Time for some halfway evaluation. How kiwi are we after almost half a year? Well, first we need to establish a definition of what a kiwi is.

- A flightless bird
- A citrus fruit
- The colloquial demonym for New Zealanders

We can establish that we are definitely not turning into flightless birds or citrus fruit. But how much are we in the progress of turning from Dutchies to New Zealanders? From my observations New Zealanders or Kiwi’s are a friendly bunch of active do-ers. They have adopted a great taste for food, wines and beer. Kiwi’s adore nature and happy to be active in it. Although this might be without any shame in a big jet boat or large, no, enormous mobile home. In the eye of many foreigner they are very entrepreneurial, however from a Dutch (not only ours) perspective they are a bit lazy (rush hour is finished at 5!) and take things for granted. Or to say it from a more positive perspective not as stressed and less complaining as the Dutch are.

How far are we in the process of becoming Kiwi’s? Dirk is quite good in mimicking the accent, although most people hear that he is not an born and raised kiwi. Me, I am horrible. They always ask me where I am from and if I enjoy my holiday. “Holland? Yeah, I thought so. Awesome! I’ve been there too, you know.” Or a variety on the last part “My grandparents are from Holland.” But that’s just superficial. We do appreciate the food and wines here. I adopted a lot of Kiwi recipes and we try out every New Zealand wine. We drink mostly native beers, because it is not as expensive as imported beer. It is still twice as expensive as in Holland, see here. Today I could not resist on buying a pack of Heineken on sale…

Are we less stressed and becoming a bit more lazy? That is different for the both of us. Dirk found the love of his life, airplanes. Although he says I am always on the first place, I do think I have to share that spot. And in order to become a pilot he is studying his ass off (sorry for the langauge, but see more here). I must say I admire that a lot. For me it is different. I was always so busy in the Netherlands doing two or three things at the same time. Here, I can’t. I wanted too, but it didn’t work out that way. And now I appreciate the time off, to learn a new rhythm of life.  Enjoy the now, which I still struggle with some days. Mostly Mondays somehow.

As you might guess, this will lead to the conclusion we are not yet true Kiwi’s, but there are things I want to merge with my Dutch attributes. I love the daily friendliness of people you meet. At the shop counter they always ask you how your day is and asks a few more questions after your answer. Try that in Holland, you are lucky if you are treated with a smile. Also I love the sharing of food and drinks at barbies (Bbq’s) and parties. People bring the best home-made pies and fresh caught fish. Lovely!

 

#6 Kerstvakantie (deel 1 van 3)

Home

You know that feeling coming home from holiday? It starts a day or two (or more days, depending how exciting your holiday is) before you planned to go back. You start to long for your own bed, clean clothes, a fresh shower in your own bathroom and more of such comforts of home. The feeling gets stronger when you arrive in familiar surroundings. A KLM-stewardess with blond hair, flat land, ANWB-signs, windmills, you name it.

Well, a week ago we experienced it, but not on our way to Holland. No, on our way to Nelson. We drove from the mountains down into farmland. And not with one or two farms like before, but with heaps of farms! Then we saw the familiar signs of Wakefield, Richmond, Kentucky fried chicken and the motorway. Back into civilization! The drive along Tasman bay and up the mountain confirmed our destination. Home! Yes, people. After months of integration and “inburgering” (would there be a correct English word for that?) we finally received a true confirmation that we call 101 Princes Drive our home. Sweet as…

#5 Lente dolheid

In a land far far away…

… it snows! It seems unreal to us that our home country is currently winter wonderland for some and transportation troubles to others. In our new country it feels like a paradisal summer. We are sweating off our balcony, literally!

We feel sorry in a way (not Dirk). We are happy for you that you can make beautiful pictures of white stuff. We miss the fun part of winter, but we also know it can be a pain in the ass some time. Summer seems much easier if you are all packed in winter clothes to prevent frostbite. Well, it is not! Every year I seem to forget the MOSQUITOES! I couldn’t sleep for days due to horribly stingy big bumps on my feet. The mosquitoes here are definitely worse than in Europe. You lucky ones in a land far far away…

Summer breakfast @ balcony

 

 

Comming to Auckland

My day started a bit earlier today then I am used to. It was lovely to get up at the same time with Dirk. It is funny to recognize how our morning routines differ. But they fitted perfectly well together. I said goodbye to him and jumped on the plane. Next to me was this lovely lady who excused her self for being so silent (in the Netherlands I never heard that!) because her mother passed way (well, I wouldn’t easily talk to a stranger in the first place, especially not when such a sad thing has happened). The fun thing is that we did end up chatting all the way to Auckland about life, her children, Nelson, Canada, etc.

After landing I was waiting at the conveyor belt. In the Netherlands I was used to tired looking people who wanted to go home as soon as possible. You might already guess what happened. A guy asked me what I was up to doing here in Auckland. Was I travelling around? We had a nice little chat until our bags came.

Next I took the bus to Ponsonby (I love the sound of that) and met up with this lovely Dutch lady (also a designer from Delft) who has lived here for quite some time. She introduced me to some other Dutch designer lady who gave me some advice on the job market for designers. We had a coffee and lunch together. She (the first designer lady) dropped me off at my big meeting with AUT. I was officially not invited for an interview, but the head of the school wanted to meet with me anyway. We ended up having an interesting discussion about teaching design students. Not sure what to expect there. Kiwi’s are generally lovely and kind people. However, it often sounds too good to be true. The Dutch ladies from this morning warned me for that kiwi habit.

I am sitting here at my new New-Zealand friend’s place with some wine and good music having a great feeling about today regardless of what the future might bring.

Food

The week before I left the Netherlands a friend asked me if I knew about the food in New Zealand. If would miss anything. He told me that in his time in Sweden his missed good Dutch bread. I knew that Japan would be weird, but I had no idea about New Zealand. I made you a list of the food that stands out.

Cheese: we are hardcore Dutch about cheese. Here they have this untasty (even if it is called tasty) cheddar cheese. Only good for toasted sandwiches (tosti’s). Luckily we found a cheese man (kaasboer) on the Saturday market who sells all kinds of Dutch cheeses.

Bread: they have all varieties of bread all quite similar to Dutch bread. They call it European style bread, or Swiss bread. We met however two German girls who hated the bread. They missed their German sour bread.

Peanut butter: that is common here as well, but they are not as good as Calvé. They taste too much like butter instead of cheese. Maybe that is why the Dutch call it Peanut cheese?

Boemboe’s or any other Indonesian products: a few things are available in the Supermarket or Asian market, like Singapore sambal, Indonesian Sate from Thailand (?) and soy sauces.

Tui beer @ our spot

 

Beer: You can get Heineken and Grolsch! But they have mean prices. We buy the cheapest beer (Tui) that is already twice as expensive as Heineken in the Netherlands. Yesterday we were at this cute little café at Cable bay where we paid a gruesome $21 for two beers (that is 11,50 euro). If you pay attention to price deals in the supermarket you can get good wines though for reasonable prices.

Fruit & veggies: these are cheaper in the fruit & veggie store than in the supermarket. And better. This is a little bid odd for me. Then you have the “common” veggies like cucumbers and tomato’s  are twice or trice as expensive as in the Netherlands. Avocado’s can be really cheap. And courgettes are really tiny here!

Meat: so far I didn’t find a butcher. I asked around, but Nelsoners are satisfied with supermarket meat, which is of pretty crappy quality.

The green mussels that made me sick

Seafood: very delicious! Big scallops, prawns, oysters and green mussels. Although the latter one made me throw up really bad one night… I even discovered that fish and chips is similar to our “kibbeling”. You must however pay attention that you won’t get dogfish (shark) on your plate (or in your paper). It is a sign of unsustainable fishing (by-catch) and it doesn’t taste really good.

Dirks list:

- Dirk eats carrots like a bunny, but the season is over. They aren’t as tasty as they used to be, so he is sad about it.

- He misses Hamka’s, but he found a good alternative in nacho chips

- He eats every morning a bowl of Cocoa puffs. Something he never did in the Netherlands.

The funny thing is that if you pay attention you can find Dutch stuff everywhere. I found Dutch fruitloaf (krentebrood), Het gouden speculaasje, Edam and Dutch salami (which tasted awful btw). I buy Dutch food occasionally, but we are here for the kiwi stuff off course. And they have a lot of kiwi fruit available.

Dutch salami