Farewell Aotearoa

It’s hard to believe I am coming to the end of my time in New Zealand. It is such a varied and beautiful country – I met a woman who said we don’t have history but we have scenery! And they have it in spades.

      The New Zealand people are really nice and friendly – way nicer than the Aussies. Much as I loved Australia, the people you meet in public were very closed and there was no chit-chat, the way there is at home. I think the Australians are very insular and their interest in people isn’t huge. The Kiwis, like the Irish, are much more outward looking, and in general interested in other people and always up for a chat. Which is nice. I had to stop myself talking in Australia because yougot nothing back, but lots of chats here!

It is still a very rural country, more than I expected. People are proud of the land and their history, though they sometimes apologise for not having any. And it’s true in a way – I have seen things in museums that are about 30 years old! Really old here is 100 years and anything with 18 in front of it is revered!!  It is amazing what the people of New Zealand and Australia have achieved in a short space of time.

The heritage is more distinctly British than I anticipated – though lots of Irish emgrated here, the early New Zealand state clearly aligned itself with Britian and saw Britian as ‘home’. An awful lot of the architecture is very British and is surprising sometimes – like the big Elizabethan bathhouse in Rotorua. Probably because of the British heritage, they are very civic minded, way more than the  Irish. They don’t litter like we do, the roads (though extremely narrow in places) are very well signposted, and they care about the society they live in. And they know how to make a nice cup of tea – unlike the Aussies! (I still love Australia).

However I find them strange in some things. There is practically no central heating in any of the houses here! As the lovely Dutch girl I met said – they live like it’s summer all year, but it’s not! At best you get an air conditioner on the wall, at worst plug in heaters and electic blankets. There are stories on the news about people dying in cold council houses – it’s mental.

They can also be a bit aggressive on the roads – driving up your arse aggressive. And I confirmed this with my New Zealand cousins so it wasn’t just me! I had to just ignore them, as it was challenging enough as it was – lots of narrow and windy roads.

Another fascinating thing about NZ (which I didn’t mention before because some people would worry more than they are already) is that NZ is basically built along a fault line, with the Australian and Pacific plates colliding in a lot of the country, so it’s very earthquake prone. Wellington is right on a fault line – there is a street called the Terrace which is right on it – picture attached! It’s unbelievable really – my cousin John has a survival kit in the boot of his car to enable him get home in the event of an earthquake. It’s a real risk here and people know what to do in the event of an earthquake – they happen all the time. I have an app on my phone which lists them all!

It is a beautiful country – I have had a fantastic time and am very sorry to be leaving. I met up with my cousin John  and his lovely wife Emma in Wellington,  and my dad’s cousin Therese in Auckland and her family, and had a fantastic time with both, having been so warmly welcomed. New Zealand hospitality is second to none. Like the country really.