What a contrast!
Hi everyone,
I have spent some time reading a thread entitled 'Look before you leap' and then reading this one. What a contrast!
How on earth are we potential future Kiwis to sort our thoughts in the face of such conflicting evidence and 'advice', I wonder...
It is amazing that a family who visited as part of their decision making (as represented by Clare) can come to such a diametrically opposed view to those who began this thread, who could find little more to complain about than cold mornings (I love 'em!) and boy racers (I hate 'em!!).
I suppose it really does stress that we all have to make our own minds up and, as I think Mother Bear wrote, it's very much a case of horses for courses.
Personally, I have found far more to agree with in the positive outlook than in Clare's.
On a personal note, I found her distaste for what appeared to be a lack of 'health and saftey' considerations refreshing. I find the removal of personal 'risk assessing' by the almost obsessive imposition of 'safety' rather worrying. As children, we learned what was safe and dangerous through experimentation and very few of us seemed to perish in the process. The lessons we learned about things that hurt, things that scared us and things that could have been a lot worse still stuck with us and have kept us safe since then. I was positively overjoyed on our annual holiday to France one year to find a sea wall that was not lined with railings bearing 'Danger' signs: clearly the French have the common sense not to step off a 2 metre high wall and fall onto the beach below, even if we British haven't! So if New Zealand still expects its residents (and visitors) to have a degree of common sense and an instinct for self-presevation, that's another point in its favour.
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