Happy St. Patrick’s Day for those of you who care to celebrate or acknowledge it! For us, St. Paddy’s (the 17th of March) represents not our Irish heritage, but rather, one month of residency in New Zealand. After an action-packed 7 months of travelling, it’s been a real change settling down, especially in a new country. Not that it’s been unwelcome – far from it, we’re getting quite used to the unhurried pace of life in the South Island.
On February 17th, Jeannine started working in the Ashburton Hospital. With limited accommodation in the “bustling metropolis” of Ashburton (pop. 20 000; an hour south of Christchurch), we found ourselves living in a small inland town, Methven, located smack, dab-in-the middle of the vast flatness of the Canterbury Plains. Surrounded by farmland (and more farmland), our little cottage looks out over the fields (and their sheep inhabitants), to the foothills of the Southern Alps. The sight of the morning sun on the mountains, makes getting up to go to work a little easier to take.
Being a ski town in the winter, Methven is incredibly ghost-like right now, although there are basic amenities: 2 grocery stores, one gas station (also the video store), a few restaurants that hold rather erratic opening hours, and 2 originally named bars (the Brown Pub and the Blue Pub). Not suprisingly, the people are friendly and welcoming, especially when you’re at the pub and cheering for the “home team” Canterbury Crusaders,in the Saturday night rugby game (no Hockey Night in Canada here).
The locals are also very trusting. Renting a video (from the gas station) requires no I.D., deposit, membership, or credit card; just a name and phone number. No one seemed to be at all concerned when I signed out a tape under, “Wayne Gretzky, phone# 967-1111”.
So, while Jeannine set about earning some income (a most welcome change), I canvassed the local schools for supply teaching work. Although my workload is picking up, I spent the first couple of weeks tidying the apartment and wandering the streets of Methven, waiting for teachers to call. In a most unusual fashion, I managed to find some casual work to supplement the days I’m not teaching.
Stranded in Methven without a car, I needed to get to Ashburton, so I attempted to “thumb it” (a notably popular and safe way to get around New Zealand, albeit an uncharacteristic mode of travel for me). I was picked up by a man who turned out to be the manager/owner of one of the largest seed producing companies in NZ. To shorten the story: he now employs me in his company on a casual basis- I work when I’m available. It’s not sheep shearing, but the job gives me a true South Island rural working experience.
Living and working here has immersed us in the Kiwi culture, and given us a clear insight into their way of life. Being an English-speaking, Commonwealth country, it’s much more similar than different in comparison to Canada. Having said that, there are some obvious differences related to language and lifestyle. Use of the greeting, “how ya goin’” is a standard hello, and rarely is someone a “friend”, “buddy”, or “guy”… it’s always “mate” or “bloke”. Although we’re doing our best to use the slang properly, I’m still inclined to give the complement of “way to go” or “good work”, rather than the Kiwi customary, “good on ya mate!”
We’re also trying to become educated on the weather patterns of New Zealand, as climatic conditions must be the number one topic of conversation here. People of all ages seem able to analyze the effects of southwest winds (“s’ourwesters”), and predict the drop of temperature when the front blowing in on a “nor’easter” hits the coast. The locals also discuss crops and farming techniques with a familiarity that obviously comes when your country’s most important industry is agriculture; clearly, my having grown up in the country, didn’t prepare me for the finer points of conversation about irrigation and seed harvesting.
In an attempt to enhance our knowledge of local agriculture (and for some good fun), we spent the day at the Methven Agriculture and Produce Show this past weekend. Similar to an Ontario, small town fall fair, it was a true New Zealand experience: lunching on venison sandwiches, checking out prize winning sheep, and watching horse jumping, sheep shearing and lumberjack competitions, sheep dog trials and bull riding. I’m not sure that I’ll be able to share any tractor tips to the farmers at the pub quite yet, but we definitely had an entertaining and educational day. Our experiences also confirmed some things for me: sheep are really quite dumb, sheep dogs are incredibly smart, and I’m not cut out to be a sheep shearer (the guys at the competition buzzed a lamb’s wool clean off it’s body in less than a minute…trust me, that’s fast).
So with one month in Methven, we’re feeling pretty good about life in New Zealand. Our weekends seem to be booking up as we play part-time tourists at the end of the work week. We’re very excited to see some family, as the Crago parents are set to roll into town any day now after their whirlwind bus tour of the country. I suppose there’ll be plenty more updates to come… stay tuned!
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