How on earth can time possibly go by this fast? In a few short days Marc and I will be celebrating our 1 year "Living in New Zealand" anniversary! I must admit, it shocks me that a year has gone by already.
When we arrived in NZ I was going to try to write a post here every few weeks or at minimum at least once a month... abysmal fail! It's been such a crazy year and everything else seems to come ahead of blogging. I guess I'll try harder for year number 2!
Why do I get this guilty, slacking off feeling when I sit down to blog, like I really should be 'doing something'? It's encompassing me right now actually. Fellow bloggers, do you get this feeling???
Anyways.. I'm pushing this feeling aside for right now and will try to sum up our first year in New Zealand... what a year it's been! Marc, don't worry, I'll get back to work shortly ;)
First year impressions of New Zealand - I can't say it enough - WOW, WOW, WOW. I'm in awe of this country every single day. While nothing or nowhere is perfect, NZ sets the bar pretty darn high.
The scenery: epic. The people: the kindest, the warmest, the funniest. The climate: great, and very under-rated. Opportunities: everywhere you turn. Some aspects of NZ are very similar to Canada, some are drastically different. As for every day living, some ways of doing things are greatly improved upon from home, some are most frustrating. It's so laid back and relaxed but of course that makes it hard when you want something 'now'. There are no late night shopping hours (that could be different in the city of Auckland). If you're going out for dinner, do it before 7pm or you won't find a restaurant open. Some restaurants are open until "late" but at times those restaurants decide the 630pm is considered to be "late" ;)
Those things get frustrating sometimes with so many things done here at a very slow or inefficient pace. I have a crazy productive side to me and I really struggle with anything that isn't incredibly efficient.. needless to say, this year has been a lesson in patience for me. But on the other hand, some things here are done in such a simplistic and easy way that I wonder why we can't do the same at home. I'll give some examples a bit later on.
So what have we done in this first year? Everything that we could possibly fit in! We've made some incredible new friends here.. some from the UK, some from NZ. We try to live a normal 'working' life during the week and then we try to be tourists/travelers most every weekend. We've traveled around about 80% of the north island, with the other 20% being covered in Sept/Oct this year. We've driven, we've hiked, we've sailed, we've traveled by train. We've flown, we've dived and one of us even jumped off the Auckland sky tower. As a photographer, I couldn't wish for anything more beautiful than New Zealand and I've taken thousands upon thousands photos. We've started a new business here. We're learning several new languages.. Kiwi, Maori, and British ;) Yes, it's true.. British is an entire different language to our English at home! (I'll save that for another blog post of it's own). Needless to say, it's been a very busy year and I don't see any signs of that slowing down over the next year.
So, to sum up year 1 -- It's been INCREDIBLE. Of course, there are those days of incredible homesickness too - those days where I would give anything to hug my kids, hold my granddaughter, have tea with my mom.. but on the other side of that I do know that we are both so blessed to have this opportunity to live in such an amazing place. This really is a land of opportunity. I believe New Zealand is still a new frontier :)
Winter is now wrapping up but I must say that I don't even feel like we had a winter. Winter here doesn't mean buckets of rain and gray skies, ice, slush and then even more rain. Here, it's most always sunny skies with a few overnight frosts during the winter (we can count them on one hand). Most every day you can be outside without needing a jacket. I haven't gone more that a few days this winter without managing to sneak into my favorite flip-flops. Walks on the beach in bare-feet.. all year long :)
Snow, only if you opt to go to the mountains to see it. In fact, you can't even buy snow tires here! No anti-freeze or ice scrappers are needed either. When there is a frost, it disappears the second the sun rises. There are birds everywhere because they don't migrate away from here. There are flowers blooming all winter. Even my daffodils have been in bloom since late June. Lemons, limes, grapefruits, veggies.. they just continue to grow :) My thyme, rosemary, sage, chives have all survived the winter and are full with new foliage :) My neighbour has a huge jasmine plant that is about 20' wide, and 15' tall and it's been in continuous bloom. It sits right beside a beautiful and massive eucalyptus tree (sadly there are no Koala's here!)
In the year that we've been here I believe there have only been a handful of days where we've been 'rained in'. Most times when it's stormy and rainy it's very short lived and the sun is back out before we know it. The local farmers market runs every Saturday and I think in this entire year there has only been 1 that was rained out.
It's lambing season right now. There are furry little babies everywhere you look! Twins, triplets and overprotective moms. I'm still hoping for an opportunity to witness a lamb birth but so far no luck. They're pretty skittish so it may not happen.
With springs arrival comes the longer hours of daylight and daylight savings time here is in just a few weeks (Yay - more hours to photograph outdoors!). I'm sure that the spring winds will be coming back again. I must admit, I'm not a fan of wind here (pardon the pun) but I certainly am looking forward to the intense heat of the sun again!
So where will our next year take us? No idea yet. It's all one day at a time and I'm curious to see where we'll be and what we'll be doing this time next year :) For now, we both continue to enjoy this spectacular country that we're living it.
Well, I'm going to end this post now. I'm hopeful that I will write again within a couple of weeks :)
Thanks for listening!!
xo
*Here are a couple of the examples that I referred to earlier. More to come in later posts.
An example of simplicity: income tax. How ugly is that back home? Everyone dreads having to do it. We all leave it until the very last day! In New Zealand, there are no T4s to lose and messy preparations, tax software to buy, access codes etc. As an employee you will not end up owing more that you've paid through your employer. Here, you just log into your tax account.. all the information is in there (reported each pay period from your employer).. income, tax amount paid etc. IF you decide that you WANT to file a return you can answer a couple of simple questions and poof, if a refund is do they'll pop it into your bank account a couple of days later! If no refund is due, you don't even file.. just close the browser and forget about it. In NZ, you do not have to file income tax! It's optional. How efficient is that? Of course, it's a different process if you're self employed.
An example of inefficiency: heating/housing. While the weather here in Kapiti is really good, during the winter it does get cold once the sun goes down. There is no such thing as forced air heating. Some homes have no heating systems at all. There are no double pane windows. There is no insulation. Of course there are exceptions to this and later built homes are better outfitted, but I'm just talking generally. I love my little house.. it's pretty close to being my favorite house that I've ever lived in (and I've lived in a LOT of places!). It has a modern NZ heat pump/air conditioning system but when the wind blows, it blows right through the kitchen door and windows, across the living room where it hits us, into the bedroom.. then it circles back around and bites us from the other side! whistling the entire way! ;) Oh how I miss my insulated floors and forced air heating! On the wonderful side of this spectrum though.. most homes have pot belly stoves or wood burning fireplaces. I find it magical when I'm outside walking on a cool night, or out really early on a crisp morning, all the cute little homes with their chimneys smoking and I smell the cozy fires in the air. It makes me feel like I'm transported into a Charles Dickens novel :)
