In my last article I wrote a great deal about the ways that New Zealand differs from the UK. I still stand by this argument despite all the points I’m going to make here to refute them.
Before I left Sussex in March, my Grandma reminded me that it didn’t matter much where you lived if you still had to do the washing and the food shop. Unfortunately, I do still have to do my own washing and food shop, and as such most days it can be hard to remember that I left the UK at all. If you ignore the bilingual road signs (in te reo Māori as well as English) and the accents, in the city your experience of life can be startlingly similar.
The boring bits
For the first few months of our move, my partner and I found our daily lives dominated by opening bank accounts, buying a car and obtaining ‘right to remain’ via a complicated process of gaining Australian citizenship and a passport on my part – Australia and New Zealand have reciprocal working/living arrangements, which meant I didn’t need a visa.
Finding a place to live that didn’t require signing a permanent lease was difficult, as I was unable to do so until I obtained an Australian passport. I spent enough times negotiating with Inland Revenue that I got adept at explaining my unique situation: Yes, I am an Australian citizen. No, I was not one when I entered the country. Yes, I promise I’m not money laundering. Now that most of this wrangling is over I can feel nothing but relief.
Gateway to wildlife
I’m probably exaggerating a bit — there was space amongst all this administration for some fun. Before obtaining my Australian passport, I was unable to apply for jobs, an ordeal which I remember well from spending six months unemployed after finishing my degree in 2022, meaning I’ve benefited from a great deal of spare time.
Dunedin is the gateway to New Zealand’s wildlife, with reserves and walks never too far away. At home I was always a keen walker; in New Zealand my local track in Sussex would be called a bush walk. It doesn’t share many similarities with the public footpaths at home; you follow a creek through a gully and eventually summit what Kiwis wouldn’t even call a hill but my knees consider a mountain.
There is also an ornamental garden which is well worth a visit on a good day and would satiate even the most patriotic Brit’s hunger for a National Trust garden. It even has a suitably Scottish name – Glenfalloch, meaning ‘hidden valley’, overlooking the peninsula and the far side of the city. All visiting family members have been taken here to admire the view and the blossoming flowers finally appearing after a long winter.
The daily routine
Although football is unpopular, there are still frequent opportunities to go to the pub and enjoy the rugby over a pint of Speight’s (New Zealand’s prominent beer, although I may be biased). Dunedin has a lively cultural scene for a comparatively small city and we’re fortunate enough to have housemates who enjoy a comedy night or pub quiz just as much as we do.
A perfect weekend would involve the Saturday Farmers’ Market on the old platform of Dunedin’s historic railway station, a trip to St Clair beach to watch the surfers out in the frigid Antarctic Ocean, and a comfortable evening in the nearby pub to watch the rugby and pretend to understand the rules.
Reasons to move
Now, living here and being able to stay, I feel both privileged and apprehensive. Life is slower and Kiwis don’t suffer from that British inability to sincerely enjoy something.
I am afraid of starting all over again and the daily trawl though job postings does make me feel queasy, but the distance from home has never really bothered me too much. I overhead a Frenchman telling a friend he was considering moving from New Zealand to Australia because it was ‘closer to Europe’, which for all its humour probably holds some truth. For all that daily life can feel the same, and after six months becoming somewhat blind to its quirks, New Zealand is a long way away from anywhere.
I don’t think my experience of daily life in New Zealand is the most exciting, or that I’m very able to be analytical about it. Not many people enter New Zealand like I did, and at this point I’m struggling to remember which idiosyncrasies of daily life here that I noticed first. The strange birdsong, the odd products in the supermarket, the way even TV advertising is interesting when you first arrive, these are parallels to their UK equivalents. I suspect the amusement in these things is temporary.
It may be quite boring to have to spend my days doing the washing and shopping, but I’m grateful to be able to do them here.
CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO OUR CROWDFUNDER
HELP US BECOME STRONGER SO THAT WE CAN CONTINUE TO DELIVER POWERFUL CITIZEN JOURNALISM!
