Two Americans emigrate to New Zealand from Colorado,
USA.
We share our Kiwi immigration story and talk about
our new life in Nelson, New Zealand
February 2007 | Blog home | April 2007
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We promised you news ... and here it is. Problem is, two out of three are only true today! Last Monday was a very good day, we were high high high.
Over last weekend, I (Angela) officially joined Kiwi nation and signed up for a cell phone. I had been resisting for as long as possible, but it seems that it has become more of a necessity now for many reasons, including the one below about our move. Plus, we waited long enough and finally the phone deals were more like what they should be: a free phone! A free phone and a decent monthly plan means I'll be texting like everyone else as I walk the streets and hills of this city, admiring my keypad and ignoring the view. Ah, I've sold out.
We are moving, we rented a new house and will be shifting into it sometime in the middle of the month. We tried very hard to stick to our idea of staying in town so we could walk to town and work. But it was very difficult to find something in the CBD that had some of our requirements: older homes don't have closets or much storage (you won't find many garages even). They are often very small houses, with tiny rooms. Privacy will always be an issue as you are living right next to another house. And rents were higher in town; we had to consider what we would get in return for paying a high rent.
Outside of town--which means maybe a 5-10 minute drive--there are hills and views and lots of neighbourhoods with great houses, many of them modern and new. We were hooked on looking for a character house, we wanted hardwood floors and the older exterior interested us. But outside of town you don't see too much of that. Many parts of town feel very suburban and I was particularly resistant toward that. Plus there's the big, big downside of driving, which seemed like we were going to have to combat no matter what. Still, what you do get out of town for the same rent is a lot more house, many times you can have a stunning view, closet and storage space, and more privacy because the houses are spread out a bit.
So we've selected a house that sits on the edge of a hill and has stunning views all the way across the house, and on two levels. It's very modern looking, it has red and blue interior decor which is interesting, but doable. Unfortunately, it is carpeted on every inch, so that was something we had to give into. But it has a 2-car garage and closets in every room and plenty of other storage. It has NO YARD MAINTENANCE whatsoever, sweeeeet! It was the views that got to us, though. We couldn't turn it down and we'll be there for a year at least, maybe more. We'll share pictures when we move into it. Anyone free to help move, stop on by!
Unfortunately, our good news week ended abruptly yesterday. On Monday I was offered and accepted the job as the office manager for that wonderful retail store I'd mentioned. I beat out some 45 other folks and I was on cloud 9, it was perfect for me. On Thursday I went in for a bit of orientation and the downward slide began. More like a quick, hard fall.
I was well aware of the need to be very confidential in this job, it is a top priority because the shop is very successful but has many competitors. The owner has witnessed those competitors spying inside her shop, even. It's a big, big deal to her and she's been burned before pretty badly.
It seemed the right time on Thursday, so I took the opportunity to disclose to the owner, my boss, that I had an acquaintance who was in the process of developing a business similar to hers--I thought this was very proper and very up front, that I was doing the right thing. I hadn't yet come to know this woman well, but I thought I should get this all out in the open. Better to find out now than later in some other way, right?
I guess it wouldn't have mattered either way, as my (then but no longer) boss determined within an hour that I posed a potential conflict by knowing this acquaintance and it was too much risk for her to hire me. She was very nice about it, saying that it wasn't personal and all that, but she couldn't take the risk in employing me because of it. Shock. How bizarre is that, I wasn't sure this town could get any smaller, but it did. Just by having socialised with a person three times, I lost the opportunity at this job that I really wanted. Ugh, heartbroken. And this happened on poor Don's birthday, we just sat around all night not knowing what to say, thinking about how I'd done everything right and it didn't matter. That I was perfect for the job, that it would have been wonderful for me too, and it didn't matter.
In a small town, how can you guarantee you'd hire someone who wouldn't gossip? I couldn't follow the logic of her decision at all. I am new in town, yet to develop much of a network, so I was maleable, right? If she hires someone who's been here awhile, has a social life, and knows more people, how can she guarantee that person won't let something slip over drinks? It doesn't make much sense to me or Don, but it's done. And it must be this way for a reason, I keep telling myself, but the shock hasn't yet worn off.
So two out of three ain't bad...
Looking on the bright side, Don is doing awesome in his job and the Nelson branch of Advanced Personnel is beating the socks off the others, last week gaining the highest margins yet: more than double since he's taken over, he's doing fantastic!! But given what has just happened to me, we are well aware of the highs and lows that come in life, and his business is no different. It's how you handle these times that matters.
In Colorado we ate quite a bit of fruits and veggies, and we’d always gripe at how much they cost at the store and how little choice there was. All winter I’d get stuck eating Fuji apples. In the summer a bundle of grapes here and there, some strawberries, kiwi and pears and lots of big salads. Don always ate more than me, but either way, we’d spend a lot and get very little out of it.
We didn’t really know that until we moved here. The Saturday market in Nelson is full of local vendors of jewelry, other arts, knick knacks, and tons of fruits and veggies from the folks who farm all around the Nelson region. When we arrived in July, the winter season welcomed us with so many varieties of apples, it seemed like they were all different fruits. The kiwi fruit were plentiful and we caught the tail end of pear season too.
As the months rolled on we finished the apple season and bananas became a staple along with kiwi. Summer came to us and suddenly the luscious plums, apricots, strawberries, all sorts of berries, cantaloupes, and pumpkins (used widely here) made their appearance. We have lived on these succulent fruits for the past 6 weeks or so now, eating 5, 8 or more of them each day.
Last weekend the pears made their re-introduction, and all the crisp, sweet varieties that I love come first, over the next several weeks. We found the Nashi, you’ve probably seen it as the Japanese pear, this week and Don about fell in love with a piece of fruit, much as one person could do such a thing. Now the peaches are showing up all over the market.
And I haven’t even mentioned what it’s like purchasing fresh veggies. The great thing is that all of these yummies come straight off someone’s orchard less than an hour’s drive from where we live. I can testify many don’t use pesticides either, as I have to clean my broccoli free from some sort of cocooned wormy thing (not as gross as it sounds).
While we may not frequently opt for organic [I had an allergic reaction to organic eggs some months back], we feel as though we are getting a better product and we spend far less money, all of which goes directly to our farmers. You visit the store and nearly all the fruit is from out of country and vastly more expensive. We eat so much more (I swear we bagged up 25 pounds this past weekend to bring home, we’ll be spending a lot of time moving that fibre out of the body too!) and we feel healthier, could just be a trick on the mind, but somehow I don’t think so.
You already did it! How I envy you who already migrate to New Zealand. For us it's still a dream... but fighting to make it come true. I read you went there as Skilled Migrants, did you have a contract before moving? In Chile, to get the work permit you must have a contract from a New Zealand employer. Is it possible that someone hires you without meeting or interviewing you personally??????? Enjoy there!
~ Monica in Chile
We decided last weekend we were being a bit too lazy--although some might say deservedly so after Angela's infamous job fiasco of February--and we took off on Sunday afternoon to sit at Rabbit Island on the beach for awhile. We spent two days here when we visited originally in January 2005, but had yet to make it back during this entire summer. What a bummer we are! But we picked ourselves up out of our rut and drove about 20 minutes out of town for some peace and quiet.
It was packed with people on the beach and at the
on the picnic grounds that make up this
popular beach resort to the residents of Motueka, Wakefield, Brightwater, Richmond, Mapua, Stoke and Nelson itself, according to Wikipedia.org. 
A medium-sized bridge spans a tidal area and joins the mainland to Rabbit Island. There is a large grassed area after this bridge and beyond it the beach proper begins. Vast and mountainous sand dunes topped with masses of cone-bearing pines, with exposed roots, can be seen extending for impressive distances along the island. The picture above is the view from underneath one of those tall pines.
The island lies across the southernmost part of Tasman Bay and runs east-west for eight kilometres, and covers 15 km². It is all a dedicated park and from the two photos below, you can see views back toward Nelson and the surrounding neighbourhoods.
We decided to bring our beach chairs and sit for awhile, taking in the waves and the quiet without the singing cicadas that irritate Don's ears so badly. It was good to find a couple hours to take a drive and relax somewhere peaceful, as we've been fretting a bit over many things lately, one of which is succumbing to life with a work routine again. It's been a long time that we've had a break (since July, but you have to take into account all the stress that went into moving here!) and have felt almost as if we've been on vacation for nearly 9 months. 
True to character, rather than taking in that settled feeling, we'll uproot ourselves next weekend just to keep avoiding the settled feeling! And we can start that moving and unpacking process all over again. Actually, we've never really unpacked since our container arrived, there are so many boxes to go through, it'll feel like Christmas all over again.
You likely already know from reading this blog that we are in the process of moving again. Our transitional house is quickly becoming filled up with boxes again as we prepare to shift everything this coming weekend. Preparing to move again has brought up some traumatic memories for me of sorting through the stuff in our huge Colorado house and all it’s décor—not to mention the garage sale weekend firmly ingrained in my memory.
More than anything, it’s made me realise how few of our things we’ve really used over the past 9 months or so. We survived from 6 July through to early September on three suitcases and an air mattress. We did purchase a table and chairs at the used furniture store, but we didn't bring those with us, so they don't count! Once our container landed and everything else arrived, we placed all the furniture in the house, except the dining set, and weeded through the boxes based on our customs list to determine what even required opening versus what could stay sealed and stored in the garage until further notice.
When I really think about it, we basically cut our household items in half, if not more, with our move from Colorado. Once everything in the container arrived, we really have survived on half of that as well with little disruption. In reality, for the last nine months we have managed to live quite fine on ¼ of our prior possessions, plus a couple of new electronics we had to purchase anyway (like TV, DVD player, kitchen items). That’s pretty incredible when you really consider how much a human being, let alone a family, can accumulate in time.
Every purchase we’ve made since we’ve been in the country is considered by the following criteria:
With all this in mind, I’m very excited to get my hands on the remaining unopened boxes in the garage once our move to a bigger house is complete, but not for the reason you might think. I want to see what more I can chuck away, which of our items have proved even more worthless than they were when I last put them in a box.
Last time I moved to a bigger house, I filled it with stuff (albeit not a LOT of stuff as I’m not at all a packrat or a knick knack person). I do not want to fill a new house with stuff. Not only do we ask ourselves the “criteria questions” before we buy, but we now consider our new philosophy of living as minimally as possible because we might be moving house in another year (you never know when your landlord wants their house back!), we might feel like something smaller is in order, or our new idea is that we might want to stuff all our belongings away into a storage unit for 6 – 12 months and go travel parts of the world in a few years. Less is better.
There are so many possibilities if you just open your mind to ridding yourself of so many things! We feel liberated by our decision not to buy a house and fill it with things. It’s been very hard to go back to even wanting to “settle” into a house by putting up photos or art or whatever; Hammering in a nail is too permanent for us now!
Having said all that, we are who we are and last weekend we couldn’t help ourselves. We upgraded our TV to a 46-inch LCD flat screen, flat as a pancake, and big and clear. Lovely! We soooo miss our 50-inch from Colorado that we had to sell, and the little tyke we have now, weighing in at a mere 29 inches, is not cutting it. There are some things we simply refuse to live without! Gotta have the entertainment system, for us it’s always money well spent. But at least we've learned that we don't want more than one TV, we're selling our current one on Trade Me right now!
A bill before Parliament put forth by Green Party MP Sue Bradford will ban the physical discipline of children. If the bill became law, parents would be able to use physical force only to restrain their children from hurting themselves and other people, from being disruptive or to stop them committing a crime. This week it became clear that the bill would likely pass with more than the necessary number of voters lined up in support.
Members of the Maori Party (a political party, read more in Angela's pages) finally jumped on board, with one of the leaders saying, "We must send out strong and brave messages to the nation that any form of violence is violence. In the end a hit is a hit, and under current adult law this is assault. Common sense says the same standards should apply [to children]."
Prime Minister Helen Clark said "I frankly feel embarrassed as prime minister when I look at the international rankings for New Zealand way down the bottom in terms of the safety of our children and I look at the violence which is happening against children in our homes and I think we have to do something and this change would be a step in the right direction." [NZ Herald]
Yesterday she back-peddaled a bit on her stance; prior to the election she had said she would not approve of anti-smacking legislation so her firm commitment for the bill had to be softened, publicly. I suspect she'll still get in line behind it and support it.
This political battle has made the evening news as top story for weeks now, as Bradford has even received death threats via websites that Google, a US Corporation, shut down due to their violent nature. Last night was pretty funny, as far as political barbs go. Helen Clark said the law would give the police and judicial system the infrastructure needed to prosecute child abusers and that is why the law is needed. Her opposition party, the Nats (short for National, sounds funny) came up with a ridiculous statement that the law is not necessary and does everything possible to criminalise parents for every level of smacking...and further, be certain that the police will be investigating each and every incident of smacking they receive report of. Oh really, they will? I'm sure they have heaps of time to do that, because they aren't busy at all trying to corral boy racers every weekend night. Yeah right. Gotta love the political rhetoric.
While I personally agree with the anti-smacking legislation, it is so contradictory to what I see in the behaviour of kids in this country who seem as if they've had absolutely no discipline whatsover administered by any authority figure, let alone smacking. Still, I am a believer in violence begetting violence and pleased to see New Zealand follow in the footsteps of other countries, mostly European, that have anti-smacking legislation already on the books.
On Friday morning we started our move to the new house. For some reason I could not get to sleep at night and woke up at 5:45am and couldn't fall back asleep. Could it be that I am excited? I have been a bit nervous the last two days, not sure if I am flashing back to our big huge move across the world that caused months of stress, or nervous that we haven't really packed up anything much in the house and it's going to be a scramble over the weekend to throw things in boxes, the former not really healthy for a self-described AR girl who likes things organised and prepared weeks in advance.
We both hardly remember what the house even looks like, it's been about a month or so since we spent 15 minutes inside it. I had an elaborate dream about it overnight, and it was so much larger with hidden storage areas, a huge library in the back near the garage, and a laundry room to die for. But the guest room had twin beds...??
Anyway, I think reality today will settle in quickly enough! The truth is, even if we have to move in another year, the point of this was to try something new. Neither of us have lived in a house like this with the view and even though it may seem like a splurge, it really is more about following up on what we came here to do, change our lives and try new things.
We started out by packing up a tiny truck, one about half the size of our shipping container and not nearly as wide. But we figured it would take 3 trips at a maximum. Not that we cared, because here is where we were moving IN to.
This is the exterior. It is an architect-designed house and the inside coloring is as definitive as the exterior coloring. But you get used to it and it's kind of cool. You are looking at it from the street, you see the footpath (sidewalk) and the fencing that walks you to the front door. But between the fence closest to this photo and the metal fencing closer to the house, is the hill, you only look down onto the side of the hill and
the retaining wall.
A two car garage will house our little Tilly (name of our car) after she sputters up the hill nearby. But from here you get a hint of what our views are like, although we were blessed with a cloudy moving day so the picture doesn't do it justice. We look out onto Nelson, Stoke, we see Tahunanui Beach, and all the way across to Rabbit Island and the Abel Tasman, as well as the mountain ranges to the southwest. You may be thinking, hmm, I don't mention them 
saying they bought a boat, what is that boat in the driveway? The only bummer about the house so far, aside from the wall-to-wall carpet (for which we bought a new upright Dyson), is that the owners could not remove their boat and so it will sit there in the driveway all the time. Arghhh. We can still park the car inside the garage if need be, but we'll likely use it for storage only.
To the left you are looking from the footpath toward the front door, but also down, you can see the lower level that houses all the bedrooms. All living areas are on the top level. 
And now to give you an idea about the hill and the scary drop, this is the view from the back. Can you see the suspicious poles holding up the garage and driveway? I hope there are no slides on this hill! This picture (to right) is taken from the deck of our bedroom looking back up toward the garage, the red-painted part, and the deck just on the right of the garage. 
Here is the entrance way into the house--remember we are moving, so this is all filled with boxes, we'll take pictures when things are settled. You are looking into the house from the front door, off to the left you see a doorway, that leads to the garage and down the stairs to the lower level. In front of you will be the dining area, and off to the right is the kitchen and rest of the living area. The shape of the house is unusual, but if you think of it in terms of three squares sitting next to one another, then twist them so they are connected at each point, and the there are three points at the top, that is how the house is shaped. I'm sure that doesn't make sense.
Anyway, looking off ot the right now from the photo above
you see what was formerly set up by the last tenants as a sitting area, but we aren't going to set it up that way. But you can get an idea of the windows, the views, and you can see the window to the right is a double door out to a patio overlooking the entire view. Stunning! Farther to the right is the lounge, and a severe right hand turn here takes us to ...
The kitchen. Yes, it is red, entirely red matched with grey countertops.
But I adore the color and find it very funky. The only issue we discovered after the fact is that the refrigerator is about half the size of a normal fridge, and it's not going to hold all that we need. On moving day we met the owner who was in the process of cleaning up things, and he told us the original plan for the house was for he and his family to come down from Wellington, where he lives, about once a month and stay here. But life got busy, as he owns three retail shops, and he decided to rent the place instead. So it makes sense for a weekend romp that the fridge would be adequate, but not for full-time living. It's smaller than our fridge at Pettit Place that we are leaving, and that says something! We now have to figure out how to augment the refrigerator storage capacity.
Now looking back to the left from kitchen, we are heading out to the lounge area. As you can see, three of the four walls have windows (one off to the left that isn't in this shot to the right, but is below to the left), so we have few options on placing furniture, some windows will be obstructed a bit lower down the wall. But who cares, right, take a look at the views!! 
This is what sold us on the house. We would never spend the money it takes to buy a house like this, but renting one is so much easier and cheaper! We get to watch the planes take off and land because from the window on your right you get a good shot of the airport. So cool to see the planes come in! We hear a bit of noise from the planes, but surprisingly not that much. Of course, we don't welcome 747s at this airport, that helps! 
Photo to the right is the view from the living areas back onto the front entry way, gives you a better idea of spacing of everything.
We are now heading off through that doorway farthest right and down the stairs. I forgot to take a picture of the inside of the garage, which is straight through that doorway, but you've seen one garage, you've seen them all. We are glad to have a double for the extra space.
From the top of the stairs this is looking down. If you were to look up from here, there is a nice window looking out at the view at the top of the wall also, and it opens up for fresh air too. The nice thing about this house is that all the windows open, none are static.
At the bottom of the stairs, we look to the left in the hallway photo to the right. Off to the right is a door exiting to the outside hills, and the washing line for hanging clothes that will probably never be used because the terrain is far to steep for me to carry a washing basket and hang pieces of clothing, all while keeping my balance on tip toes. We asked for a washing line, and we got one!
We have four bedrooms and this is the first one, off to the left side of the hallway picture. It's tiny and has no closet, so we've planned for me to use this for knitting and to set up my painting easels because the view is so inspiring.
Across the hall from this bedroom (and off to the right from the hallway shot above) is the second bathroom, the larger one with a tub and shower. 
The shower is a bit funky, we tried it out last night. The base is the same height as the floor, although water does roll toward a drain, but the showerhead has quite a reach and half the floor got soaked. Good thing it's all tile--blue tile. This architect had quite a fetish for these two colors. We have noticed a house up the hill from us that seems to be his signature design too.
At the end of the hallway this room will be our office and Angela's closet, including some dressers. We'll have our computer in here, including workspace Don can use if he brings home his work laptop. We opted to keep the file cabinet we own out in the garage, getting it down those twisty stairs and hauling it back up was going to be too much work. Remember, as little as is necessary!!
This room is on the right end of the hallway and will be our guest room. You can see the bed in there, and Don's arm and leg. In addition, it will be Don's closet and dresser space too, but also serve as Livvy's litter room. Can you see it down there off to the bottom left of the shot? Pine pellets are dirt cheap here because they are used for fireplace fuel.
My mom keeps wanting to see pictures of "her room" that she plans on staying in when she visits. Here you go, mom! You and Livvy will be sharing space, if you know what I mean. It's not so bad, except after she has her wet food on Sundays.
Finally, the master bedroom, with a highly desirable spot facing the views. It is off to the left from the hallway shot. It has it's own bathroom and a walk-through closet. Not quite a walk-in, because you get to the bathroom through the closet. I took these pictures this morning after we moved our stuff into the room, so that is our massive king-size bed (the story as to how it got there is classicly good and Don will tell you about it later when he writes about our moving exploits). 
If you look at the bedroom, you'll see one of the windows is a door, actually, to a deck of it's own. The deck is directly under the upstairs deck, but only off the master. Wonderful! We are so excited to have this little outdoor space. And Livvy's already made a play to inspect it herself.
Another shot of the bedroom where you can see into the closet that takes you to the bathroom. We'll go through those photos here. You see in the closet off to the right is the continued path toward the bathroom, with shower, sink, and toilet just out of shot. Another nice window will keep your mind busy while using the facilities.
That's the house! It's visible from some distance, so LOOK BELOW, can you see it? If you can't, a closeup of the same shot follows. You must be able to see it from the closer shot! That's our tour for now, more photos when we've unpacked a bit. If you want to send comments, please do so!
Hi There! This is a really neat place. We can see why you love it so much. The views are spectacular. Glad that Don didn't go over the railing, trying to get the mattress in the house. That would be some flight. ~
Mom & Dad
Great house! Congrats. Well worth the 10 minute commute.
~ Rich Frey
Well here they call it a shift.
This was all ad-hoc for us, no real packing or organization. We just threw most of out stuff in the few empty boxes and our luggage. It helped that we already had half of our stuff already packed up.
We had access to the house starting Friday so we packed both cars (our car and my tiny company car) Thursday night. We decided to go get the keys at the property mgmt office then take the loads over. Turns out the guy vacating was still at the house because the car he was removing had a dead battery (go figure, that’s what happens when you store a car for a year without driving). We showed up and just moved the carloads into the living room.
I headed to work and Angela went back for another load. We had limited time on Friday as I had to work and Angela had several other plans (work party and a spa day). We also had dinner with friends that night and so we didn’t get home until midnight.
So we woke around 6am on Saturday morning, loaded the car with some boxes and Princess Livvy then headed to the house to drop all off before picking up the truck at 8am.
I had called a couple weeks in advance to reserve the truck. The guy quoted me $108/ day, $.25/ km, and fill of tank when done. Since our exact move date was in question I also asked about the cancellation policy. He laughed and said, “this is New Zealand mate, just give me a call if you don’t need it.” I realized it wouldn’t be an issue when I didn’t have to give anything more than my first name and phone number to hold the reservation. I also asked if I could rent a dolly – of course the term here is something different but I never really understood what he said. It could be sack wagon or stack rack or something else altogether. In the end he charged us $83 for the day. He asked me how many kms we drove. Well I never checked the odometer; I figured he would have tracked this. He wasn’t interested in walking out to the truck to check so we just guessed. We also didn’t fill the tank (.99 at pump, they charge $1.50) so he just estimated a couple litres. In the end it was $108 total.
We took the truck to Pettit and proceeded to load for the next 2 hours. What a pain in the ass getting some of our stuff out of that place, specifically the brown couch. We had to lift the sections up and over a fence because the walkway was too narrow. We got the mattress out ok (first item to be loaded) – this was our biggest concern in moving into the new place, how to get the mattress downstairs. Let the game begin.
We got to the house with the truck and unpacked the basics – most of the items we just moved into the garage. Then came the mattress. We hauled it into the house with no problem and got stuck in the stairway – no way was that thing going down that way. We let it sit and headed for lunch – McDonalds takeaway while sitting on our deck. At some point we decided the best route for the mattress would be over the rail on to the side of the hill (see picture). Since there is a door on first level that opens to the hallway that leads right to our room – once we thought of it, it seemed so simple. We headed home for another load and would deal with the mattress once we got back.
More loading, more lifting, blah, blah, blah. Rain clouds threatened but nothing materialized more than a few sprinkles (turned out Sunday was really windy, would have made the move hell). We got back to move the mattress, er, dump it over the side. We put a tarp down below and got the mattress to the railing. Just then the neighbor looked over at us and asked if he could help. This older gentleman, who owns this grand home overlooking the city, is concreting his driveway…himself. We declined since we figured we had it under control. Turns out dropping the mattress, sliding it down the hill to the door, and dragging it into the room was the easiest placement of that mattress yet - much easier than the house in Colorado for sure.
Sunday was one more trip with the cars and goodbye to our first New Zealand rental. I think we only found about 4 cockroaches – most of them dead. Not bad as I expected them under every box and dresser. We’re still sorting everything out. It’s all here but it stuff is everywhere.
We will spend the next few weeks unpacking slowly and enjoying our views and space. I was simply amazed that Angela and I were able to move everything by ourselves. Angela was phenomenal – super human even. She certainly elevated her game in crunch time. She helped me with all the heavy lifting and I was amazed that she handled it so well. Of course I’m hobbling around for a few days because the degenerated disc in my back didn’t enjoy the move one bit. I’m better now. I have to say it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. That said, I don’t want to move again anytime soon.
What an experience. Fun?!! Unbelieveable about the truck rental, as the guys here in the states are pretty anal about checking everything going out/coming back.
~
Dad & Mom
The move brought about a few new changes to our lives, the least of which is living amongst boxes and clutter; we’ve been doing that since we arrived in New Zealand and have managed just fine on the few things we’ve used. What we didn't expect was to be dealing with another culture-shock reaction to our new surroundings.
We have found this past week to be a bit more weird than expected, with the new house and the grand view, driving to work—most days we’ve carpooled—and not being able to go home for lunch, unpacking boxes and seeing items of ours that have been packed up for a year now, living in a place that has an upstairs and a downstairs, and on and on.
I had last Monday off and found myself lost in this house. The house isn’t large in square footage (or as we say here, meterage—but I think we made up that word). In fact, it’s quite tidy space-wise and our quantity of furniture fits well. But for the last 9 months we have been used to having everything within a few paces reach in the Pettit house, and now we have stairs separating two floors. We have three bathrooms (to clean as well, but I've placed one off-limits for use!). We have a real kitchen with a dishwasher, not a hallway kitchen with room for only one person at a time.
The space feels huge probably because we are so much more spread out now. We can’t just shout at each other in the next room because invariably one is upstairs and one is down. Livvy hasn’t become comfortable yet upstairs, although she ventures out to explore at night, but you can tell she is a bit overwhelmed at the two levels and the far-away window views (as opposed to a bush right in front of the window).
Previously I wrote about our battle against accumulation, and how we wanted to streamline the stuff we had yet to open in boxes. One mark against that effort: we had to buy a refrigerator because the one in the house was absolutely tiny, I couldn’t fit a week’s worth of groceries in it. So we buckled on that one. We keep thinking about things we could really use in the house, and then change our minds and say we'll make due with what we have. Back and forth.
Boxes are all over the garage and we’ve started opening up many of them. Several contain books, which is good because those have a function and justify their space. But opening up some of the boxes with knick knacks or display-like kitchenware has been the impetus for the “donate” pile. And I'm swearing off crystal this and crystal that--I have enough bowls and platters already! Why is crystal so special, anyway?
I’m not sure if we will open boxes of photo albums and photographs because we’ll just have to pack those up again for the next move. Don disagrees, but I’m having a phobia about opening boxes; we’ve lived so long without those things, why bother now? Just leave them boxed for the next move. At some point there will be a next move and maybe later a permanent move. Then open everything and the contents will be a real surprise, like Christmas! But Don disagrees because he wants to pare those down too. I guess I’ll have to get over my phobia.
Aside from the house and contents themselves giving us mild heartburn, we’ve also incorporated something new into our near-daily lives: driving. We now have to drive to work and back, although Don is used to it because his job requires a fair bit of driving. His commute used to be 5 minutes drive or bike ride. But I’ve pretty much walked everywhere for weeks at a stretch without setting my tush in our car. I've come to really enjoy my 10 minutes walks to work and back home. We both often trek to the grocery store on foot on evenings and weekends to pick up milk or other things. We walk to the Saturday market every week. We head out on walks out to the water, which was 10 minutes from our Pettit house. (Now we just sit in awe from our couch.)
The new plan is that I will get groceries during my workday and take them home with me. The closest store is probably a good 20-30 minute walk, but a short drive. We do plan to mountain bike to town on Saturdays for the market, and I suspect we'll manage to get groceries the same way on weekends, opting to avoid car usage whenever possible. On the way to work I’m having Don drop me farther away so I can still get my 10 minutes of walking regardless.
So, life is an adjustment and there we are, adjusting. I guess it was bound to happen at some point, and we’ll have to find the joy in new experiences at our new location (like biking up that last fu#(&%$ ing hill every time we ride) and savour those! Don’t take any of this as whining or complaining, we aren’t unhappy by any means. It’s just a different kind of culture shock that we have both felt this week and are making our way through…
The official New Zealand Census results for 2006 are out. The census is conducted every five years. Nelson is definitely going through some changes. The population alone for the Nelson and Tasman regions is now upwards of 87,000.
There are 3,000 more baby boomers, aged 50 to 64, than five years ago living in Nelson City. By contrast, there are 318 fewer children (yeah!) and a shortage of young people in their 20s now living in Nelson--though you wouldn't know by going out on a Friday or Saturday night to the CBD. Many young Nelsonians leave town in their late teens or early 20s for reasons such as study, work and OE, returning in their early 30s. The household type data shows that the number of Nelson and Tasman couples with no kids are 5% above the national average of 40%.
What do people do for a living in this region? Tasman has almost 20% of its workforce working as labourers, doing what needs to be done in the forestry, fishing and horticulture sector that is the basis of the regional economy. This is almost twice the national figure and higher than Nelson city’s 15%.
Professionals make up 19% of the Nelson city workforce - boosted by "big" institutions like NMIT, the hospital and Cawthron, and considerably higher than Tasman at 13%. The word big is relative here, as these companies that are mentioned have employees only in the hundreds.
About a fifth of Nelson’s population was born somewhere other than New Zealand. 3,774 are from the UK and Ireland, 516 are from North America (not including Don and me b/c we moved here after the census, so it's really 518) and 819 are from Asia. Statistically, Nelson is far less diverse than the rest of the country. You can see that just walking down the street any day of the week, so that comes as no surprise to us.
Home ownership has fallen, with more people now living in rental accommodation. This is no surprise to Don and me, who figured out this racket recently (a racket for the banks). We hear this all the time on the news lately, it is an ongoing issue. Take this article from yesterday's paper:
New research shows it is now almost impossible for an average wage earner to buy a house in New Zealand, firing up a debate about home ownership ahead of next year's election. Affordability in the Nelson-Marlborough region is slightly better than the national average, but has also deteriorated to a level that makes it very difficult for average wage earners to buy a house.
A comprehensive new study of how much of the average wage has to be spent on mortgage payments to buy the average house shows the average New Zealand wage earner now has to set aside 73.5 percent of take-home pay to service the mortgage on an average house. This is up from 43.5 percent at the beginning of 2003. The rule of thumb for most banks is that repayments should be below 40 percent of take-home pay. [This is what we were told as well.]
The average weekly salary after tax in Nelson-Marlborough has risen only 12 percent to $644.80, while the median house price jumped 17 percent to $310,000 and the average weekly mortgage payment rose 27 percent to $458.51. [Most things are paid on a weekly basis here, very difficult to manage for us, used to a monthly system, but we opt to pay monthly most of the time. People are paid weekly here so it is easy to learn what you can spend if you know your weekly salary and your weekly outlays.]
The ability to get a mortgage with little or no deposit might be helping people to buy houses, but...[there is serious doubt] any bank would allow a person to get into a predicament where they needed to spend 71.1 percent of their pay to service a mortgage. [There is no way our bank would have allowed us to do this, they aim for 35% and "stretched" for us to 40%. We decided we didn't want to make this stretch, or even pay 35%!]
The percentage required in Auckland is now 92.8 percent of take-home pay, compared with 71.1 percent just over two years ago. The most unaffordable region is Central Otago, which includes the resort boom towns of Queenstown and Wanaka. The average payment for the average house has ballooned to 105.2 percent of the average salary from 91.1 percent in December 2004.
