An Australian Guide to Moving to NZ

It’s now been about 4 months since we moved to New Zealand. We live in a town called Cromwell which is in the lakes district in the South Island. When Dave and I first started looking for places to live we knew this was perfect for us. Central to many of the things we wanted to do and with a sunny climate, it’s been a great place to move to.

When we first considered moving across the ditch, we knew it would be pretty easy. New Zealand is a very easy place to migrate to if you’re Australian, no visas is a massive plus. It was weird that the most significant paperwork we completed was ticking “permanently staying” on our customs card as we flew into Queenstown in January. For such a huge deal in out lives it felt like a non event.

I was going to make a comment that they speak the same language, but I’ve been caught out a few times. New Zealand takes more of their dialect from the Scottish side, it’s pretty evident in the use of “wee” to describe anything small, miniature, minute or tiny, “wee” covers it all. This is easy to get used to but other things I have had several arguments about. I refuse to call thongs “jandals”, the word makes me angry. I’m on board for “chilly bin” (esky) as it makes grammatical sense however other things have thrown me. “Felts” are textas (this annoyed me as a teacher), “scuffs” are slides “weed whacker” for whipper snipper, “duvet” for doona, “lux” for vacuum, “tar seal” for bitumen and probably a few others I’ve forgotten. It isn’t unusual for me to have an argument with a student or teacher over this at some point during my week. My favourite part is if you do say the “wrong” thing New Zealanders look at you as if you have spoken in a completely different language- should have witnessed us trying to get bedding our first week here.

Unless you are driving a hire car New Zealanders are the most community minded, friendly and welcoming people you will ever meet. I don’t know whether we got super lucky or not, but I notice that our community, particularly the school, is very generous with their time and resources. We were checked on and offered so much, I don’t know how I will ever repay the people who helped us set up our house, we didn’t have to do a thing.

On that note though god forbid you have to deal with a government agency. Learn from our mistakes and come prepared with every piece of document necessary. Things that would seem relatively simple became utter nightmares for us to complete. Take for example trying to get our New Zealand licence. We had the forms and every piece of document (so we thought) only to be told we needed to get a record from Vicroads determining that you definitely have been driving for 2 years. Needless to say, we were livid. Most governmental stuff is also needlessly complicated to either get to or time right. We could only get our licences converted between 10am and 4pm weekdays- perfect for the average working teacher or anyone else that has a day time job- and they only did it in Queenstown. Dave’s sent his gun licences off over 6 months ago to get renewed, still hasn’t heard back. Apparently licencing delays of any sort is common. Even getting paid by the Ministry of Education was a nightmare with them demanding to see proof of all my certificates and a letter from my previous school determining my experience even though the Teaching Council of NZ already had that. While the moving bit was simple ironically it was the easy stuff that became hard.

Another downside of New Zealand is the cost of living. The mark ups on just existing is unbelievable considering what people earn. Just going to the supermarket costs you more, you don’t notice it till you get the register because most things are just few dollars more, but it all adds up and can really sting you. Even during this global pandemic fuel is $1.84 which is incredibly cheap. At Christmas fuel peaked at $2.59. While this is bad it’s only made worse by the fact that there is no public transport available like Victoria. I promise never to complain about vline again, at least I can get places without a car using a train. New Zealand doesn’t have the infrastructure nor the people to support trains, highways or even public buses between towns so if you don’t have a car you are certainly stranded.

While I complain about all of that there are things that I love a lot about living here. When I moved into Cromwell, I was really confused about the fact they didn’t have fly wire on their doors or windows- when I asked about it, I was met with blank stares. It’s unnecessary here, they don’t really get flies or mosquitos in Cromwell. Now I say this with a word of caution, the West Coast is a sand fly and mosquito heaven, they will eat you alive as you walk out the car if you aren’t prepared. Cromwell however has such an even and dry temperament that it doesn’t really breed the environment for things like that. It’s pretty cool to be able to have unfiltered air flowing through your house in summer.

The weather is pretty amazing here. They joke that Victoria is 4 seasons in one day, New Zealand is 2, freezing cold or mild. They don’t really get scorching temperatures in the summer like we do, I was laughed at several times for wearing jumpers in Feb because everyone kept turning the air con on at 25 degrees (bloody Australian). I've loved living near mountains that get snow. We've been very "touristy" taking photos of the first decent snowfall in April. I've also been blown away by the autumn leaves this year, I was lucky enough to go to Arrowtown and get some photos in but Cromwell has been equally stunning. I can't wait for winter to start now.

If I was to give advice about dressing for New Zealand, I would say comfy and layers. South Islanders don’t really dress up because the external environment is pretty wild. If you go hiking you’ll discover a lot of bushes have it out for you with giant splinters and sharp leaves, going for a walk should definitely include you allowing for winter weather, especially in the mountain areas. I’ve discovered a lot of people wear shorts, despite freezing temperatures, and will just team it with gaiters if they go hiking, hunting or anything else outdoors. Shoes are also optional at school, there is a kid who I still haven’t seen with shoes on, he just carries them around with him whenever I’m on yard duty. I’ll be interested to see if winter brings the addition of him wearing them on his feet.

The environment here is pretty incredible. The lack of infrastructure is probably also due to the wild landscape that towers over you wherever you go. The rivers are crystal blue, the mountains are rugged and the beech forests make you believe magical woodland animals exist. While it’s a dangerous place (seriously people die out in the bush out here) there is something so spectacular about it that never leaves you. I don’t think I’ve taken a bad photo of the landscape here. You could drive an hour and stop every 5 minutes to take a new “wow” photo. The mountains make you feel tiny and I love it. I live in the lakes district, my town borders Lake Dunstan which is runs into the catchment of the Clyde Dam. It's nice to be on a lake, I love the running track that runs along the edge. Both Wanaka and Queenstown have tracks that follow the lakefront. It's stunning to run alongside such a clear and beautiful body of water.

There are very few animals in New Zealand but there are an abundance of bird and insect life. I love the giant bumblebees that are like drunk English men, very loud, no sense of direction that sort of career off into everyone while trying to find pollen snacks. They're about the size of a 50c coin and are very cute. There are also some unique bird life. Most of it is endangered mainly due to it's inability to be smart in our modern day world. The Kiwi for example is flightless, deaf and often just stumbles into things without even knowing it got there. During quarantine a pair of them managed to find their way into the rangers hut and just wandered around till they worked out they were in a house and left. While this is funny the noxious species of stoats and weasels are killing them as well as just human involvement. Even the Kia's, the smartest parrots you'll ever meet, are starting to reduce in number due to human involvement. I wonder if the reduction in tourism this year will help native birds increase and gain more of their natural environment.

I love living here, even while the world changes, it's not a bad place to be "stuck in". I want to go home soon, whenever that will be, but for now I am going to enjoy this place.