Two Americans emigrate to New Zealand from Colorado,
USA.
We talk about
our life in Nelson, New Zealand.
December 2008 | Blog home | February 2009
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Here we are, another year, another set of fascinating blogs about New Zealand. In my opinion of course! Happy new year to everyone, hope your holidays were swell -- kiwis are still typically on holiday until mid January and the school year won't start up until the first week in February or thereabouts.
We are home from a two week stint on the Coromandel Peninsula which is just due east of Auckland, via a southern then eastern route. The drive is lovely, and almost all on motorway until the turnoff to Thames. MOTORWAY, how I've missed going fast and having more than one lane.
The Coromandel Peninsula, simply called the Coromandel, is a major vacation destination for Aucklanders, either on holidays or for weekends. It has two main towns, Thames in the lower left corner which is an entry point from which you can go to either the east or west coast and on the east coast you'll find Whitianga which is the biggest town on that coast.
Here's a larger map of the main parts of the peninsula, with the red roads being state highway (still two lanes), the yellow roads also roads but some are not surfaced, and the white roads are very small roads, most unsurfaced. As such we didn't get farther north than Coromandel town. I understand there's mostly only tramping up that way.
We stayed in Tairua on Paku Hill, a little peninsula of its own. Tairua is on the bottom right of this map and Paku Hill is what the red arrow is pointing to - our holiday house was partway up this hill.
We visited the entire east coast up to Kuaotuna and out to Opito Bay and then the west coast from Thames to Coromandel town and across the middle on the 309 road landing south of Whitianga, and we also crossed the middle road from Tapu to Coroglen.
Read more of our trip in the coming weeks, including plenty of photos. We have yet had the chance to explore this part of New Zealand so there is a lot to share and update on this site as well. We went on lots of hikes and walks, read heaps of books and finished a few knitting projects, met up with friends Annie and Dan who flew their wee plane into Pauanui and stayed with us for two nights, and shopped a bit in Auckland and Tauranga as well, doing our part to help the economy!
We had a wonderful week up to Boxing Day with no one around, it was peaceful and easy to get around. Then the Aucklanders came! And the entire peninsula was crowded as heck, so we were glad to have gotten our driving adventures mostly out of the way and it turned into quite a lovely few final days of sun and beach and books. New Year's Eve was loud and crazy on our block, and even though we thoroughly enjoyed every minute, it was nice to come back to Nelson and our quiet existence - until we realised on Saturday morning while out getting groceries that Nelson is ALSO a destination location! We had gleefully forgotten this fact but made nice with the traffic and cars and influx of holiday makers. Back to work on Monday, but lots to come on the blog.
Happy new year to everyone!
As I mentioned in the last blog, Don and I stayed on the Coromandel in a town called Tairua. Right next door to Tairua is a town called Pauanui. The two towns are so close, but yet so far, and so very different.
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Our holiday house was in Tairua on Paku Hill (see map above) and this was our view straight out from the house - on a partly cloudy day. Luckily it cleared up on other days. |
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Looking right at the same view, but on a different day because this sunnier shot is nicer, we look down onto the town of Pauanui on that flat bit off to the right. |
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Pauanui extends to the end of this peninsula, seen here, again from Paku Hill as we were heading down the road on a walk. You would think that you could get to Pauanui pretty easily. Think again. |
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That is the end of the peninsula right there with the long jetty. They need the jetty because a ferry (seen at bottom of photo) runs between Tairua and Pauanui. The ferry is needed because if you were to drive between the towns, which are not connected by any bridge or land, you would have to drive 25 kilometres. To get to land about 5 minutes walk or ... |
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...a 3 minute ferry ride from one jetty to the other. The ferry also goes farther up the waterway to another stop in Tairua. Oddly, none of the three stops are close to any part of either town, the jetty at the bottom is on Paku Hill some 5 kms from town, the jetty at the other end of Tairua out of view of the picture is also outside of town several km and the Pauanui jetty is a good 5 km walk to its city centre. We opted to drive between the two, as the $10 round trip for both of us wasn't really worth it when you add in the walk. |
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And boy I was glad that we drove because Pauanui is a very odd town. Here we are on the beach looking back to Paku Hill, our holiday house is around the corner on the right out of sight. |
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The entire town was eerily perfect, with a dual carriageway road on nearly every road in town ... |
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... even the side streets! There was no rubbish, there were no people, the centre was bizarre, it was almost stepford-wivesy, too perfect. It just struck me as eerie, not a typical kiwi town. We dashed out pronto, before they tried to convert us to their odd way of life. We went back to kiwiana on the other side in Tairua, where we felt more at home! |
Remember I told you about the couple of driving rules that are completely different to driving in the States last April? One of them is mighty dangerous, and now they are going to review it again, apparently. In very few places in the world, including New Zealand, drivers making left hand turns must yield to the oncoming traffic that is waiting to cross the oncoming lanes to turn right. If you're on an American-like driving system where you drive on the right side of the road, that would mean that drivers turning right who normally have the right of way have to yield to oncoming traffic that is trying to turn left. Hopefully, fingers crossed, they will do away with it!!
New Zealand's quirky intersection rule which leaves many motorists dithering over whether it is safe to turn right across the bows of left-indicating traffic is likely to be reviewed again next year [2009].
The previous [Labour] Government twice decided against changing the rule, which requires left-turning vehicles to give way to traffic crossing from the right.
That has left New Zealand as the only country applying such a rule and was against advice from the police, the Ministry of Transport, and even former Transport Safety Minister Harry Duynhoven.
But the ministry said yesterday, after the issue was raised anew by the Automobile Association and transport experts in the Institution of Professional Engineers, that the rule was likely to be considered early next year as part of a wider review of intersection safety.
An initial analysis of a rule-change proposal in 2004 estimated it would mean at least eight to 24 fewer intersection casualty crashes a year. Another ministry official confirmed later that the figure could be as high as 56 fewer injury crashes, yielding annual social cost savings of $12.8 million a year, if intersection safety improved as much as it did in Victoria after that Australian state reversed a similar rule in 1993. Counting non-injury scrapes, crash numbers could fall by up to 162.
New Zealand followed Victoria in 1977 in introducing the rule, which led to an early spate of crashes involving confused drivers, but was left out of step with the rest of the world when the Australians reversed their decision.
The AA warns up to 100,000 tourists could be driving on foreign licences at any given time this summer and following conflicting give-way rules which they learned at home. AA motoring affairs manager Mike Noon said New Zealand's version was "most probably the most confusing and poorly understood rule that we have".
Although it was designed to reduce the risk of rear-end collisions for vehicles waiting to turn right, he believed that was outweighed by the hazards of side or head-on crashes.
One major hazard was when a vehicle swung right into the path of an opposing driver who might have inadvertently signalled a left-hand turn, but was continuing straight ahead. The other was when a left-turning driver had to guess the intentions of traffic in the rear mirror, and whether there was enough time to duck in ahead of a right-indicating vehicle.
Let me take a few minutes to introduce you to our holiday home on the Coromandel Pennisula over Christmas and New Year's - Tairua. Angela and I ventured out one morning to do a bit of exploring by foot and I snapped some photos on the way of this typical vacation destination for kiwis. From our house we went DOWN the hill to explore closer to sea level - our next Coromandel post will take you UP from our house for an entirely different view.
And happy birthday to Angela's brother Mark!
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There is an extensive walkway system in this small town and on Paku Hill and a nice path that takes us from our rental down to the Esplanade and the ferry jetty. The paths are bordered by properties, many with gardens of various foliage and flowers. |
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Birds of Paradise we encountered along the way. |
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An example of one of the more high end homes, what you might expect from a beachfront property. Heck, it's even gated. |
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A more Kiwi version - a couple of nice homes with shack house next door and it's caravan parked out front. The caravan in the front yard is prolific this time of year, between holiday makers and extending the family home, caravans on front lawns (sometimes tents too) are everywhere. |
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A few of the more modest homes - I believe there are a total of 4 habitable dwellings here, can you find them all? |
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Another of the fantastic views along the way. Another section of Tairua is visible on the hillsides across the bay. |
I decided to counteract the double whammy effects of holiday eating and vacation eating – since we were going on a vacation for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays – to give myself a choice: give up either wine or dessert. Something was just going to have to give. As we often do things together, I went into Don who was watching TV at the time and presented my scenario. I was only suggesting I do it, but Don tends to join in these things as a show of self restraint, I suppose, since he doesn't have an ounce of fat on his bones.
I said, “It’s wine or dessert, one has to go.” He laughed. I laughed. It’s dessert we agreed. Give up wine? I don't bloody think so! I told him I was not going to hold him to this pact, this was my challenge and he could have dessert if he wanted to, but he was adamant about joining in. Realistically, wine wasn’t going to be the thing I’d give up, I was planning to have a case of my favourite savvy sent to our house on the Coromandel in time for us to arrive, it was always going to be dessert. It's much easier to give up.
At dinner with my friend Kate just before we left on holiday, I mentioned my scenario to her and I think her jaw hit the table – she said she wouldn’t even want to put the choice to her husband Colin for fear he’d actually say the word ‘wine.’
Anyhoo, I was committed to my pact. I did tell Don that on Christmas there would have to be dessert, that was okay, but otherwise, no bakery, no fudgy anythings, no muffins, no cool looking cookies, none of that nasty sweet stuff.
So we land in Auckland after a 30 minute delay leaving Nelson. I hit the restroom, Don waits for the luggage, which comes out right away. We put our bags on the cart and head out to our car rental shuttle. About, oh, 20 metres outside of the baggage claim area Don spots this:
So much for his self appointed restraint, as his eyes bulged and the cart slowed and the pact he made with himself – remember, I didn’t care if he ate dessert or not, I was the one holding back – went out the window in two blinks of his wide eyes. He choked a donut down in about three bites.
Our first stop after picking up the rental car was to Ponsonby to catch a bike shop only open on Saturdays. As we were walking the shops on our way to the cycle shop just before we stopped at a café for lunch, Don spotted a small dairy and ...
the bright orange packaging of a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. We cannot get these in Nelson except on a fluke, and I’m not sure they have them on the South Island at all, so when we’re on the North Island, we grab a few. Being the good one avoiding dessert, I held back again. Don, however, grabbed one and was out the door in no time, barely recalling his donut eating fest not even an hour earlier.
So much for our joint effort.
A few days into holiday, we had a small dessert on Christmas and I parsed out a few peanut M&Ms here and there. I guess I broke my own pact too, but at least gave it a week or so! And I didn't chow down too badly after that. Not too bad, not perfect, but not too bad.
On Christmas morning in the Coromandel, we had the most gorgeous day yet. After we opened our gifts and had breakfast, we went for a walk up to the top of our hill in Tairua, Paku Hill. From the base of the hill you can pretty much head straight up a narrow, steep stair and then grass walkways toward the rocky climb over the last 15 metres. Luckily, our house is near the peak so the carpark for the walk is about 3 minutes away, and then another 15 minutes to the top. Lucky me! Great panorama views of the area.
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Here's where we were heading, to the top of that bit of hill.
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The Norfolk Pine, they are the coolest trees, so distinctive. From Wikipedia: Araucaria heterophylla (synonym A. excelsa) is a distinctive conifer, a member of the ancient and now disjointly distributed family Araucariaceae. As its vernacular name Norfolk Island Pine implies, the tree is endemic to Norfolk Island, a small island in the Pacific Ocean between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. The genus Araucaria occurs across the South Pacific, especially concentrated in New Caledonia. It is sometimes called a 'star pine', due to its symmetrical shape as a sapling, although it is not a true pine. |
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Part way up our walk we look down again on the beach at Pauanui. You've seen this viewpoint before in shots from our deck. |
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If we look to the right from the picture above, you can see across the water way that divides Tairua and Pauanui and in front of us is now Tairua and behind are the Pinnacles range. |
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Here's a better shot at Pauanui. |
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We didn't have this view from our house, so it was good to cross over the hill and reach the top to see the entire 360 degree panorama, here is Tairua beach where we spent two days later in our trip - with jellyfish friends and lots of stings. |
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Looking down from the top we spied our little house. Steep hills in New Zealand, you can't walk anywhere up without climbing a lot. |
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I forget the name of that island! Oops! But I do remember the next one ... |
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From the top, this is looking out toward Slipper Island. And if I remember correctly, it is privately owned but the two beaches you can see on this side of the island can be rented out for weddings and parties, so there must be some facility on the island. |
OMG, the thought hadn't even occurred to me at all, we are on a different year's school schedule here so why would it? And besides, I don't think we're that old, we aren't really old enough to have our ... 20 YEAR REUNION???
Don was reached by his high school class, somehow informed that, indeed, this year is his 20 year reunion. 1989 seems like so long ago, and yet, neither of us feels as if 20 years has gone by! My high school either doesn't care about me (the feeling is mutual!) or cannot find me. Hmmm, not sure if I should do something about that.
His graduating class is really organised. It has a website featuring all the classmates, with bios and ways to get back in touch. FRIGHTENING! And I love the web site's opening page: The moment we've been waiting for! Reunion details and tickets are now available! Who's been waiting, I sure ain't been waitin'!! Yet here it is.
But you have to take a look at Don's reunion page, isn't my husband just adorable? That old photo, I remember that photo. But the new photo - so very cool. He has aged well, hasn't he ...
Shall I Google and see if my high school has a web site???? Stay tuned ...
Curtis began contributing comments to this blog awhile back now. Soon he let me know he finally got that job and made the move. He and his family now live in Wellington and are doing pretty well. He recently sent me a snapshot of his first year in the country, and is allowing me to share it with you. You can read more about Curtis and his experience on http://masadablog.multiply.com.
I will make one comment that you can see clearly in Curtis' post - he and his family haven't had the easiest time with their move, but they have kept an open mind and have taken in all that is involved with the experience, and rolled with it. You take the good with the bad, and there is always going to be bad. It's how you deal with it that makes for a successful migration - or not. So many people think it's paradise, but it's not, it's just another part of the world. Be realistic, I always tell them!
I remember your blog post about immigration in the first the six months and was inspired to write up ours after the first year... I hope all is well in Nelson!
So… the first year in New Zealand. January 10th was the anniversary of our arrival to Wellington. Most ex-pats seem to be interested in this sort of thing, so I took a few minutes to write down some standout thoughts.
What went well?
It is always good to start on the good stuff. We found an amazing house (rented) with everything we wanted. It has enough space for us, a bit of grass and a large garage (by Kiwi standards). It is not a luxury palace, but it’s a good home. Gabe walks to school only 3 blocks away and has many friends in the neighbourhood. The train station is just a couple blocks away and I’ve taken the train to work every day I’ve been here. We have discovered many fabulous places all within an hour drive of our home from parks, to zoos, and beaches. On my walks I have seen dolphins, penguins, seals, rays, hundreds of birds I can’t name, plus starfish and the most stunning sunrises.
My job is fun with lots of great folks. Telecom is not vastly different from other telephone companies. It has its strong points and maddening shortfalls. But in the end it is a great deal about technical skulduggery and copious documentation. Toss in some bits of project politics and mix it with real politics and you get Telecom. However…unlike most telephone companies I have worked with, Telecom employees deliver more value to the customers. In spite of contradictory strategy, politics, and really odd company decisions, the employees make the difference. The services work for New Zealanders. I really can’t say how much I admire that.
What did not go well?
2008 was hard financial year. We lost tens of thousands of dollars resulting from the move. The exchange rate slipped from .75 to .50 in just a few months. The cost of everything was a good 50% more than we expected across the board—and we thought we had guessed high. The cost of living here is much, much higher than Kansas, but perhaps not quite as high as California. The utility bill was a real shock coming in at near $500 some months in the winter. One car never sold and we had to give it back to the dealer (ouch!) The bank isn’t going to be happy with us either. We’ll do the best we can, but there is no overcoming the exchange rate. We are simply very grateful our US credit rating is not a factor in New Zealand. Even so, we’ve resolved to use no more credit.
While very willing, Amy has found it difficult to find work. As always it is more who you know rather than what you know. Of course, being completely new to a country we didn’t know anyone. We can’t be sure, but we do feel like there is a slight anti-immigrant bias—especially in small businesses. We have also encountered overt gender bias—but again, only in small businesses.
What is my favourite thing?
Everything and every place is fresh and clean. When we walk around our neighbourhood we often stop and just breathe in some flowery fragrance on the breeze. It is hard to pick just one thing. I love looking at the ocean, but in a year, I haven’t actually gotten in it! But I loved seeing the dolphins, seals and penguins.
What is my least favourite thing?
Gotta be the exchange rate and the high cost of travel home. It is a constant worry whether I’ll get to see my kids—and even when I do it may only be a short visit once a year.
What do I miss most?
I miss my North Hemisphere seasons…I loved the fall in Kansas and Halloween. I love snow at Christmas and whole streets of Christmas lights. Halloween is barely mentioned here and Christmas is high summer. I have to admit that summer + Christmas = Brilliant! It is the best way to celebrate with family with summer break and the holidays all at once. But I still missed the snow and Christmas lights.
What do I not miss?
I do not miss American news, scandal and endless tragedy. I do not miss the stories about mass random murders, insanely corrupt politicians, and unfathomable corporate greed. We still see these stories occasionally here, but each time we can say that’s not happening here.
What was the biggest change?
Change comes in two flavours—comfortable and uncomfortable. There are many things that changed dramatically for me, but they were good and I welcomed them. I have loved walking to work and generally enjoying the outdoors more. I have really enjoyed altering my eating habits to smaller and healthier. I have enjoyed being out of my culture to see clearly what is and isn’t American thinking. The hardest change has been to get used to always being a foreigner. My accent gives me away instantly. While everyone has still been very friendly, it is hard to always be registered as a stranger. I can tell sometimes folks are mildly irritated when I just don’t approach things the Kiwi way or even have trouble following my accent—something I never thought would be an issue!
Other Favourites!
Restaurant: Green Parrot
Park: Kaitoke
Beach: Island Bay
Kiwi phrase: “Sweet As” and “It’s gone all pear shaped.”
Kiwi food: Gold Kiwi Fruit
Best view: I think the best view is from the top of Kelson.
Grocery Store: Pak n’ Save
Pizza: Hell’s
Take-Away Chinese: our local one in Trafalgar Square!
Take-Away Fish: the other local shop in Trafalgar Square!
Best seafood: Lueven
Thanks Curtis!
There's lots more to come on the Coromandel too - so much still to share on our travels around the Peninsula in February.
