I am from Scotland and I am often asked if I prefer the New Zealand climate, (since everyone knows that Scottish weather is crap) and generally I do prefer New Zealand, in Summer that is.The New Zealand winter however is crap!!
Why?
Well, let me begin by stating that yes, the Scottish winter is much colder than New Zealand and the New Zealand winter is actually quite mild. So whats the problem? sounds good right?
No.
The reason I think the New Zealand winter is crap, is that the mild winters they have here in Aotearoa NZ are drastically offset by the low standard of insulation and heating in NZ buildings.
Let me ask you this, even in summer, 'where do you spend most of your time? Indoors or outdoors?', well unless you are a gardener, farmer, or road worker perhaps, most people will spend most of their day inside at work and then inside at home, with shorter periods outdoors.
So if that's the case in summer, where do you spend most of your time in winter? that's right, indoors!New Zealand offices, New Zealand homes, New Zealand pubs, New Zealand cafes and New Zealand restaurants are all bloody freezing in winter!
New Zealand is the ONLY country I have ever been to where I have had to keep my coat on while at a restaurant, a restaurant for gods sake!!
In Scotland, like many places around the world with a colder climate, we have heated offices, pubs, schools, homes and in fact, pretty much every indoor place you can think of has some kind of modern heating, or at the very least basic insulation.
What I find funny is that New Zealander's just accept it, they think it is normal. Kiwis are deluded and probably think that New Zealand is as warm as our neighbours in Australia, so why do we need heating?
Trust me New Zealand buildings need heating and insulation!
So, being a Scot, I just laugh when people ask how cold it is in Scotland, I say, "yep, its cold, but only outside".Little do people realise that Scots, Canadians and probably Scandinavians are all a bunch of 'wimps' when it comes to cold weather. We like to be warm!
Give me a frozen lake or a snowball fight over a cold damp house, any day!
As you were! (brrrrrrr)
You live in New Zealand during winter when...
Here are some stats about NZ Homes
- 45% of existing homes are mouldy
- 16% of homes have no insulation at all
- 21% of people aged 18–24 say their home is cold and uncomfortable
- 84% of households say they don’t have the financial means to make energy-saving renovations
- Typically more than one third of the energy used in the home is for keeping warm
- Nearly two thirds of homes in New Zealand were built before insulation became a legal requirement in 1979—just over one million properties
- More than a quarter of the nation’s homes could be making their occupants ill
- More than 75% of people who rented or bought a home in the past two years did not check insulation, hot water cylinders, heaters and other water and energy efficiency appliances
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