It's been nearly a month since we arrived in New Zealand and, all in all, we have adjusted fairly well to the country and culture. In fact, as I've written before, it feels very comfortable for us to be here.
But there are some quirks to our new home that have been a bit of an adjustment.
The limited shopping options and considerably higher prices on most things continue to be a stressor. I just can't make sense of the price points here in the same way you "just know" in America if something is "a good deal." While some items are weirdly expensive -- like $30 for a pepperoni pizza or $2.50 for a single precooked, plastic-wrapped ear of corn -- some things are oddly cheap.
For instance, we finally broke down and bought a mattress yesterday. For months -- both in Virginia and here -- we've been sleeping on an air mattress as our real bed chugs along to NZ on the never-ending boat ride. The sleep has been...not so good. We're grumpy and tired and every muscle in both Shane's and my back hurt. We're too old for this :)
So we bought a high-end mattress, and it was $1,500 NZ dollars. Pretty reasonable, right? I know we paid about that much in American dollars for our last mattress. And I also know the going price of a dinner table here is about $5,000. So in comparison, the mattress is a steal! (And worth every penny. I would have gladly paid 3X as much, but don't tell Shane ;)
I think it's just going to take some time to wrap my head around the local economy and remember that nearly everything on those store shelves had to go a looooong way to get there.
And, ultimately, it's better for us when the prices are higher since it discourages needless spending.
For instance, the Adorable Boy can't pass by a Hot Wheels car without wanting to buy it -- even though he has about 3,000 of them. At Walmart, those cars are 88 cents and not worth the fight to say no. Here, they can be as high as $5 -- which is a "hell no, keep walking" price. He might be grumpy at the moment, but he gets over it. And I have one less Hot Wheels car to trip over at home.
The other cultural quirks we're figuring out center around (in)convenience and environmentalism.
New Zealanders are not big on convenience. Unlike in America, it's not their driving desire. There's no Amazon delivery here (Shane is...coping :) The mail comes three days a week instead of six. Most stores close by 5:30 p.m. most nights. The point of life is not for it to be as easy as possible for you -- at the expense of some poor delivery person. (I know, revolutionary, right?)
While philosophically, I could not agree more, day to day, we sometimes miss the convenience of life in America. The benefits are huge: the slowed-down feeling I've mentioned before, the weekends outdoors instead of shopping at big-box stores. That's all a major plus -- and we can certainly sacrifice our Prime 1-day delivery for it. (Right Shane??) Just gotta wean ourselves off of it first.
As for environmental issues, no shock: It's a big deal here. We live on an island in the middle of the ocean. So I'm pretty sure climate change matters.
Unlike in the U.S., we pay for each garbage bag we throw out each week. It works like this: We buy "orange" bags for $2.30 a piece at the grocery store and can fit roughly 2 kitchen-sized trash bags in each orange bag. Most people set out 1 orange bag on trash day. So, not wanting to be "the American" on the block with an American amount of trash, I've been working really hard to do the same. (And by working really hard, I mean using all my strength to smoosh our trash into that one bag.)
The closest I've come is 2 orange bags and 2 giant tubs of recycling (and the workers only took 1) but I'm getting there.
My last grumble is a petty one: Meet my washing machine.
Cute, right?
It's tiny. And it seems to run constantly. I have to figure out how New Zealanders with kids handle the laundry situation because I think I'm doing it wrong. At least Shane sprung for a clothes dryer, something of a luxury item here. Most people -- even in winter, even when it's continually damp outside -- hang their clothes out to dry. In fact, it's raining a bit right now and I can see my neighbor hanging her clothes out. (???)
I'm all for that in the summer...but when I'm already sleeping on an air mattress, missing my Amazon Prime and getting my hands dirty compacting my own trash, I'm gonna just pull the American card on that laundry and crank up the heat ;).
