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Q: “How long would my two dogs (both of which are healthy) need to be in quarantine? A: 30 days (See my previous article here: http://www.escapeartist.com/efam/66/Living_In_New_Zealand.html.) Q:“Can dogs travel such a long time in a plane without food or water? A: No…how cruel do you think the airlines are anyway? Animals are treated much better than humans on today’s modern planes! Since they will/must have food and water during their airplane adventures, it’s no problem. And you can save a couple of packs of peanuts to give them later if you’d like to share your experience with them. Q: “Do first run Hollywood movies come to NZ? A: Yes! They are just releasing “Titanic” next week! Woo hoo! Kidding. They showed Titanic here just last week! In all seriousness to your important question (and please ignore the snickering in the background) some movies are delayed a bit, others open here at the same time as in the U.S. The call is made by the movie makers, not the fact that the films are sent over on a slow steamship which brings provisions to the country every three months. No wait, that’s Antarctica…isn’t it? Q: “Are there multiplexes with stadium seating and big screens? Comment: Now
we’re getting into the serious and contemplative questions I was hoping
for! I told you these were very important enquiries and I’m guessing
this could be a make or break answer!
Q: “What about popcorn, soda, and chocolate-covered raisins?” A: No, sorry…just chocolate covered Kiwi fruit. Seriously (and it’s really hard to be now) yes, theatres are the same here as in the U.S. but on the upside they don’t charge your pay check for a bucket of popcorn! Q: “Can I get American television, such as NBC? What about HBO or Cinemax? No and yes. You can get HBO, etc. You cannot get NBC, CBS, ABC or Spike TV. But if you have satellite (and most people do) Sky News (UK/AU) shows the ABC and CBS Evening News every day…a good reminder of why we moved here in the first place! You can also watch CNN World and BBC World which to be honest have a much better balance of news as there are actually things happening elsewhere in the world. U.S. shows like The West Wing, 24, SVU, CSI, CSI Miami, CSI NY, CSI Bartlesville, etc. are shown but usually a season behind. So stop watching TV right now and you’ll be fine! As there is a large contingency of British immigrants here, there are a number of (good and bad) English Television shows as well. There is also one Maori channel too (fun to watch, but hard to understand). Overall the selection is pretty lousy as compared to U.S. television and even Kiwis carp about it. On the good side the scheduling is erratic too. The real fun is watching the commercials. If you grew up in a fairly small town but big enough to have “local” TV commercials, you’ll be right at home with the likes of the patio furniture store owner with the bad toupee hawking his wares on prime time! Q: “How strong is the dollar? A: Hmmm…which one, the U.S. dollar or the Kiwi dollar? Right now the NZ Dollar is very strong worldwide, as high as it’s been since it was introduced 20 years ago…particularly against the US Dollar which is bad news for Americans moving here and bringing their suitcases full of money. Note: carrying suitcases full of money is dangerous and might alert those beagles at the airport. If you’d like, you can just send it to me in an unmarked brown paper package and I’ll be sure you get it when you arrive. Or you can follow our wise financial counsel…leave as much at home as possible and wait for things to get better. Q: “How much would a great beach house cost? A: Hmmm again. “Great” is a relevant term isn’t it? On the South Island you could get something simple for $150K with penguins in the yard or something fancy on the beach near Auckland for two or three million! It really depends on a lot of things but beach front property here is less than in almost any equivalent place in the U.S. Q: “What about a nice car? A: Again…nice? Most people buy used Japanese imports here…small large and in between, but mostly small as gasoline is about US$3.20 a gallon right now. These cars cost about the same as in the U.S. Ford and GM (under the Holden badge) build and import cars from Australia here. Buying brand new “new to NZ” cars, Japanese, European and others is a fairly expensive proposition by comparison. Q: “What's the singles scene like?” A: Now we’re getting to the good stuff! Unfortunately (Hi Honey!) I’m not single so I don’t know much about it however I’m told it’s pretty good by those in the “know”. There are always lots of ads about things to do in the newspapers and I think per-capita there are more nightclubs here than in the U.S. I also hear things are pretty good, particularly in Wellington a fairly cosmopolitan city. If you’re young (or old) and single, there’s always something to do. Q: “Do Kiwi women tend to date foreigners? A: Yes, we know lots of “mixed” couples. When I say “mixed” I mean people that are from different countries…sometimes different planets it seems. Sincerely, we are personally acquainted with several couples that involve Americans and Kiwis. Mixtures of other nationalities are fairly common as well. Truth be told, this is quite an unbiased nation, another thing we like. They recently made civil unions legal here, much to the chagrin of one of the local far-right leaning churches. Overall Kiwis tend to treat each other on a level playing field no matter the gender, race,and religion or rugby team affiliate. Well, that last one causes a few “dust ups” now and again, but most folks get along fine and enjoy the cultural diversity…what there is of it here in any case. So dating a “foreigner” would not be unusual at all. Comment: Here's
a tough one.
Comment: Sit down; you’re probably not going to like this answer. A: You can certainly find similar work as I.T. is growing very quickly here. In fact, it’s the reason we’re here. My wife is in I.T. and I design, build and host websites for Kiwis as well as companies in the U.S. But…and this is a super-sized “but”…we can almost guarantee you wouldn’t earn the same wages. Kiwis earn on average about 25% to 40% or less than their U.S. cousins. Hence the “brain drain” of talented people moving to Canada, the U.S., etc. On the upside housing is cheaper, taxes are lower (no capital gains), some groceries are less, the air and water is clean, rush hour traffic in the cities only lasts an hour (it doesn’t exist many other places), the people are still very friendly and you can actually relax! It’s a trade off to be sure…but worth it to us. I hope that helps resolve some of the uncertainties about what it’s like to live here. And seriously, thanks to “Bob” and all of the others that have written thoughtful inquires. (And when those of you on AOL get your spam blockers adjusted, you’ll actually receive my thoughtful personal answers!) Moving from the United States to New Zealand is really a lifestyle choice. If you expect NZ to be America without as many people, it’s not…hopefully it never will be. It’s slower, calmer, not as consumer or consumption oriented and those that show off (“tall poppies” they call them here) are shunned. People don’t compete to have the best car, the biggest house or the most money. Kiwis are generally happy people and content with the nice things that they have. Lots of folks have money but you’d never know it and we really like that. We both made good money in the U.S. and we’re very blessed to be able to enjoy what we have in this beautiful “New Middle Earth”. We miss our old friends and family but manage to stay in touch thanks to the Internet. We miss Trader Joe’s and lunch at Applebies’. We long for a hamburger without beets! (Inside joke.) We (and when I say “we” I mean “I”) miss being able to drive down a straight road at 70 MPH! We even miss the extra money sometimes. But then we just step outside, take a deep breath, smell the sweet air, look at the incredibly blue sky and water and all of that goes away. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…New Zealand isn’t perfect, but it’s perfect for us! You may think so too, maybe not. You’ll never know until you visit…and that my friend is a MUST! And if when you do, could you pack a couple of bottles of Two Buck Chuck? Cheerz, till next time! The following are Rick's previous articles for the magazine:
Information On Emigrating To New Zealand http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migrant/
To contact
Rick Click Here
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Chapter
7 - New Zealand ~ 