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

The old Zeeland is a provice in the Netherlands and has a goddess called Nehalennia.

Also there is a town in Michigan called Zeeland, if I move to the states I will live there and refuse to live anywhere else.

Also there is a Zealand in Canada. I heard that Canadians were better than Americans, so I might move to there instead.

I wonder if they have heaps of sheep there.

Probably no sheeps but yeah I'd go to Canada. I think they have way better health benefits than here. Plus, ppl say they're much cleaner LOL, whatever that means.

There must be at least some sheep there.

I couldn't imagine living in a place with no sheep.

I could bring some with me and release them into the city and let them cause mayhem.

Don Brash is the worst person in the world to interview; he avoids all questions, spouts propaganda, and patronises the hell out of you for being female. He also made comments about my friend's breasticles. Can't stand the man.

Same. I was biting my nails at the last election when it looked close for a while. John Key also worries me. He says whatever you want to hear. When asked about his religion by three different groups, he gave three different answers. He also owns a McMansion and is a total yuppie.

Labour might not be perfect, but I'd rather have Helen as our leader. We're one of the few countries not up to our neck in global debt, and they just put the business tax down to 30% so I'm happy. I'm an adviser to some of the ministries down in Wellington and there are some great people helping run New Zealand. I gave up trying to be entrepreneurial in the UK. Here it's easy.

I like Jeanette, she wreaks of sweet greenie goodness

His statement a number of years ago where he said New Zealand should have sent troops to Iraq just because "our friends were doing it" is disturbing and shows a lack of judgement.

Some pictures from Taupo, my current hometown:


The christmas / new year carnival in Taupo (didn't do so well this time)


Main Street in Taupo, technically a part of State Highway 1


In the carpark of the Waiouru Army Memorial Museum, Waiouru. Behind it (out of photograph) is the residential barracks of Army Training Group Waiouru, New Zealand Army. Waiouru (also known as "Wiberia" for it's remoteness) is located at the southern end of the "Desert Road" which, as you may guess, goes through New Zealand's only official desert. I remember as a child, seeing the back end of a Tank or APC as it went behind a hill. In the 80's you would even see the odd smoking crater near the desert road, from artillery practice fire!

The Army used to go fishing with Howitzers (Artillery) in the south island! I think the practice was stopped, though.


You can see the volcanoes of the Central Plateau from the desert rd. This one is Ngauruhoe, with that classic cinder cone shape.


Mount Ruapehu, the tallest mountain in the north island, and a semi-active volcano. It last erupted within the last year, for a couple of days, all show. I think earlier it's crater lake also ruptured (as predicted) and caused a lahar (mudflow), local emergency staff were well prepared and there was no loss of life.

I'd love to see more pictures of NZ. Would you kiwis mind starting a pic thread?

Not the pics you find on the net that taken by professionals for travel advertisement purposes... i'd love to see pics of the cities, the towns.. you know, slice of life type of thing.

I've been looking at Wellington as a likely place to go live (love the wind!)

I don't have any pictures of New Zealand cities, but I can say some things about them that might be interesting.

(I was going to put a map, but my membership is too new, so I can't.)

Wellington (the capital) is great for the wind, if you don't mind the cold rain coming with it often. It's full of artsy and weird people, especially in the central city. I find them intimidatingly social, and get annoyed with the flakiness, but other people think it's a great atmosphere - cafes, culture, politics etc.

Auckland is just another big city - there's not much point moving to New Zealand if you're going to live in Auckland. It has a corporate feel to it, and terrible public transport, but is more spread out and full of random parks (the green grassy kind) than normal big cities. There are lots of asian people in the central city, and lots of pacific islanders and maori in the south, and a good dosage of people from other countries who've come to check out NZ everywhere else - it has great food, but isn't a good old fashioned kiwi experience. And the humidity is driving me crazy!

Christchurch is a rather conservative city. It has its groups of odd ones like anywhere, but it behaves like a much smaller and britisher town than it is. Nice, but not really memorable.

Dunedin is a student party town with some old people around the edges. I haven't lived there, so I shouldn't even say this much about it.

Rotorua, Taupo and Queenstown, Franz Josef and Kaikoura are tourist-towns - amazing nature, but very loud and commercialized. Nelson and Blenheim are very touristy over summer, but otherwise very nice in scenery and climate.

Hamilton is boring and trying very hard not to be.

Invercargill is fascinating, but very, very cold and isolated. Stewart Island is similar, but more so.

Small towns anywhere in New Zealand will take quite a bit of culture adjusting for anyone from a city. The life tends to be very laid back and the locals may be wary of newcomers. It is my aspiration to settle in a small town in the South Island (somewhere near the snow!) and be a builder, farmer and the local mad cat lady. I expect, and would be happy with good-natured avoidance from the locals.

Friends of mine from the USA say that they are amazed at how little work people do in NZ, and that the super-competitive job culture isn't here. I find my job very stressful already, so I can't imagine how it would be if I lived in the USA.

I like the low population density and pretty nature here, and the possibility of living a sensibly small distance from both beach and snow, but New Zealand has major depression, suicide and domestic violence problems (supposedly worse than other comparable Western modern countries). It is the culture to keep both your problems and successes to yourself - people are seen as weak if they talk about their problems, and it is customary to be mean about anyone who is openly successful. This is only a stereotype of course, but it seems to have some basis in truth. New Zealanders typically are only satisfied when an uncomplaining, tough "under-dog" wins.

Australia is the only other country I would consider living in - I grew up there. The people are (stereotypically) ruder, louder and more friendly, but they have a lot in common with New Zealanders.

100% my kind of place then.


You mentioned the work difference between NZ and the US.. its not something I can grasp really. I know that NZ get more vacation time then in the US (which makes it even nicer to move there haha) but I do not see how every-day work can be that different.

Hope to find out by myself soon if all goes well. That work / residence permit is rather hard to get

I haven't worked in the states, so I can't be sure. To guess, in addition to the extra holidays, prestige is not so based on wealth and seniority at work, there is less competition for promotions, and less pressure to compete for the boss's approval. These are things I've been told about - I don't tend to notice them in my everyday tasks, but if this kind of ambition were an important part of keeping a job, I would be in trouble.

Good luck with the work permit

How's the economic situation in NZ at this moment?


Getting companies going broke / laying off thousands of employees or is it holding steady?

Alas, New Zealand's been in recession for months. All the jobs have dried up.