Kia Ora! Questions from a Pom

[lightningghost]

Hi there . Hope all is well on your side of the globe.


I've just started my gap year and the one thing I really want to do (if I can earn enough money) is go on a trip to New Zealand. I've always thought it looks beautiful and for some reason I find the two-island-ness of it really cool! I'm delighted to see that there are so many Kiwi PH'ers - yours is the busiest national forum - and that there are loads of cool cars around too. Gotta say I love the kiwi accent as well. I've got a few questions about NZ if you're happy to answer them.



First of all, just out of curiosity, what is your relationship with Arsetralians like? I guess they're not best mates with us either, but I like to think that the banter is good-humoured. I imagine it's something like the Anglo-French relationship, where we slag 'em off when they're not around and take every opportunity to mention their poor military record, but in reality they're very hospitable people and, away from sports matches, we get on ok.


And what do you think of we Brits? I can't pretend I know much about New Zealand's history but I wouldn't have thought the arrival of the Europeans would have gone down too well. I just wondered if you...erm...like us? My cousin has travelled a lot, especially in Australia, but she said she loved New Zealand and you guys were great. But if necessary I'm willing to pretend I'm Spanish!


Ideally I would like to go all round the country but the one place I definitely want to see is Wellington (I take an interest in Wellington Phoenix). This is a terrible question, but are there any places, other than Welly, that are unmissable? If it helps there are no kinds of scenery I don't like, so mountains, beaches, lakes and forests are all great. And I've read a bit about the chance to earn some money by fruit picking. Is this a genuine possibility or do the jobs go really quickly?


Do Flight of the Conchords EVER do concerts in New Zealand any more?! They never come to England and they seem to have been stuck in the US for ages now. It would make my trip if I could see them live.


This one's really important: If I talk about "football" will people know that I mean the real sport, as in the most popular sport in the world, or will they think I mean rugby or, even worse, the monstrosity that is Aussie Rules?




And if there's anyone who likes football and could explain a few things to me about how the football season works by email, that would be brilliant and I would be extremely grateful. If I travel to a place near you I will buy you a drink.


Many thanks,

Lucien

[RobDickinson]

Heya , I'm a Pom who has lived here for 4 years ... its ace!

Ausies - thres plenty of friendly banter, but nothing serious, a lot of Kiwi's work in aus or visit, lots of Aus work here.

IMO most Kiwi's dont mind Poms or most anyone else, its quite multicultural. I guess in certain areas Poms , or Asians , are given some unwarrented stick bit its not common.

Wellington is a nice city has a lot going for it and some nice scenery near but theres a beutiful corner of NZ just about everywhere.

Flight of the Conchords - ? no idea dont care about them.

'Football' is still taken to mean Rugby but they understand if a Pom talks about football and means 'Soccer', its also quite well understood.

I couldnt explain the Kiwi footy season as I dont pay attention to it...

[alex.tvr]

http://www.wwoof.co.nz/
Make sure you have the right Visa.

Don't mention Beckham to anyone in Wellington

[Jem Thompson]

Football/soccer is not very big in NZ. I will not bother to list the places you have to visit because there are so many of them. Hire a car and enjoy our wonderful roads, there are several threads in the NZ section about which ones are especially good. Navigating your way around is not that difficult, it is a small country so there are usually only two or three ways to get to a town/city anyway.

In my experience at least, very few kiwis say kia ora in day to day life. As a pom i'm sure you will be accepted perfectly fine.

[GravelBen]

lightningghost said:

This is a terrible question, but are there any places, other than Welly, that are unmissable?

The South Island Kaikoura coast, Mt Cook, Central Otago, Dunedin, Fiordland/Milford Sound, etc... Here's a teaser






There are a few old threads somewhere in the NZ section with good suggestions of places to see, I'll see if I can dig them up for you.

Edited by GravelBen on Monday 13th July 07:22

[GravelBen]

Try browsing through these for anything useful:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/search4.asp?h=0...

[Jem Thompson]

If you are under 21, I can help you with a hire car,as the company I work for hires out to 18 year olds.

[lightningghost]

alex.tvr said:

http://www.wwoof.co.nz/
Make sure you have the right Visa.

Don't mention Beckham to anyone in Wellington

Thanks for the link.

Is that because he didn't show up in the LA Galaxy - Phoenix match when everyone was getting really excited about his appearance?

[lightningghost]

Jem Thompson said:

In my experience at least, very few kiwis say kia ora in day to day life.

Yeah, I thought that might be the case. I only wrote it cos it looks quite cool. It's got a high vowel density. Always good news...

Jem Thompson said:

I will not bother to list the places you have to visit because there are so many of them. Hire a car and enjoy our wonderful roads, there are several threads in the NZ section about which ones are especially good. Navigating your way around is not that difficult, it is a small country so there are usually only two or three ways to get to a town/city anyway.

Jem Thompson said:

If you are under 21, I can help you with a hire car,as the company I work for hires out to 18 year olds.

Thanks, I might take you up on that. I can't drive yet but I'm going with my mate who can. We'll still be 18 (or maybe just 19), so that could be a good option. We'd looked at a couple of places but they were all 25 and over.

[lightningghost]

GravelBen said:

The South Island Kaikoura coast, Mt Cook, Central Otago, Dunedin, Fiordland/Milford Sound, etc... Here's a teaser

Spot on! That is the kind of place I want to go to! Fantastic.

[lightningghost]

GravelBen said:

Try browsing through these for anything useful:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/search4.asp?h=0...

I'll have a look through there, thank you.




And thanks to everyone for all the replies.

[Zaphod]

lightningghost said:

alex.tvr said:

http://www.wwoof.co.nz/
Make sure you have the right Visa.

Don't mention Beckham to anyone in Wellington

Thanks for the link.

Is that because he didn't show up in the LA Galaxy - Phoenix match when everyone was getting really excited about his appearance?

Confused - he looked like he was there to me - unless they have a body double who scored a penalty! I would have thought it was Aucklanders who wouldn't like him as they had to foot the bill for his financially disastrous (and rather dull) game against Oceania.

Anyway, lightening - a few hints from another ex-pom. If you are short on time concentrate on the south island as Ben suggested. Roads here are narrow and winding compared to the UK and tourists always under estimate how long it will take until they get used to road speeds here. Our "State Highway One" which is the main north /south artery is mostly one lane each way with occasional passing places.

But definitely come - you won't regret it!

[lightningghost]

Zaphod said:

Confused - he looked like he was there to me - unless they have a body double who scored a penalty! I would have thought it was Aucklanders who wouldn't like him as they had to foot the bill for his financially disastrous (and rather dull) game against Oceania.

Gotta admit, I made up the bit about his no-show. Thought I'd read it somewhere, but clearly not.

Zaphod said:

Anyway, lightning - a few hints from another ex-pom. If you are short on time concentrate on the south island as Ben suggested. Roads here are narrow and winding compared to the UK and tourists always under estimate how long it will take until they get used to road speeds here. Our "State Highway One" which is the main north /south artery is mostly one lane each way with occasional passing places.

But definitely come - you won't regret it!

Thanks for the advice . It all depends how much money I (well...we) can earn, but I would like to stay for around 3 months if possible. I definitely want to go to both islands and see Wellington. If we can travel up and down the country that would be fantastic. I'll bear the travelling time in mind as well. Cheers .

[Kylie]

I would suggest saving a heap more cash and do NZ properly. Nothing worse than being a tourist and you cant afford to do the stuff that interests you the most, esp if you are coming so far. You dont want to spend half of your 3 month trip working picking fruit??

Ive never seen Wellington as a big draw card myself but is quite nice. Roads are windy there and everything on the side of hills, theres TePapa worth a visit and some good cafes but imo your better off spending time in the Bay Of Islands up north, Auckland two nights and then head to Coromandel to hotwater beach, Tauranga, Rotorua, Taupo, then Welly for a night. Ferry across to Picton. Go to Nelson and Abel Tasman - simply stunning beaches. Head south and plan to spend loads of time in the central south island and below. Queenstown, Wanaka, TeAnau, Tekapo, Mt Cook are all worth the visit. Bring a decent camera

[Jem Thompson]

Dont forget there is an F1 exhibition on at Te Papa in Wellington until November. I will be doing a weekend trip to see at, as it looks excellent. The only time it is being displayed in the southern hemisphere apparently.

[Zaphod]

That reminds me Jem, when are you doing your road trip?

[Jem Thompson]

Two and a half weeks ago Zaphod. There should be a little story in NZ Driver this month, but it is fairly summarised, given I had to cram five days of amazing driving into 800 odd words. It was great to be able to drive for hours on end along wonderful roads, I must have only used SH1 for about a quarter of the trip. SH43 from Taumaranui to Stratford is the best road I have ever driven.

Edited by Jem Thompson on Tuesday 14th July 09:28

[lightningghost]

Kylie said:

I would suggest saving a heap more cash and do NZ properly. Nothing worse than being a tourist and you cant afford to do the stuff that interests you the most, esp if you are coming so far. You dont want to spend half of your 3 month trip working picking fruit??

Well, ideally yes, but no one wants to hire undergraduates at the moment, what with everyone being out of work an' all, so I'll get as much as I can but it might not be a huge amount.

Kylie said:

I've never seen Wellington as a big draw card myself but is quite nice.

I've got a thing about capital cities, which is mostly based around football teams.

Kylie said:

Roads are windy there and everything on the side of hills, theres TePapa worth a visit and some good cafes but imo your better off spending time in the Bay Of Islands up north, Auckland two nights and then head to Coromandel to hotwater beach, Tauranga, Rotorua, Taupo, then Welly for a night. Ferry across to Picton. Go to Nelson and Abel Tasman - simply stunning beaches. Head south and plan to spend loads of time in the central south island and below. Queenstown, Wanaka, TeAnau, Tekapo, Mt Cook are all worth the visit. Bring a decent camera

Sound advice and a great route - thanks very much!


Edited to add: STUNNING artwork, Kylie!

Edited by lightningghost on Tuesday 14th July 11:58

[lightningghost]

Jem Thompson said:

Dont forget there is an F1 exhibition on at Te Papa in Wellington until November. I will be doing a weekend trip to see at, as it looks excellent. The only time it is being displayed in the southern hemisphere apparently.

Sounds great, but unfortunately I'll miss it. I think this trip will probably start around March/April next year.

[lestag]

Kylie said:

Ive never seen Wellington as a big draw card myself but is quite nice.

u aucklander u
it's very compact, unlike Auckland