This New Zealand Life

Kiwi electrical sockets lack safety features

GIVEN that New Zealand electricity is supplied at 240 volts, just as in the UK, you'd think it would be an inexpensive matter to get all your newly shipped appliances and electrical goods working when you arrive. It is, but only if you think ahead.

Ordinary living allows us to ignore those essential items that smooth the rough edges of daily routine and make our lives a little more pleasurable.

Yet when packing to emigrate, or for long term stays, it's easy to think those small packages of joy will not be needed, or even useless.

British Medics trapped in New Zealand

...its goal is to stop British GPs leaving the NHS while the UK is in such a financial mess

IN what amounts to a punitive tax on GPs that have worked in NZ, the National Health Service is preventing British trained doctors from returning to the UK by "putting in place a pretty draconian policy".

When Jellyfish Attack

 

EACH YEAR, at about Christmas, the cold waters swirling round the bottom of the North Island are momentarily mixed up with warmer currents. Children swim, parents paddle, but beneath the shimmering foam danger lurks. Nigel Charman tells you what to do when jelly turns your day to custard.

 

A land without Zombies

NEW ZEALAND has come away with an honorable mention as one of the top places to live when the Zombie apocolypse strikes. Its small population combined with vast tracts of uninhabited land make it ideal for hunkering down while the cities of the rest of the world are overrun by mushy brains.

Living with Wellington's fearful secret

Wellington CBD from Mount Victoria. Photograph: wikicommons

THE capital of New Zealand straddles a violent crack in the earth's crust that is overdue for a seismic shift. Hundreds of buildings in Wellington's central business district could be destroyed, and thousands may die. So how do residents live with the risks?

Recent News

That sinking feeling
Otago Daily times

Police investigate overnight fires in city
Otago Daily times

Van der Vaart lifts Spurs, Everton through
Dominion Post Online (Stuff)

P linked to family violence incident
Dominion Post Online (Stuff)

US home invasion: 'Our personal holocaust'
New Zealand Herald

Cricket: Black Caps roll Zimbabwe
New Zealand Herald

Is violence reason to leave Britain?

UK violent attacks reach two a minute

THIS New Zealand Life likes to point out the good and the bad for expats and immigrants in NZ.

Sometimes this might seem gushingly over enthusiastic and at other times readers might wonder why you'd ever want to live on such a remote, unstable collection of rocks. It is all a balance, of course.

But it's useful to be reminded of why so many Brits end up leaving the jolly old UK and heading for a different life overseas.

Disgraceful NZ grocery prices

UPDATE: With an extended basket of goods, TNZL begins tracking the cost of living difference between New Zealand and the UK.

Most shocking are the NZ goods that are cheaper for Britons than they are for Kiwis, like Oyster Bay wine and milk. But there seems to be a general 25-30% hike in prices for NZ.

This is particularly keenly felt by working families. Salaries are some 30-50% less in NZ and children add considerably to the weekly cost of living.

Christchurch Earthquake: News Roundup

The magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck about 30km west of Christchurch at 4.35am today, at a depth of 10km, causing injuries, structural damage and gas leaks, cutting power, and rupturing water and sewerage mains.

Christchurch in NZ's South Island suffered a huge quake early this morning. What are the papers saying around NZ?

Half of all crime goes unresolved

POLICE solve less than half of all crime in NZ according to these figures from Statistics NZ.