Te reo Maori

It's Maori language week! We discovered this when the morning weather report came on tv on Monday. Suddenly we didn't recognize any of the cities on the map.

They're all in Maori! Apparently, many New Zealand cities have Maori names. Our city, Christchurch, is called Otautahi in Maori. On the map above, only Hokitika has retained its native name.

Here are a few more useful Maori phrases for you. See if you can incorporate one into a conversation today:

He wai ārani māku.
I would like an orange juice.

Kei ēnā tikanga hoki.
Hey, you're a bit dodgy.

Tō hātakēhi hoki.
You are hard case.

Me āta inu koe.
Go easy on the drinking.

E āta inu ana au.
I'm just taking it easy (i.e. drinking).

Ka rawe te kōrero Māori.
Gee speaking Maori is good fun.

Ka rawe.
Choice, awesome.

Ka mau te wehi!
Awesome!

We don't actually speak any Maori. These all came from the web (you can get more here). It's kind of funny (but then again, kind of not) that a high proportion of the phrases offered on the website have to do with drinking. Drinking seems to be a big part of Maori culture.

Akaroa

Today we drove 75km (45 miles) to the little town of Akaroa, a French settlement on the Banks Peninsula. For those not up on their New Zealand geography, the Banks Peninsula is that nubby bit that sticks out from the island just below Christchurch...Here's a map.

View Larger Map

On the way, we passed this rail trail we had read about. It runs along this lake with snow-capped mountains in the background, although the mountains don't show up in the photo very well. The rail trail is popular with bikers - we saw heaps of them. (sidenote: "heaps" is a Kiwi-ism. We're trying to bring it into everyday usage.)


The road got real windy and nausea-inducing after this as we climbed into the hills. Here's a view of the bay and Akaroa from up above:

And now down in Akaroa, looking back at the town from a pier into the bay.

A little war memorial for Akaroa's fallen soldiers:







We stopped for fish 'n' chips. This cat was keen to share our lunch.



After walking around for awhile, we stopped for tea. We're quickly growing accustomed to an afternoon tea break.
They make the best chai tea lattes here.

Yep, settling in just fine.

On toilet paper

The quality of toilet paper in New Zealand needs to be addressed. The quality is lacking. We bought some toilet paper, and then realized that we still had a few rolls brought over from America. After using the NZ tp for a month, it was downright startling to pull out the American roll. Would you just look at the difference:

Seriously, Gareth shouted from the bathroom, "this toilet roll is HUGE!!" And it is. I find New Zealand toilet paper is extremely wimpy. Gareth suggests that it can hold up to even the toughest tasks, but I'm not so sure. Now that this American toilet paper is back in our bathroom, it will be hard to go back. But this isn't a dealbreaker or anything.

While we're in the bathroom, it might be interesting to our American readers to see a couple other differences here. Like this: two faucets.

One for hot water, one for cold water. I really can't think of a single benefit to having separate taps. It's especially an issue when you want warm water. The hot tap will spit out warm water for a second or two, but then too quickly it becomes scalding water. The idea, I guess, is to fill the sink with water from both taps to create warm water, but that's a pain. Again, just something to get used to, and not a dealbreaker. But when we buy a place, we're definitely not going to put up with this separate tap nonsense. They do make combined taps, but our bathroom just isn't fitted with one.

And then there's this:

Two flush buttons. One for number one, one for number two. Why use the full amount of water for every flush when sometimes half the water will do? Neither of us has ever seen two flushers on an American toilet, but it was pretty common in Britain. This is just brilliant as far as we're concerned.

Pimps & Ho's

A few weeks ago we were chatting with the lady who came to the house to measure for new curtains (see earlier post on our really ugly curtains), and we mentioned that we had walked home the night before from the All Blacks game. This conversation then happened:
Curtain lady: Did you walk up Manchester Street?
Us: Em, no, we came up Madras.
CL: Well, next time, you should walk up Manchester.... That's where all the hookers are.
Us: ???
CL: You may as well have a laugh, eh?

(The kiwis are always saying "eh." Like the Canadians.)

So this last weekend we went downtown for drinks and walked home up Manchester Street. Sure enough, we saw some hookers. Nothing as entertaining as the curtain lady suggested we might see, though, just a few women in short skirts and boots standing on the sidewalk. We saw a car stop and a woman walk up to the car to talk to the driver, a la Pretty Woman. We weren't witnessing anything illicit though. Prostitution is legal here.

It's kind of crazy, but totally makes sense when you think about it. You can't stop prostitution, so you may as well regulate it and protect everyone involved. New Zealand narrowly passed the Prostitution Reform Act in 2003 to do just that. The Act aims to:
(a) safeguard the human rights of sex workers and protect them from exploitation;
(b) promote the welfare and occupational health and safety of sex workers;
(c) be conducive to public health; and
(d) prohibit the use in prostitution of persons under 18 years of age.

The prostitutes even have their own labor group. It's called New Zealand's Prostitutes Collective. We think it's good that they have a collective. Prostitution is treated just like any other line of work. A prostitute can even get unemployment benefits if she (or he!) needs to stop working for whatever reason. And why shouldn't they?

Yes, New Zealand is progressive! We're seeing this over and over here: New Zealand takes care of its people. All of them.

Sumner beach

It's an absolutely gorgeous winter day here today. This morning we drove 15 minutes to Sumner, a seaside suburb of Christchurch, for a wee walk on the beach.

Here's the town of Sumner. It's definitely in the running for places where we may want to buy a home.



We climbed up on a rock formation where there was a memorial for a fallen lifeguard. Some tourists took this photo for us - they probably thought we were tourists too. But we actually live here now. (must keep reminding ourselves of that!)

Lots of people were out walking their dogs or their kids or both.

Ahhhhhhh. We love it here.

Earthquake

Everyone in the world seems to have heard that there was a big earthquake in New Zealand on Wednesday night. According to local sources, it measured 7.8 on the richter scale, New Zealand's biggest earthquake since the 1930s, and the world's biggest earthquake this year. (According to the U.S. Geological Survey, it was only a 7.6.) It was located way down in the southwest corner of the South Island in Fiordland, far from where we are in Christchurch.

We still felt the shaking though! Apparently, they felt it all the way into the southern parts of the North Island. Crazy shaky times.

There have been loads of aftershocks since Wednesday. Today it's reported that there was another one measuring 4.5. Here's the story:

Fiordland was hit by another quake this morning, the 14th since Wednesday night's massive 7.8 earthquake.

The latest quake. measuring 4.5 on the richter scale, struck at 8.25am. It was located 80km west of Te Anau at a depth of 10km and would have been felt widely in the area.

Southland Civil Defence regional controller Neil Cruickshank said last night the aftershocks were a normal consequence of the 7.8 quake, the biggest recorded in the world this year.

He warned people not to be complacent about the apparent lack of widespread damage to buildings and infrastructure.

"The scientists are still considering what combination of geographical and geological factors have influenced the impact of this particular earthquake," Mr Cruickshank said.

"People in coastal communities need to be aware that the quake did generate a small tsunami on Wednesday night, and that the potential for a damaging tsunami exists with every large earthquake."

The Earthquake Commission had received more than 500 claims by yesterday afternoon, but none was for major damage.

"They're all still looking very small – things like ripped wallpaper and cracks in the ceiling and outside walls," commission spokesman Lance Dixon said.

-NZPA

The earthquake reminds us that we should have an emergency kit at home. This is apparently common practice here. Lindsay's office has an emergency cabinet that includes food, water, blankets, and other supplies to take care of 25 people for three days. Really hoping we never need to open that cabinet...

Our regional government recommends that we include the following in our Disaster Survival Kit:

• water - at least 3 litres per person per day for three days
• food - at least three days' supply
• alternative cooking source and utensils - BBQ, can opener, knives
• warm, waterproof clothing and sturdy shoes
• emergency blanket
• important family documents
• medications, baby supplies
• soap, wet wipes, toilet paper
• torch (flashlight) with spare batteries
• radio with spare batteries
• notebook and pen
• first aid kit

All of these items make sense except the notebook and pen. Maybe for doodling, to combat the boredom of disaster survival?

It's a little frightening to have to prepare for an earthquake, but it beats preparing for a terrorist attack.

Shopping is even less fun now

We were never big mall people, but now, going to the shops is even less fun because we have no idea what anything is. Gareth biked to work today and left me the car so that I could stock up on work-wardrobe essentials: a new suit, maybe a few tops, some pantyhose. But where the heck do I buy pantyhose in Christchurch?

There is no Target. There is Kmart, but it's just as gross as American Kmart. (Thankfully, there is no Wal-Mart.) There are department stores, but it's not clear yet which ones are like Macy's or Nordstrom and which ones are more like Sears or JCPenney. There is no Gap, no Banana Republic, and (gasp!) no Ann Taylor. As an uninventive shopper who bought 95% of my clothes at these three stores, I'm now at a loss.

Walking through the Riccarton mall is completely bewildering. So many shops and no idea what any of them are selling, whether it's quality stuff, cheap stuff, or cheap stuff that's overpriced. This is a sampling of the stores to choose from for women's fashion:
Cue Design
David Lawrence
Dotti
Lippy (what?)
Jacui E
Postie Women
Veronika Maine
...
The list goes on, with only shop standing out as one I've at least heard of before: Espirit. I wandered around in a daze, and then finally went into Cue Design. This had nice looking suits in shades of gray and brown. One wall was 50% off, but I soon discovered that fifty percent off of way too much is still quite a lot.

I think at least I've got the new sizing down. New Zealand sizes are like UK sizes - just add four, so an American size 8 is a New Zealand size 12. Easy enough. But somehow, buying clothes with bigger numbers on the tags is kind of demoralising.

We have heard other immigrants complain that there is not enough choice here - because the population is so small, there just isn't the same wide selection of goods on offer. We ran into this over the weekend when looking for a neon yellow reflector jacket for Gareth to wear on his bike. One bike speciality store had two jackets to choose from. The next one had the same two. The third store had the same two again. We finally got one. This really isn't that big of a deal though - how many kinds of neon yellow reflector jackets do you really need? No more than two, surely.

Benefits-a-go-go

Now that we both have employment contracts, we are just starting to understand the full meaning of 'employment benefits.' We knew before moving here that New Zealand employers would give us more holiday time than American employers, but that is really just the beginning.

Consider:

By law, we have 11 public holidays. If required to work on a public holiday, we get extra pay.

Also by law, we get four weeks of annual holiday leave (Lindsay's position actually allows FIVE weeks - oh yes). The stated purpose of the 4-week holiday allowance is "to have a break from work and enjoy an extended period of rest and relaxation." We are not aware of anyone in America ever being allowed four weeks' holiday, much less being encouraged to take it. An exception might be professors who get to take a sabatical, but we didn't know anyone who got to do that.

Our positions also give us the run-of-the-mill sick leave, bereavement leave, domestic leave (to look after a sick spouse/partner/dependent), and "long service" leave (extra holiday for those who have been with the company many years).

And this rocks - we also both have "tea breaks" written into our contracts. We think this must be required by law. For 10-15 minutes every morning and every afternoon, we shall stop working and enjoy a cup of tea. Or you could have coffee during the designated tea break, if that's more your thing.

Virtually all businesses shut down for an extended period over Christmas and New Year. From what we understand, the country just kind of stops. This shut down does not apply to necessary services, such as hospitals or pubs. Gareth's contract provides that his company will be closed from mid-December until the second week of January. We're banking on Lindsay's employer shutting down then too, as we're already planning on spending a couple of those weeks in Auckland and Milford Sound.

So in summary, we have a lot of time off. And we think that's the way it should be. Work to live, don't live to work.

It's not just all the time off that's so great though - there's so much more. We are both eligible to pay into KiwiSaver, a retirement savings plan. Similar to what's available in the States, you pay a percentage of your salary into the fund before taxes. KiwiSaver gives you $1,000 just for signing up, and then matches your contribution dollar for dollar up to 4% of your salary. KiwiSaver is pretty good, but Lindsay's employer has its own retirement plan that's even better - contributions are matched at 150% (receive an added $1.50 for every dollar invested) up to 9% of your salary. Incredible!

Because there is nationalised health care here, health insurance is not an absolute must-have, but is available for purchase. We can get coverage through Lindsay's employer at a discounted rate. We're not entirely sure yet what this extra coverage would give us that we don't already have, but believe that it would speed up the process if we ever need to have surgery. The cost is a fraction of what we paid for health insurance in the States.

Lindsay also gets an "Activa" card, which is basically a debit card that can be used for health-related purchases, from prescription drugs to running shoes. The idea is to promote healthy living. Lindsay also gets a wardrobe allowance that will offset the cost of professional clothes - but it only applies to suits etc. bought from a certain store and with the corporate logo on them. Still, pretty cool.

All in all, it seems to us that New Zealand really strives to have a healthy and satisfied work force. Don't get us wrong - we certainly weren't abused and mistreated in our American jobs, but we were also never encouraged to take an extended break for rest and relaxation. In America, employers talked about the importance of a "work-life balance," but here, it seems they actually achieve it. Stepping back, it's really striking now just how hard Americans work, and conversely, why New Zealand will never be a world power. We cannot stress this next point enough: We are absolutely ok with not being a world power.

The interstate

We went for a little drive out of town today. We love that there are no "freeways" or "motorways" or "interstate highways" here. This is the extent of it: two lanes.

A few observations

A few things we're noticing around here, and some other random photos of the things in our new neighbourhood (<-- note the added U. That's assimilation, baby.) First, there seems to be an excess of shops using the word "world" in their name. We have seen a few of them, and they always make us giggle. For instance:

There's also a Bean Bag World, but we haven't had much use for that place yet...

Gareth thinks it's kind of like America's habit of adding 'o-rama' to the name of a store, but that pretty much stopped in 1955. Maybe it's the same idea.

Also, the word "lifestyle" seems to be thrown around a lot, and we haven't quite grasped its full meaning yet. It's always used as an adjective, but what quality it's describing is not always clear. Sometimes it seems you can just take out "lifestyle" and replace it with "expensive" to get the meaning. For example,




(Note the BMW parked out front...)

But there are also "lifestyle blocks" for sale, which are parcels of rural land that you can buy to farm. Perhaps the life of a shepherd is the ultimate lifestyle? Check out this website for more information on how you can get your very own New Zealand lifestyle block.

There's also "lifestyle clothing," advertised by this company, which calls itself a "lifestyle brand" and offers "a range of yachting-themed casual and active clothing." Right.

Finally, a few photos from the city center, just because I went for a walk today, it was sunny, and I had my camera...

The chalice on cathedral square, erected to mark the turn of the millenium.

The Cathedral. In front of it, a man on a unicycle who was giving rides to kids on his shoulders and juggling at the same time. If this man were in America, the kid's parent probably would have had to sign a 5-page waiver. No waivers here.

and pedestrian malls...

Lindsay got a job!

Last week Gareth was plucked from the masses of unemployed, and today it was my turn! I'll be an adjudicator/reviewer with Dispute Resolution Services, hearing appeals from injured claimants who are not happy with their ACC settlements. The ACC is a creature of New Zealand law that we are just beginning to learn about. Essentially, if you are injured in any accident, whether at work or while driving or wherever, your recovery comes out of the ACC fund. There are no personal injury lawsuits, except for exemplary (punitive) damages. We don't really know enough about the system yet to know how well it works or what its advantages/disadvantages are, but I expect to be learning quite a lot about it very shortly!

I'm crazy happy about landing this job, because it will use my law degree and lawyering experience, but does not require me to jump through the hoops to gain admission to NZ's bar. I had looked into doing that, and it would have required a year of school with people ten years younger than I am, plus a bar exam. With this job, I get to be a lawyer without actually being licensed. And 'adjudicator' just sounds cool.

It's starting to look like we have actually landed on our feet. We almost have to just sit back and look at it all in wonder. Before quitting our jobs in order to move here, we were well aware that we were risking many things, including our financial security. Who moves to the other side of the world during a global recession?? Just crazy people. We left a fairly comfortable lifestyle with good friends, home ownership, and employers who seemed to like us. It sometimes seemed crazy to give that up - what are the chances of finding all that a second time? But it seems we're on our way to doing just that. We've already met some really great people, we'll be making more than enough money to save for a home, and we're optimistic about these new jobs. (Gareth is already loving his.) It is so good when things work out.

See mom, nothing to worry about!

Bloody Aussies

Apparently, in order to be good Kiwis, we're supposed to hate Australians. We're seeing signs of this all over the place. It seems to be part of the national psyche. We've seen Australians described as 'racist' and 'dirty' (as in, 'dirty cheats,' not 'unclean'). There's a show on tv called Gangs of Oz which documents some of the criminal gangs in Australia. We get the message: Australia is dangerous! There's another show coming out that we saw previewed last night; it puts the Australians against New Zealanders in a Survivor-type, reality game show. We choked laughing when we heard the announcer: "Who will win? Will it be the dirty Australians? Or the righteous Kiwis?" (maybe it wasn't "righteous," but it was some equally noble quality used to describe the New Zealand team).

There's also this ad for a home improvement store. It suggests that Kiwis are hard-working, DIY types who aren't afraid to get their hands dirty. Australians, of course, are just lazy.



There's also a huge campaign to buy New Zealand-made products and services, and since a lot of things come from Australia, the message is often, "don't buy from them, buy from us." This was demonstrated recently with the launch of Jetstar airlines in New Zealand, an Australian airline that is now competing with Air New Zealand for domestic flights. Jetstar had a rough start here with crazy delays and cancellations. The reporters were almost giddy when reporting this. A story in the NZ Herald called it an "inglorious launch."

We haven't actually seen or heard of any Australians being victimised by hate crimes or anything like that. It's just the non-stop jokes. It seems to be somewhat similar to the rivalry between U.S. and Canada, or between England and [insert name of any country that England once colonised]. It's probably all in good fun.

Gareth got a job!

Just a week ago, Gareth was all discouraged because no one was calling him back about his job applications. Then suddenly today, TWO job offers came in! It's feast or famine out there people.

So starting Tuesday at 8:30am, Gareth is a service technician/odd job man for a fitness equipment company. It sounds like he's going to be working with really nice people in a small family business environment. He'll be able to ride his bike to work again, and will not have to do any traveling like he used to do. It should be a real nice fit for him.

The best thing about working in New Zealand, however, will be all the time off. In addition to the eleven (11!) statutory holidays, Gareth gets four weeks (4 weeks!!) of vacation and five days of sick leave. And his new boss also let him know that there will be ten minute tea breaks every morning. "It's the law..." We can get used to laws like this.

No sooner did Gareth get a job offer than we were at the mall spending his future income. We had been desperately wanting to buy a stereo, as we had been listening to music on the laptop computer since we moved out of our house in December. This is no way for music lovers to live. But we were trying to be conservative with our spending until at least one of us secured a job. So today, Gareth got a job offer at 2:00 and by 4:00, we had this:

Johnny Cash is singing to us right now. It's wonderful.

We're walking here!

It was very quickly apparent to us that crossing the street would be tricky business here. As far as we can tell, the general rule that pedestrians have the right of way just does not apply here.

What first struck us was that when you let a pedestrian cross the road in front of you, they are incredibly appreciative. We were driving around the first week we arrived and stopped to let a pedestrian cross the road in a crosswalk - something we assumed was required. The man gave us two very enthusiastic thumbs up. A couple days later, another grateful pedestrian gave us a huge smile and a wave. This seemed a little odd. We felt like superheroes.

We quickly learned what was going on though. In the last two weeks, we have both been nearly plowed over while crossing the street. And we were not jaywalking. We were both in a crosswalk! and with a green walking dude!! Turning traffic in this town has no regard for pedestrians who have the right of way (or rather, with what we've always regarded as the right of way...)

The closest call I've had so far was crossing Bealey Avenue, a major 4 lane street here. I pressed the button and waited for the green dude. (As a sidenote, there is a crazy noise that sounds when it's okay to cross. It's like a 'thrrroop dip dip dip dip.' You can almost dance to it). When I got the signal, I started crossing. A right-turning car crossed right in front of me, but not so close as to make me break stride or anything. Fair enough. But then the car behind that one also turned right, literally missing me by inches. I shouted "jeeesus CHRIST!!" and did a jump back. I looked to another pedestrian nearby for back-up, but he just gave me a look like, "watch where you're going, dumbass." Gareth has had similar close calls.

We now understand why we see people darting across the street, as if fearing for their very lives. Rightfully so. We are staying on our toes.