Reflections on New Zealand

I know I keep saying I will update with more information about our travels but time just seems to be getting away from me. We are still trying to find a bed to sleep on, for a reasonable price. Going to go see one tonight so hopefully that works out. If not, more floor sleeping which leads to bad sleep and cricked necks. But things are going really well in our new place. Hopefully have pictures up shortly!

But here are some of my positive and negative reflections on New Zealand so far.

Neg: No Craigslist. I didn't realize how much that site rocked until we came here and have to use Trade Me, which is essentially eBay. It is done on an auction system which is great for the seller as people who haven't even viewed the product jack the price up which means in the last five minutes of the auction the price goes up 50-hundreds of dollars. This system sucks.

Pos: Ketchup. The Ketchup (or they call it Tomato Sauce) is amazing. It tastes like it has a little bit of nutmeg in it and actually doesn't taste like one is eating a red blob of sugar. So tasty.

Neg: Prices. Everything seems to be more expensive. Food, bikes, supplies, gas (currently at a lower price of $1.65/litre), absolutely everything is higher. And we are trying not to get into the habit of thinking of how good the exchange rate is as soon we will be living off of NZ money.

Pos: Rent. We are currently living in a shared hosue that has two large bedrooms, a shared office, huge kitchen and huge living area, as well as a nice yard that we can do gardening in. We are paying just $600 a month, plus expenses. This blows me away as we were paying $740 for a small attic suite (all in) just a few months ago. Amazing.

Neg: Lack of familiar foods. They don't know what perogies are here. I have yet to see a 99 cent pizza joint. Breakfast foods are $15 for a plate of food we could get in Vancouver for $3 at Bons. There is no cheap sushi (Drew more than I). No familiar potato chip flavours, chicken potato chips just seem sacreligious.

Pos: New foods, or old foods that are better (in addition to ketchup). Rice milk is stunning here and tastes just like milk. Meat Pies are the staple cheap food, tasty but not too good for the belly. Fruits and veggies taste like organic although they aren't.

Neg: Bad drivers. No one seems to know how to drive here. This isn't so bad in a car as Drew is a really good driver, but its scary to think of what cycling will be like.

Pos: Small city. Christchurch is a very small city in comparison to back home. This is making it very easy to figure out where things are and learn how to get there. After just a week of navigating around I am starting to sort out where things are. Drew not as much as he is paying attention to the bad drivers and trusting my navigation skills.

Neg: No Ikea. You don't realize how wonderful a place like Ikea is until you are trying to furnish a home on the cheap and its not available to you. This is when you need to rely on something like Trade Me and lose auctions because spending $200 for a stained mattress is just plain gross.

Pos: Free things. We went to see some beds to see if we wanted to bid and ended up getting a free dresser and chair. That was cool.

Neg: Effort. It seems that everything here is just a little bit more difficult than back home. That is all due to being in a new place and all, but its exhausting trying to navigate a new system of buying, driving and eating.

Pos: Having a yard. Having a yard means that we can a) garden and b) compost! I got worms yesterday, very exciting. It is like having a pet!

Neg: Owning a car. Having access to a car is fantastic, liberating and we wouldn't have seen as much if we didn't have it. Trick is that it costs, a lot. That isn't so much fun.

Pos: Extremely friendly people. I read in a Winnipeggers blog post before coming here that NZ was more friendly than Winnipeg. And, well, they might be right. Its been great meeting people and have them give us their numbers and say to call anytime. Our flatmate is also really awesome and gets along well with both of us. I am hoping that this trend continues as with Drew starting classes soon I will need more people to fill my time with until I find a job.

There are lots more little things. Will try to write more soon.