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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Frequently Asked Questions pt 1

Panorama view of Auckland
Lydia and I get asked the same questions about New Zealand over and over, so I figured I'd make one consolidated place to answer a lot of those questions!  Feel free to email me any other questions.

Q. Are you going to be on House Hunters International?
A. Probably not.  But after being asked this one thousand times, I did apply!

Q. Are there things that will eat you down there?
A. Unlike it's neighbor Australia, New Zealand has very few dangerous animals.  In fact, New Zealand was so safe for the birds, they just stopped bothering with wings!  There's only 2 venomous spiders on the island, and from what I gather they're pretty rare.  My dad was excited to learn there are no snakes!  Indiana Jones probably retired there.  No indigenous large mammals there, though some have been introduced.  What they do have, however, is the demon beast known as the weta.   Seriously, those things are gross.

Q. How much stuff are you taking?
A. Well, obviously almost all of my miniatures!  We're taking maybe a third of our furniture, but are also taking the opportunity to shed a bunch of accumulated junk.  All in all, we're fitting what we want to take into 450 cubic feet.  (That's 12.7ish cubic meters).
The flag

Q. Do they drive on the wrong side of the road?
A. It's not wrong to them!  That's going to take some getting used to.

Q. What's the climate like?
A. The climate is classified as Oceanic, much like the Pacific Northwest.  Wikipedia has this to say about Auckland: Auckland has a temperate climate, with warm, humid summers and mild, damp winters. It is the warmest main centre of New Zealand and is also one of the sunniest, with an average of 2060 sunshine hours per annum.  "Centre", heh.  Gonna have to get used to some British English spellings!  My poor spell checker is going to be so confused.  Where do I specify "The Queen's English"?

Q. What is the cost of living like?
A. Auckland is hit with a double whammy of being a large city, and being on an island that relies on imports.  It's pretty high!  Lydia and I will definitely have to adjust to that- we've been spoiled living in a Richmond suburb!

Alright, I'll leave part one at that.  Feel free to ask more in the comments and I'll try to field them!  I'll also probably screw up half of this, and my Aucklander friends can call me out.


6 comments:

  1. Will you get a car right away? What's the public transportation like?

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  2. Cynthier! Having never lived in a city with adequate public transportation, I can only say it looks good. I will be working right near the major hub for all 3 forms (bus, train, ferry) so I do intend to use it to get to work. From the research I've done, I'm optimistic that it's pretty good, but not without its problems.

    We plan to get a car pretty quickly, though probably just a beater to have for the weekends and trips outside of the city.

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  3. Have you ever seen a Haka at a rugby union game ?
    http://youtu.be/kjVqZkDZrgg
    LES

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  4. Are you going to apply for citizenship or become a permanent resident/landed immigrant? My wife is American and moved to Canada when we met, she is uncomfortable swearing fealty to a monarch. But she is slowly warming to the idea :). God save the Queen!

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  5. Good question! Applying for citizenship would be way down the road if we ever choose to do so. It's not off the table, but 5 years is a long ways away!

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