Anyway, there are good and bad things about any country - and I'm sure lots of people can think of some good and bad things about America, as it's so widely broadcasted. But New Zealand is a smaller and more out of the way place, so I thought I'd do a couple of lists from what I've experienced during my time here so far. A lot of things are both good and bad things in their own ways, so may appear on both lists. And I don't claim to be an expert in any of the subjects I talk about, these are just my own opinions and perceptions! There will be other things that I don't know about that I don't mention as well, just because I don't know about their American equivalents, for example, taxes/amount of money made from an average job. (From what I've heard, both of these are better for individuals in America, as in, less work = more money there, but I haven't got firsthand knowledge of this.)
The Worst Things About Living in New Zealand:
1. Convenience
Being so far away from major production centers means that access to some products is more difficult or delayed. We often have to order things from overseas and sometimes pay very high shipping fees to get them here. These can be things like specific brands of clothing or books (which retail for quite high prices in NZ compared to overseas) or work/study-related things like sheet music, specific texts, strings/reeds/parts/accessories for musical instruments or cars or other hobbies one has. Shops in NZ can't stock as many brands as there are overseas simply because the country is smaller and far away.
So as a result, sometimes if we want to get a book (for example) that's $50 retail price here (assuming it is available here), we'll look online and find it for $20 overseas, but then have to pay $20 on top of that for shipping and while we still end up saving money overall, it's less convenient. And the thought that people overseas can have the item for $20 without paying shipping costs is a little annoying.
Flights and travel to different countries is a lot more expensive from NZ because usually we've got a lot farther to go. So while that's perfectly justified, it can still be frustrating.
And finally, movies and games and new products like technology, cosmetics, foods, etc. take longer to get here, sometimes ridiculously so. A friend of mine took a trip to New York in December, and saw the movie "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" on the plane trip there. (I believe it was released in September 2012). I haven't managed to leave NZ since I got here, and had to wait until this year, the 23rd of April to be precise, to see it. That's a delay of 8 months! The only thing we get first here is Lord of the Rings... and the sunrise, being in the first timezone.
2. Less competitive (and less ambitious attitude)
I noticed this especially when I first got here in high school, with sports teams and other extra-curricular activities. Keep in mind that I was from a small town in America and came to a small town in New Zealand, so therefore can compare more realistically. In America, we practiced every day after school in for sports, debate, or theater. In New Zealand, we had on average, two practices a week for sports, and one meeting for debate or theater a week.
(At least in Nelson that was the case, where I went to years 12 and 13 - they have the same number of years but go up to 13 instead of 12 in America because they start with year 1. Also they used to use "forms" and those were different numbers as well!).
People didn't seem to care as much about their record or improving themselves as much as possible. Since they live in a somewhat isolated place, they never really have a reason to have higher ambitions unless they want to go elsewhere.
This applied to school as well. Their grading system is different to start with, with four options: not achieved, achieved, merit, and excellence, rather than percentages. The system is scaled so that it's quite easy to achieve, but very difficult to get excellence, and their goal is that everyone passes, or "achieves". We were taught how to answer the "achieve level" questions in class, and then if everyone understood those, we moved on to merit level questions, and then the excellence ones. Sometimes we didn't get that far in class though and had to ask the teacher if we wanted material to cover the excellence level questions in our own time. (Hopefully larger schools with a better program would be able to cover the higher levels during class time, but regardless, this is the grading system that is standard in NZ.)
They actually have a saying - "tall poppy syndrome," which means that they chop down (or at least don't encourage) people to be "tall poppies" or go above and beyond the task at hand, they don't push people to achieve more than their peers or show off their talents. There is a more complex explanation of this involving politics and resentment (that makes this saying sound less negative) which you can read about here if you are interested.
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| This is a poppy - typically seen worn as pins/brooches around April 25th, the NZ holiday Anzac Day |
Ironically after point #2, though the NZ culture is generally more laid-back and less competitive, there can be a lot of competition for specific jobs. Because the country is smaller there is often less here for people in a specialized field.
For example, there are just two orchestras in NZ that qualify as full-time, and only one of those is any comparison (salary-wise) to the big orchestras overseas.
Musicians typically hold their posts for a long time - once you've gotten into an orchestra you're probably not going to leave unless you've found another job or are too old to play anymore. And there are always many musicians auditioning for one vacant post. So basically, if you audition for the NZSO (New Zealand Symphony Orchestra) and don't get the job, you could be waiting years before there is another audition for that position. And I'd imagine that it's the same (albeit to a lesser extent) for other fields like science or law.
4. Expenses
Every country will have things that cost more or less, but in NZ a lot of basic things tend to cost more. Things like groceries, simple clothing like t-shirts and jeans, places to live, and also more specific things like dental treatments cost a lot more here than they do in the US. Part of it is probably that we are far away and things need to be transported here. And, dental insurance is not as common to have here as it is in America, so it's bad luck for people who have troublesome teeth.
As with everywhere, it's possible to find cheaper-than-average flats to rent, or food, or clothing, but in comparison to the US it will always be more expensive here in NZ.
5. Healthcare
New Zealand is great in that it has free healthcare - however, sometimes this means having to wait for important operations or having to share wards with several other patients. An uncle of mine had to have surgery on a broken leg and had to wait quite awhile before having the operation. This resulted in several days of being told not to eat anything as he may have surgery that day, and then not actually having the surgery. Which in addition to having a broken leg, cannot have been a pleasant experience.
5. Central heating
Because this is an island nation, the seasons are more mild than somewhere far inland. Cooler summers, warmer winters, which on the surface may sound great. However, this also means that things like air conditioning and central heating are less prevalent, and a lot of houses don't have them (and they're more expensive to get installed). And while the weather is milder, it still gets pretty cold in winter without heating, and often people often have get out the space heaters and hot water bottles (something I'd never used in America) to try and stay warm at home.
6. Less of a range (specifically, of food)
Compared to America, NZ definitely has less convenience and frozen foods, and less types of candy and cookies and things like that. And no pop tarts or sugary cereals or toaster strudels or any of that nonsense we market as "breakfast." This sounds like a good thing, for health anyway. (Although I've started to really miss peanut butter M&M's, which can be found in specialty shops here for extortionate prices.)
However this also means that there are less brands to choose from when buying other, essential groceries and this probably partly accounts for the expenses being higher. And it is an example of less competition between brands. It's just a different consumer experience.
Also, certain foods are quite different here. If you order a milkshake here in NZ you will probably get a glass of what seems like cold, slightly bubbly, flavored milk. What we call milkshakes in America, with ice cream, are called "thickshakes" here. Luckily though, places are starting to progress with this, and I've found a couple of places that do milkshakes the REAL way.
Finally, bacon is something totally different here too. What we know as bacon in America is specifically "streaky bacon" in NZ, and is a lot more expensive than what they call bacon (pictured below). It does not get crispy, comes in large slices, and my brother describes it as "heated-up ham". So if you are a bacon lover, be prepared!
7. HOLIDAYS and flipped seasons
Holidays are less of a big deal here, like Christmas and New Year's and Halloween and Thanksgiving and the 4th of July (both of which they don't have) and Valentine's Day and Guy Fawkes Day and Anzac Day (which is one of theirs). I find that New Zealanders in general (to make a real blanket statement here) seem to have less of an idealistic and romantic outlook on life, and don't take every opportunity to let their hair down as much as we Americans do.
What's more, the flipped-around seasons of the Southern hemisphere are AWFUL. Having Christmas in Summer? Just wrong. And it means that you've got to go the whole stretch of Winter (June-August, basically) without any major holiday celebrations. In America practically every month of Winter has a holiday, and it does wonders for keeping the spirits up when skies are literally gray. Which they are in NZ during winter too, often with a ton of Rain, which I've spoken about before on this blog.
And last but not least:
8. NZ accents
I know a lot of people will disagree on this one. But really, the NZ accent sounds undecided and a bit sloppy with its vowels, and therefore it sounds different without being very distinctive. Maybe there is something wonderful about that, that I will come to appreciate later. But as of now it just sounds lazy to me. The fact that I couldn't imitate one if I tried, yet am somehow slowly absorbing it in my own accent (so my American friends tell me) is horrifying.
However, foreigners can find ways to capitalize on the hilariousity* value of this by asking a New Zealander to say a word with a short "e" sound, like "leg" or "pen" and observe what they do to that "e". Also, the sentence "a bear drinks beer" will be amusing, as most "Kiwis" (as they call themselves here due to their national bird, the Kiwi)^ will pronounce "bear" and beer" very very similarly if not identically. Same with "ear" and "air" and "hear" and "hair", you get the idea. They've also got some interesting phrases, like "sweet as", which means a kind of generic agreement (like saying "cool"), and saying "munted" to mean "broken or messed up".
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guess the flights here were too expensive for him too, ha ha
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| And this is a kiwifruit! Which one can and probably should eat the skin of, by the way |
^This is why in New Zealand they specify "kiwifruit" when referring to the fruit, as to them just saying "kiwi" generally means the bird!
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