Admittedly, we didn’t have many expectations before coming to New Zealand. We’d done plenty of research, secured our visas, found a rental home, and sped over as soon as we could in order to get here in time for my teaching job to begin. We ended up being about 4 weeks late, which caused an even bigger rush once we finally got the green light. We knew there would be things that would be surprise us once we arrived. Now that we’ve been here for about a month, we finally feel like we’re settled and can acknowledge all the crazy little things we’ve learned over the last few weeks that come with moving to a new country.
Here are some unexpected things our research did not prepare us for ๐
On our way up to our new house for the first time, we experienced our first challenge: a cow crossing. Despite living in the Midwest and coming from a family of farmers, I’d never seen ropes suspended permanently over a public road. Not knowing if it was electrified or not, we knocked on the nearest house (thankfully the owner of the farm, and, we later realized, our landlord). They told us the cow crossing was meant to just drive right over, no problem at all. Easy peasy.
The ropes looked a bit high, but we followed directions and slowly drove over the cow crossing…and SNAP. All three ropes on one side of the crossing had hooked on our low-to-the-ground van. I had to walk back up to our landlord’s house, head down in shame (lol), to explain that we’d broken their cow crossing. They were incredibly gracious and not bothered at all, but of course THAT wasn’t the first impression we wanted to make. We learned to unhook the ropes or step on them when we need to get across…and that our van isn’t necessarily a farm vehicle, but we’ll make it work ๐ Pictured is a common sight after milking time in the afternoons. We are 1 minute from home but wait 5-10 to be able to turn into our driveway sometimes ๐
Light switches in NZ are opposite from the US. Off is up, down is on. I still have to majorly think before turning on any lights; we’ll see when it becomes more automatic! (Our house is an old farmhouse, not all switches are quite like this picture ๐
We knew that NZ had different outlets and voltage (so no use bringing any kitchen appliances!), but we had no idea that every outlet has an on/off switch on it!
Even the outlet the oven is plugged into has an on/off switch…which I actually like! One more way to make sure we turned off the stove!
One restaurant we went to had this robot server named Gina and the kids were absolutely awestruck every time she came over to deliver our food. It was super cute! Unfortunately this only seemed to be a thing at this particular restaurant, but in NZ there is no tipping, and generally you pay up at the counter, not at the table.
We’ve been so busy looking at the mountain every day that it took us a full TWO WEEKS to realize that we can see the ocean from our kitchen window. Like what were we even doing lol. This photo is just over the hill from our house on the drive to school. Seriously. How did we miss that??
We’d heard about the black sand beaches in this area due to Mount Taranaki, but pictures don’t capture how this volcanic sand SPARKLES. It’s also magnetic!
We knew most kiwis often dry their clothes on the line, so this wasn’t a surprise. However, our laundry situation was. See below.
This is the sole entry to our laundry room. The brown door on the left opens up to the bathroom, and the open door is our laundry room! Yes, straight into the backyard! Thankfully this area is covered, so if it’s raining we can still go back and forth.
Not the prettiest space, but gets the job done! Our washer is much smaller than a typical washer in the US. We really don’t have room in here for a dryer, nor do we have a hookup for a vent. I’ve been told that kiwis often will mount a dryer upside down in a small space…but we haven’t gotten that desperate yet ๐ We’ve had really nice weather so far, so drying outside has been fine. We also have a very large drying rack (on left in pic) that we plan to set up in front of our wood-burning stove during the colder, wetter winter months. It’s more rustic than we’re used to but honestly we kind of like the Little House on the Prairie vibes ๐ Also I’m just stoked to finally have a laundry sink! That’s been on my house wish list for years!!
One of my first surprises during my tour of my new school: I have a blue-tongued skink as a class pet. This is Blue, and he is the sweetest, most tolerant lizard when it comes to 10 year olds handling him throughout the day ๐
I was notified before arriving at school that we had chickens and a duck. I was not told that they wander into school frequently ๐คฃ There are several other chickens as well, but these two brown ones come find me every day after school. There aren’t as many flying bugs as in the states, so windows don’t have screens and doors are frequently just left wide open….which gives the chickens a great opportunity to see what’s going on inside. No chicken poo or eggs in my classroom…so far.
Also, Ayden loves our school duck, named Simba. He wags his little tail every time you say hi to him! Simba, not Ayden ๐
We knew we were moving to a working dairy farm, but we didn’t realize that Foster would be OBSESSED with cows. He goes nuts every time he sees them! Usually they’re not right next to our house; the cows are rotated to a new pasture every day. We have two paddocks on either side of the house, but after being here for a month, the cows have only been in the same paddock twice!
We knew Taranaki was going to be close-ish to us, but we had no idea how well we’d be able to see it from our area. Turns out that not only can we see it, but that it’s different every single day. Ayden probably thinks I’m silly because I make him slow down at one specific spot on our drive to school, but when you come around the corner you have a perfect view of the mountain (see above!!). On this particular day, the clouds were a cozy, hazy blanket ๐ฅฐ
We had done lots of learning on Mฤori traditions (tikanga) and language (te reo) before we arrived, but of course there’s nothing like being immersed in a new culture. I’ve been very thankful for my school community, which embrace Mฤori culture and have already taught me so much. My first meeting with everyone at school was at a powhiri, which is a traditional welcoming ceremony. We use te reo Mฤori every day in class, and I’m slowly getting better at my pronunciation (the kids help me a lot!).
A portion of every day has been spent in kapa haka, where the tamariki (children) practice songs and dance to perform at our hangi, which we threw this past weekend as a school fundraiser. A hangi is a traditional way of cooking food in the ground. A hole is dug, and stones are heated up in a large fire. The stones are put into the hole, food is laid on top of them, and the dirt is piled back on to let the food cook. It was really amazing to see the whole process, and also to see the kids do such an awesome job with their performance! They dressed in traditional costumes, had temporary tattoos (moko), and even spun poi during the performance! It’s incredible to see Mฤori culture and history celebrated and protected at our school and throughout New Zealand.
Hope that makes up a little for being so slow to get the blog up and running! ๐ Thinking of everyone back home, as always โค๏ธ
Love, Erin and fam