5 things I did not know before moving to New Zealand

I left the UK in 1984 for a holiday in NZ and 37 years later I’m still here and a proud NZ citizen.

New Zealand has been wonderful. I came here for a seminar and I must commend the hospitality I've been shown thus far. The city is full of beautiful people.

When I first arrive to Auckland, I when to the church here and a lady of the church met me the next day afternoon when I was walking around the neighborhood, a lady who recognize me invited us, me and my friend, for tea. I say to my friend ok we should have our dinner first before leaving to the lady home at 6.00pm. When we reach there we realise is for tea meant dinner. Also, when we go to church, we are invited to "bring a plate". We bought our plates but it turns out there are a ready plates, what it means is bring some food whether is for lunch or dinner.

Yeah you picked the windiest part of the country to live in. Talking about visitors settling down here I sometimes work with (we're both tv extra's in Auckland) a guy who was born in LA who's dad used to build movie camera's for the Hollywood industry. Anyway, he went out on his big OE in his early twenties and travelled all over the world, TWICE, before landing in New Zealand, he's 80 now, and still here! He sounds like he just landed, still has that strong American accent, but speaks New Zealand English peppered with Maori words, as he once said "I've been here longer than most New Zealander's". As soon as he got his NZ citizenship he went to the American consulate (embassy or whatever) to renounce his American citizenship. They said "You can have both you know". He told them they could shove it, he's a bit of a hippy type and hates war so didn't want to be a citizen of a war mongering country invading Vietnam. He married, raised kids, and is very happy and a very active 80 year old.

You know every Kiwi needs to see this video particularly when they are having a crappy day

One of the thing I always liked about NZ (and Australia) is, when you go to buy something the taxes are already added in. "What you see is what you get" price-wise. No figuring in your head - it's already done for you. Also, no figuring out tips on top of figuring out your bill. 🎉

I think a lot of Americans believe they live in the “greatest country in the world” because they have been told this all their lives, but they haven’t actually travelled or lived anywhere else to compare. Whereas Europeans live in close proximity to other countries with different cultures that they are able to compare the differences and experiences.

Where I live in NZ: A gentle breeze is when brown pine needles come straight for you. A real wind is when it's green pine needles or even branches.

The great thing about taxes in NZ is if you just have a salaried or wages job, you don't need to do a thing.

Really awesome perspective. For me as a kiwi I’m so interested in how Americans view our country. It was sweet as!!!

I was wondering what your kids think about living in New Zealand and if they would want to move back to the America?

Sorry you didn't know my country before the monetary reforms of the 1980s. It was truly utopia. I grew up with native bush behind our house, a grass paddock with a stream, a park across the road for sports where we would gather mushrooms for breakfast and blackberries for jam, and a river down the road where we pottered around in our home-made kayaks. This was the Hutt Valley, just out of Wellington, and is now high density housing. Our primary schools (age 5-12) and our secondary schools (age 13-17) were free, we ate home-grown lamb for our Sunday roast with vegetables out of our garden, and there were so many jobs when we were ready. Universities were free, as well. Then along came the new money era... and the great divide happened. Property developers became rich, working people became poor, and the divide widens.

Kia ora I'm a maori and I've been watching your videos and it's so nice to hear the way you love our country so thanks heaps

Wellingtons wind is unique and doesn't really apply to the rest of the country.

Born and raised kiwi, this channel just makes me question other countries intelligence and I'm face-palming the whole time

As an Australian, the only other country I would ever want to live in is NZ. I love it.

I love that at the end of this last tax year I received a bill of over $3000 from IRD but I knew that it was wrong. So easy to email them just to ask for some clarification and to receive a phone call a week later to say that they had input the wrong dates so it had calculated wrong, was actually due a $700 refund 😁. It's something I have never had to think about whether I can question a government agency or not

Re the thing with the IRS, holy shit that’s awful. I’m glad you were able to get it sorted out. Had to laugh at the thing about the spellings - I’m a translator for an international company where US English is required for 99% of the jobs and it’s common for those of us from countries that use UK English to be able to get those jobs because we see US English so much in places like books and the internet. Glad you’re happy here. I moved away for a while but got really homesick and ended up coming back. In light of Cindy’s overall handling of covid, I’m glad I did.

More content like this! me and my wife plan to move to NZ after college! We have watched hundreds of videos but have never heard these points! love your video!

David Hackett Fischer wrote a book where he contrasts the core value underpinning New Zealand and US society - long story short, for the US it is freedom and for New Zealand it is fairness. That goes a long way towards explaining your second point.