Well yet again we haven’t been very good at keeping our blog up to date, but hopefully this will change!
The last time we wrote, we were in the count down for going home to NZ.
So I’ll pick up from here.
In the week leading up to leaving for home we had to figure out a way of getting rid of the bed that we bought for our UK flat – as the flat wasn’t furnished when we moved in, which is quite unusual over here. The bed was just a cheapy that we picked up out of necessity, so we were quite happy to be getting rid of it. We thought we would donate it to the British Heart Foundation shop down the road from our flat, so Bev went down and asked if they could come and collect it, and they said they only take beds that have a special fire retardant sticker on them – yep you can’t even donate something without there being a rule associated with it! – we had no idea as to whether ours did or not, so we started to sweat about what we were going to do in the event that it didn’t have a sticker (we couldn’t just burn the thing in our back yard like at home) – we had visions of us doing a midnight run down our street with the bed in tow and dumping it in front of someone’s house – maybe in Palmerston North…..anyway we were pleased to discover the bed had the required sticker, so we avoided having to proceed with the midnight plan.
Following a 24 hour flight with a 2 hour stop over in LA again, we reached NZ at 6am in the morning, to be met by Mum and Dad and my Auntie, Uncle and 3 little cousins. We knew we were back home in NZ when the baggage claim guy announced the broken conveyor was fixed over the loudspeaker by saying “Your bags is ready now”. LOL
It was nice to see nothing had changed since we had left, and it felt like we had never left, it really felt like our year in London was a dream.
There were a few things that we noticed about being back home though – no one walks anywhere, there is only one or two people walking past your house a day, I didn’t remember my parents kitchen being so large and spacious, and sunshine comes in through the windows – which is so nice.
My parents have a spare car, so Bev and I used this as our car whilst home which was great – I so miss the independence having a car brings me. On the first day home, we went to use the car, but because mum and dad don’t use the car very often the battery gets a bit flat, so we had to in true Rangi kiwi styles push it down the street to get it to start haha only at home in NZ!
The one thing we miss about NZ in the UK is the lack of customer service, and we weren’t disappointed going home – every shop that I walked in to had a pleasant shop assistant that wanted to know how I was, what I was up to, what the name of my great grandmothers pet cat was etc.
We arrived on a Tuesday morning, we had an appointment for our visa biometrics in Auckland on the Wednesday and intended to travel to Wellington to hand in our application on the Friday. On the Wednesday we got to our biometric interview half an hour early, and instead of turning us away and making us wait for the half hour, as it was her lunch break, the nice lady said that she would see us straightaway and just have her lunch break after us! Only in NZ! As the biometric process was compulsory for anyone applying for a visa, we found it quite hilarious that the method of confirming that we had our biometrics taken was a flimsy blue post it sticker in each of our passports – no official stamp or anything! Good Ol NZ. We managed to get everything signed and sealed that needed doing, and got to Wellington at 1pm on Friday – only to find out that the visa office closed at 1.30pm on Fridays – good thing we didn’t muck around on our way to Wellington! Whew! The guy told us the visa, if straight forward would take 20 working days to process, and he was pretty accurate, it arrived on my parents doorstep 18 working days later!
We really appreciated NZ food! You forget how huge our portions are when eating out. On the 2nd day we caught up with Bev’s sister and went to a Chinese restaurant and ordered 1 dish each thinking it could feed us perfectly, but we forgot how huge the portions in NZ were and ended up with twice as much as we thought! We have notice that kiwis are generally noticeably more stocky and round compared to people on the otherside…much more noticeable. We found that the NZ lifestyle was a lot more of an American lifestyle, such as driving our bigger cars around, living in spacious bungalows. It was so nice to have a spot on coffee and perfect steak again, the Brits just don’t do good coffee or steak. All we seemed to do at home was eat - mmm nice NZ food!
Mmmmm NZ Lamb Roast - the best!
Appreciating NZ food - Dinner at Mission Estate in Hawkes Bay - mmmhmmmm!
Bev was missing London soon after leaving the UK, worried that we wouldn’t be able to come back, but soon forgot about London when he felt completely relaxed setting foot into wide open spaces, As soon as we hit NZ we just felt our stress levels drop instantly. Space is a premium in London, so being crammed up for a year and suddenly arrive home, you’re amazed at the vast amount of space we have, from seeing lot of horizon, to how wide the roads are (misjudging them too when you almost get run over because you forget how wide they are), to the size of mums kitchen bench! We were so surprised to go to Queen street and central Wellington to find then to be much smaller that we remember…as if they had shrunk – it was like “where is everyone?”
It was so nice that everyone could understand us and it’s so easy going and everybody’s laid back and efficient! You notice the kiwi accent A LOT when first arriving back. You can really hear it (terrible in some cases). It was really hard getting used to Kiwi accents again from hearing the odd kiwi every now and then to a whole country of kiwis especially the high question mark endings that we tend to do. Bev even had to secretly watch some Coronation street just to get his British language fix! (Weirdo!) NZ is not stressful at all in comparison, everything is so much easier and life doesn’t feel like consistent fire fighting.
The weather at home was sooooooooo NICE! Even though it was unsettled spring weather, it was extra nice when the sun came out it was just clear clean blue full horizon days. The days were far nicer than the majority of summer days we had seen in London! (What summer days!). We weren’t use to squinting so much arriving back into the country. And even when it did rain, it was nice to hear some proper heavy rain on the roof again, and plenty of it (and not be worried that we would be caught in it).
The feeling of experiencing what you really appreciate and what you missed for a year is just awesome. After a month you get use to everything again, as if you never left. So going back to London it is a nice feeling to think that everything will be the same when you return again, that looking forward to experience that feeling of appreciation again. The feeling we got from tasting that first service station mince and cheese pie,
Screw the jet lag, a pie will make it all better! Bev after less than 1 hour on NZ soil!
fish and chips and being able to see stars brightly, being the only one at the beach, biting into the tender NZ steak, finding a sock that you missed putting in the washing machine, and being able to lift the lid on the washing machine and drop it in and sitting on the sand at the beach at sunset. Ahh heaven!
Aw and how could I not write a whole blog on what it felt like to see my cat Jess again!
I was sure that she would take one look at me and snub me – but she purred really loudly and gave me lots of smootches and to further dissipate my insecurities, she sleep in our bed with us for the first few nights of being home – the most high honour of them all (considering it took her a whole year to feel comfortable doing that when she first started living with us) – she remembers us YAY! Much to my dad’s disgust she picked up with us as if we had never left, with my dad being the convenient feeding human thing, and me being her mum again – aw but to have to leave her again was extremely hard!
It was so nice to go home and just have what felt like an unlimited amount of time to trip around and do heaps of things we had been craving over the last year. Bev really wanted to go Snowboarding so he went up Whakapapa for a couple of days,
The gorgeous weather Bev got whilst up the Mountain!
whilst I really wanted to see Gisborne and East Cape as I had never seen that part of NZ. So me and my brother went on a road trip around Gisborne – it is so pretty, I can’t believe how gorgeous our country is and how spoilt we are, and how accustom and how much we take it for granted because we can see it everyday, any day if we like. We also went to Cape Kidnappers while we were in Hawkes Bay, it was such a beautiful day - and the Gannet Colony is just amazing!
Cape Kidnappers
One of the hugest blessings we had whilst home was that both of us were able to pick up three weeks worth of work – Bev at my parents work helping with their company website, and me with my old buddies at LIC. It was so nice for me to work back at LIC again, because it was an easy way to catch up with all of my friends – esp since they were all working, so I got to spend more time with them then I would have not working, and also it showed me what I could have been doing if I stayed – a bit like the movie sliding doors really, not to mention having an income to spend whilst at home! In addition, an opportunity has arisen for me to do a PhD in animal behaviour and welfare in Hamilton- which I have always wanted to do so this is extremely exciting! The details will need to be decided over the next year, so watch this space :o)
Catching up with Corey at Burger Fuel....mmmm Burger Fuel! (Thanks to Jamie for taking the photo!)
It is funny the hankerings you get after being away from home for a year – one of things that I really wanted to do while home (and did) was to mow a lawn and do some gardening – I am the lawn mower and gardener in our household, and I guess it is things like these that you just do every couple of weekends that you don’t realise how much sanity they bring to your everyday life, and more importantly stress release.
There is something so simplistically satisfying about mowing a lawn – my dad always says that he missed collecting firewood when he moved to town for the same reason!
Anyway this is turning into a novel, so I will end it here by saying going home was so refreshing for us both, and really put us in good stead to come back to the UK. We really needed a relaxing holiday where there weren’t any unknown variables and we could just enjoy all the things we love about NZ. The weather was also fantastic, so we truly felt like we had had a summer by the time we returned to the UK (two weeks in Thailand helped too). Once our visa came through we pretty much booked everything we could straightaway - so to those of you we missed catching up with - sorry! But we'll probably catch up with you in a year anyway :o)
We left NZ on the 10th Nov, for two weeks in Thailand – see our next blog for this!
Lots of love
Jam and Bev
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