Anyway, aside from all this, we did enjoy our visit and achieved a fair bit of what we set out to do. We had dealings with 1 glazing and 2 heating companies and found them all to be very helpful and knowledgeable about their products. I don?t know about slick, smart-suited salesmen, but the guy from the glazing company was dressed as if he?d just come off the rugby field and sported a massive beer belly, yet he couldn?t have been more helpful, well-spoken and courteous. It must be psychological, but I found his style of dress made him appear more honest because he wasn?t hiding behind the sharp suit normally employed by salesmen. The other salespeople were similarly casually dressed and I felt less under pressure because of their manner and lack of formal business suit. At no time was there any hard sell.
We visited several shops and found it not unusual for them to refer us onto another rival shop that might sell an item just that bit more suited to our needs. We were very happy with the whole shopping experience as we were warmly greeted in many places and involved ourselves in lots of little chats along the way. This simply doesn?t happen here (unless the person is an oriental with a sunnier disposition), as entering a shop or approaching a checkout brings about a scowl and a look that means ?Go away, you?re spoiling my day by just being here?. I felt myself re-emerging as a person again instead of just being a walking wallet and, now I?m back here, I?m feeling quite lonely and bereft.
I wouldn?t say we had a ?wonderful? holiday in the normal sense of tourists doing touristy stuff because it was more of a working holiday, trying to hammer the house into shape. However, the visit only reinforced our beliefs that NZ is a place we would very much like to settle in. For us, it?s not about beautiful scenery (we have that here) and being a great place to bring up the kids (ours are long since grown up), it?s just something that you can?t see, something that?s in the air and something that money can?t buy. We simply just enjoyed being there. We enjoyed a young lad trying to get past us in a shop and saying ?Excuse me please? then apologising for having disturbed us with his presence. We had other experiences like this, too. We enjoyed the food (even just simple stuff like the wonderfully soft, fresh bread products), enjoyed mooching around the shops and doing everyday things. I got to taste some of the typical kiwi fare like kumara chips, hokey pokey ice cream, L & P, a feijoa smoothy, afghan biscuits etc. and enjoyed them all
. In short, our time in NZ was more a small slice of life than a proper holiday.
Of course, our experience of living in NZ (NZIS permitting, as usual ::) ) will be different because we hope to retire there, so won?t be doing the ?going to work and living off a small salary? scenario. Instead, we?ll be doing whatever retired people do whilst living off a non-index-linked pension, which will surely test our budgeting skills. We hope this won?t be a problem as we are already mentally preparing for it by living a modest life in some areas so that we can afford to enjoy the things we would like in other areas.
I hope at least some of this makes sense. What we found so acceptable in NZ, may not appeal to those who are looking for different things. We?ve been there twice now and only feel stronger in our decision to gain approval to live there permanently. All that remains to say is ?Bring it on!?
