One year after our arrival in New Zealand: brief status report

It’s hard to believe, but exactly one year ago we arrived in Aotearoa, the land of the long, white cloud. I guess this is the right time to have a brief status report:
For Scott returning home was probably the best thing that ever happened to him, after the 3 dark, grim, depressing years in Belgium (preceded by 4 happy, fun filled bachelor years in London).

It took Ilias and Jacob quite a while to settle down. The first weeks were full of tantrums, bad behaviour and sleepless nights.

For me the first months were fun: we were living in one of the sunniest areas of the country, with sandy beaches and estuaries galore. I missed home, but knowing that we would be going back in June eased the pain a lot. It was when we came back from Belgium at the end of July, in the middle of the NZ winter, to a non-insulated house with hardly any heating, that the homesickness kicked in very badly. In Tauranga, where we were living at that time, cultural life is very low and that was killing me. I felt so miserable. That’s when we decided to move to the more bustlingWellington area. Here, in Raumati, I’m feeling so much better.

Let me think about the biggest changes in our life:

- we’re having a far more relaxed lifestyle, but I think that’s mainly caused by the fact that we don’t know that many people here and that our family and friends are not around to socialise with. I don’t need an agenda anymore, while the one in Belgium was always fully booked well ahead.

- our ecological footstep has definitely grown bigger: we have two cars and use them often: the distances are much bigger here and cycling is often impossible and too dangerous. The recycling system is not as advanced as in Western Europe and we throw out a lot of rubbish that could be recycled. I estimate that half of the food that we buy has been shipped here (even the kiwifruit - when it’s out of season here), to make it even worse: once a year we fly to Belgium with the whole family.

- I’m spending much more time at home with the kids: they can’t go to school yet and the nurseries are expensive. You need a well paying job to afford two kids in the nursery. So now Ilias and Jacob stay 1-2 days a week at home with me. It was very hard for me to accept this. I know there are plenty of mums out there who’d prefer to stay at home with their kiddies, but I’m not really that type. I really miss the wonderful Belgium social and school system and the freedom I had while we were living there. If anyone of considers moving here with kids, then wait until they’re five and eligible for primary school, unless you’d love to become a stay home mum or dad.

- Kiwi’s are known to be very friendly and helpful, but it takes a long while to become friends with them. Often I feel that we don’t share the same interests and if I do make a Kiwi friend, it’s always someone who has spent time abroad. Most of our friends are foreigners.

- You might expect that we’re going for long walks in the beautiful bush, but nothing is less true: because we don’t have family here , whom we could leave the kids with we never really get to explore the nature. We’ll have to wait for a couple more years, I think.

- Ilias’ English has improved a lot, the rest of the family’s language hasn’t changed much: Jacob is still not saying much, apart from ‘drinka, drinka’ and ‘stuck!’, my English is not getting much better, because I’m mainly writing in Polish and Dutch, and the locals still think that Scott is English.


I’m sure I could come up with many more differences and changes, but I’d rather join Scott on the couch and finish the bottle of wine that we opened tonight to celebrate our first anniversary in NZ. It’s a ‘Vintner’s Selection Pinot Noir 2006’ from Kaimira Estate in the Nelson area (South Island), where Annelies Goemare (originally from Zonnebeke in Flanders) is doing a great job, exporting their excellent wines to all corners of the world.

Just to finish off: some things are also the same: the bureaucracy for instance and incompetence of some public servants is definitely as bad as in Belgium. And the traffic jams in Wellington aren't any better either!