Things I Love about New Zealand

OK, I have been slagging off New Zealand a bit recently, with the blog on bad Kiwi drivers and the state of the New Zealand Defence Force, so I have decided to say why I live here and the things I love about New Zealand in comparison to Scotland.

People:
New Zealanders are friendly, really friendly and that goes beyond those who are in your own ethnic groups (European White, in my case) for example, at the local corner shop (dairy as we call it) you will always find a smile and a conversation with the person behind the counter, be they Indian, Pakistani, Chinese whatever. Something about NZ really brings the friendliness out of people. In Scotland, the local shop is usually manned by someone who is yapping on the phone, ignores you, takes your money and doesn't say "thank you"

Weather:
As much as I hate the New Zealand winter (cold, miserable, damp and long on the North Island) I love the NZ summers, they are long, hot and for about 4 months out of the year you really do feel like you are in that movie with the picture postcard beaches, bikinis, cars, smiles and general feeling of joy.

Food:
The food you can get here is just fantastic, especially the range of Asian food you can get, such as Thai, Chinese, Laos, Malaysian, Japanese, Korean, Indian and many more. Food is more authentic, cheaper and everywhere! by comparison to Scotland. Food courts are abundant and eating out in general is far more affordable to NZ compared to many other western countries I have been to. Even though NZ is just as far, if not further away from South East Asia than other western nations, we seem to get all the really good stuff here. I have found that since I moved to NZ, my diet has been substantially improved.

Drink: Wine and Beer, NZ does them both in great quality and in an amazing variety given the small size of the country. New Zealand Wine and Beer makers seem to have no problem with experimenting with different flavours and combinations.

Scenery:
Now I would never go as far as saying that the scenery here in NZ is as amazing as Scotland, but in its own right, NZ is simply a spectacular country full of snowy mountains, giant lakes, long rivers, rolling green hills, steep valleys, dramatic gorges, exotic golden beaches and wild surf. One thing in particular that always stands out to me as a Scot (northern-hemispherian) is the colour of the water. What I mean by that is, lakes are blue, silver, turquoise and almost white in some cases. Amazing! The harbours and islands have sublime green and emerald water, enough to make you just stare at it in wonder.

Easy:
Things are generally easy, such as Tax, owning a car, immigration, paying bills. Due to the fact there is only just over 4 million people here in New Zealand, doing the above essentials are just easier, you don't have to wait as long and processes are much more simplified.

Eftpos:
Now I know the rest of the world has probably caught up by now, but NZ was one of the first countries to get EFTPOS and I love it, 99.9% of places accept it.

Beaches:
Where I live in Auckland, we have numerous beaches we go to in summer. One called Cheltenham beach which is simply superb. Clean, clear water, no rip tides, no sharks, golden sand, just perfect and the great thing about NZ is, even here in Auckland, a city of 1.2Million people, you can always find a parking place and get a swim in without too much stress. By comparison, even in Sydney Australia, it can actually be a very stressful and time consuming mission just to get to the beach.

Crime:
Although there is a high rate of organised crime here, I have always felt safe when it comes to my car, house and property etc. Burglaries do happen I am sure, but generally crime here is low and confined to only certain bad neighbourhoods.

Socialising:
Although NZ lacks the great British pub culture, they make up for it in summer when people get together for that Barbecue on a warm summers night, beer flows and steaks sizzle, awesome.

UK-ish
NZ still retains a great many things handed down from the UK and I am not just talking about the parliamentary or legal system. TV is similar, humour can be very similar and if you do find yourself craving something from home there are always expat shops filled with your favourite goodies and you can easily get fish n chips or a pie and probably in much better quality too. Also there is UKTV on Sky (which is awesome) and Sky News regularly cuts over to London for the latest headlines.

It can be very strange watching the Weather report for the UK, while sitting in Auckland :-)