Edmonds Cookbook - every kiwi grew up with an Edmonds cook book in the home.

Here in Wellington, Maori culture is very much part of the city and formal ceremonies, at primary school (many years ago) I was taught Maori Language, The Haka, Poi dances, a lot of the books were Maori legends and class trips often involved going to a Marae. You learn about the legends of the birds and of sacred places and this is in a predominantly European Inner city suburb school. Generally most people with know all the basic words and greetings and not sure if you guys have this where you teach but there are many songs that include singing in maori language that includes names of colours and vowels. In my Wellington primary we also would learn basic sign language, like the alphabet in sign, animals, greetings and other things... So the official languages of New Zealand do get a lot of focus. At some point a highly recommend coming down to Wellington and going to Te Papa (The National Mueseum) and that will give you a deep dive into New Zealand history and culture and is very interactive and great for kids too.

Hang in there kids, you’re doing really well here. You really do need to forget about the heavily processed foodstuffs from the U.S. I mean Velveeta - shortens your life span. Bless.

New Zealand is a small nation at the far end of the world. We want people to love us! For instance, in the national anthem it says: 🎼make her praises heard afar. 🎶 If a foreign visitor comes here and has a bad experience, it can feel like we've let them down.

I think the 4-6 month mark of being away from family is the hardest. My daughter did a school exchange from NZ to Mesa, Arizona and she was thinking of only doing 6 months. I said to her that would be when she really starts to get into the way of life there and advised her to do a whole year. She did, and right on the 4-6 months she became very homesick! Later on she thanked me for encouraging her to stay longer and said the second half of the year was great!

11:20 Daniel is right, it's definitely about how you say it. As a native Kiwi, it all comes naturally and I'm still getting a handle on the whole thing through watching and discussing with expats like yourselves, but we Kiwis definitely have a certain 'tactful' way about speaking our mind. Kiwis are fiercely egalitarian and don't like contention, disunity, and arrogance, all of which are aggravated by open criticisms or public disagreement, so being very direct will typically go down badly in most social settings. Being American probably doesn't help either, as Kiwis sometimes stereotype Americans as arrogant given all the global posturing by the US, even though the Americans who come here are always the least like that. There's definitely this passive-aggressive round-about way that we Kiwis say anything contrary, especially if it's in front of spectators. Like, we all know what the person _really_ means, but we still do the dance so that nobody has an excuse to begrudge anyone (including the spectators), and thus perfect harmony is maintained (at least in theory). Even if you know something is a bad idea, you wouldn't just say "I think that's a bad idea because X", instead you'd say something like "Oh I just had a thought, are we sure that'll work out well given X?" Phrasing things as a question that invites the group to weigh in is very common, and if there's been a protracted speech or discussion about the matter, it's not uncommon to make out like you only just realised it was bad, so that it doesn't seem like you're so awesome and superior for knowing it was bad all along. While you're still getting the hang of Kiwi indirectness, though, it's probably best to just take people aside and say things one-on-one, where they'll generally be better received as the person doesn't have to worry about how it looks to anyone else. Similarly, if someone is working too slow and you wanted them to work faster, you wouldn't just tell them to pick up the pace if there are other people around, because it singles them out and creates a social imbalance (or highlights one if you're their manager, though obviously it's different in something like hospitality where rushing the staff is the manager's main job). A common way to hurry somone in an office or team envinronment would be to ask if they needed a hand getting the work done. Assuming they don't actually need a hand, they should recognise what the question really means and say no, hopefully picking up the pace. Otherwise, they'll say yes and be grateful because they genuinely need the help, or they'll miss the cue and say yes, in which case you just do the work at a fast pace and they'll soon realise their mistake and hopefully work faster in the future. And if it continues to be a problem and you have to sit them down to talk about it, you now have all the times you've helped them to make your criticism look more reasonable. When disagreeing with someone's personal tastes or choices, it's common to relate the matter to your own preferences, such as "Oh wow, your lounge still has its original 1920's wallpaper! I probably would have replaced it with something more modern, but I think the rosettes certainly give it character!" which is the Kiwi way of saying "I think your wallpaper is old and trash". The problem with specifically saying that you don't like somone's wallpaper is that it forces the other person to defend their wallpaper, which creates contention and that's not allowed. So instead, you want to expresses your disagreement by suggesting something else you like, prefer, or would have done differently, which avoids passing direct judgement on the person's choices and doesn't force them into an argument. Often you'll start with a compliment (or a statement that sounds like a compliment) and follow with something that walks back your disagreement to give them an out. So another example might be "Oh wow that's really interesting dress! I must say, I do really like that green one you have though, but this one also looks nice on you and it's definitely quite unique!" Translation: "Why on earth did you wear that hideous dress? It could only look worse on you if it didn't actually fit!" And if you feel like you're having a hard time getting used to it and worry about the rifts it might be creating, just find the biggest gossip around (every workplace has one, like all of them) and confide in them the struggle you're having in coming from a culture that's much more direct. Before long, your personal BBC News reporter will have made sure literally everyone knows about how you're used to saying things more directly and don't mean any harm by it, and they'll all be much more forgiving and dismissive of any future faux pas. Seriously, never underestimate the utility of the BBC News colleague!

Love the honesty of this guys. Many of us are definitely precious if others don’t feel the same as we do about life in general.

Hey Newly's! Say it! We're learning from you guy's difference's and it's pretty cool. Keep doing what ya'll are doing. Stay safe! Till next time. BLESSiNGS!🙏

Since you've only been in New Zealand for 4 months, you've only experienced winter. October is the time the weather starts getting better. I expect your first Christmas may be challenging, but after that life is pretty good!

In regards to Health Care in NZ, there is also the ACC scheme, where everyone regardless of age, is provided no-fault personal injury insurance cover to all New Zealand residents, and visitors to New Zealand if they suffer an injury. Re: The Honesty thing. NZ is very much influenced by old British societal rules (much more than say Australia for example) where it is better to say nothing than to hurt someone's feelings. It is very much an unspoken rule in NZ. The strange/bemusing thing is that it is very similar to the Japanese concept of Tatemae & Honne (being agreeable, but not directly saying or acting upon your true feelings).

We got a clow cooker book at Kmart for $5 awesome deal

The wait times for doctors/medical procedures seems to have gotten so much worse since Covid, I don't remember having these wait times before, hopefully it reverts back to normal soon!

Wait for the summer months get out and about and be involved in the community..

Do you ever misplace him in that ginger blanket?

Hi there . you are looking a bit down , completely understand the family problems (my wife is not from NZ), perhaps the Edmonds Cookbook which is a kiwi institution might help with NZ specific ingredients, urgent health care is a problem here I agree,. I just use good lean beef mince for my burger patties (I add finely chopped red onions, some white flour, an egg, a bit of breadcrumb mix it up and then a bit of breadcrumb on the outside of each patty then chill in the fridge - thats the important part I find ), don't feel bad about keeping pace with the introduction of more and more Maori culture in NZ - plenty of kiwis are having to work to keep pace !!😎. My Dutch friends say kiwis are too reserved and easily offended so don't worry it's us not you !! Hope you can make some kiwi friends soon, you'll find that will be your breakthrough to long term kiwi happiness. We've had a record breaking crappy wet winter , we all feel "over it". hang in there 😀

Aw you guys are lovely. Even if you say something wrong, it's the intention that's more important imo

Thanks for the honest reflections on your experience guys. In response to some of your points: 1 - Missing family. Of course! You'll be experiencing a form of grief for the places and the people and the routines that you had. Think of it as a really big wave that you're surfing down. You can't fight it and pull out of the experience. Be mindful of and appreciate the things and people you miss. You still have the opportunity to tell those people how much you appreciate them. Your relationships will inevitably change but they can become richer if you add to them. My parents emigrated to NZ in the 1950's. My mother wrote to her mother regularly (phoning was exorbitantly expensive in those days). 2 - Cheese in meat. We think of US cheese as being ultra-processed. This may not be true, my suggestion is to try using the sliced cheese that's individually wrapped. It mellts a bit like plastic. We don't generally put cheese in meat dishes so this is just a guess. 3 - Traffic and driving. Most of my driving has been in NZ but I did drive in the States for 6 months touring the country. Adapting to the other side was not too hard with the exception of emergency actions. Just be aware that your old habits and learnings will probably kick in if you are in a suddenly difficult situation. Unfortunately, old habits will take you in the wrong direction and sometimes put you in harm's way. Practice pulling over to the left side of the road (I speak from experience of having pull in the wrong direction in an LA intersection. My bad.). 4 - I'm really interested in your observations about how ingrained Maori culture and language has become. I have grown old as this has happened around me. I, personally have welcomed this, although there are many who would rather not be disturbed from their status quo. In urban areas Maori culture is embedded by law in many institutions including schools. In rural areas, it will depend on how large the resident population of Maori is. The far north and the east coast of the north island have high percentages of Maori. South Island is different again because the major Iwi down there agreed to a Waitangi settlement pretty early in the process and now own and often operate many of the tourist attractions. They have a billion-dollar business and the respect that that business brings. In contrast, Northland Maori, where you are, continue to have difficulty agreeing with each other and therefore have been unable to settle their treaty agreement with the crown. It is becoming clearer and clearer that being fiscally secure has a huge impact on future prospects and self-respect. As with all things Maori, this is an oversimplification. There are iwi by iwi differences.

In my mothers lifetime, Maori culture has gone from something which was suppressed an punished to what you are now beginning to experience. Something else which is starting to be introduced is NZ history too. This hasn't been taught in schools and I think the generations about to start learning will have a better understanding of how we got to where we are.

The Treaty of Waitangi bears a read, but you may still be confused about how it is tied to our Constitutional Monarchy. We do not actually have a written constitution. If New Zealand becomes a republic, it is not clear if/where/or how the Treaty of Waitangi will fit into any written constitution. There are many strong and differing opinions, depending on who you ask.

Have you registered with a local GP[family Doctor] yet? Then you can get to know a Dr and they will know your history.They can advocate for you with waiting lists etc

Watch some stuff on the treaty of waitangi it explains the relationship between the crown(commonwealth) and the Māori tribes. Don’t quote me on this but I’m sure it was ment to be a shared government with a lot of input from iwi(tribes). But a lot of broken promises on the crowns side saw the Māori culture pushed aside and made to feel less than part of the community. Only recently has the treaty started to be upheld with land and assets returning to Māori that was taken in battles. I’m a 40 year old white guy Nz born but I’m really not the person to explain it as there’s so many gaps in my knowledge too

Don't have ranch dressing here. Recommend any of the Edmund's cookbook range for basic kiwi recipes. Our cooking was based on British style, with now more and more Asian influences. We don't use cheese the way you do in cooking i would say. Distance from family is hard for all immigrants. We immigrated from england in 1961 when even an international phone call was very expensive, needed to be booked in advance so my parents never spoke to their parents again, snail mail was how they connected. Must have been soooo hard, but maybe the extra contact you get now makes you constantly aware of the separation???? Hang in there and it will get better. Ps staying in papamoa this weekend, such a beautiful beach....even in the storm last night

I've lived here since 1959. The emergence has come to its fullness in the last 5 years. Even I'm struggling to learn it. Don't feel bad.

Whitebait fritters are a little overrated as a delicacy, surfing at Raglan is a theme,

If someone is coming here to live, yeah they should definitely do some background research on Maori culture as coming across it will be an everyday thing. Especially if they are teaching or working in a government or council job as it will come up. Realistically though you can imbibe as much or as little as you want without it affecting your everyday life, you just have to be aware of it.

I had grommets as a kid too. Pretty sure we had to go private to get it done in a timely manner. As is the way with the healthcare here - do look into private insurance if you can afford it. It helped my parents a lot after we turned 13 and got into sports (and injuries).

Vj cooks is a great kiwi food blogger who uses easy recipes for yum food with easy to find ingredients from supermarkets and she just released her first cookbook.

My husband had gallbladder removal surgery and had to wait about a year for surgery. He missed so much work and was not paid because he used up his sick leave that year.

You guys are so lucky, heaps of immigrant had to wait months even years for letters, phoning use to be so expensive, still is if you don't have WhatsApp or Msg. All those sauces and pkt seasonings are so full of sugar, salt and preservatives. Learn to cook from scratch. Velveteen cheese type cheese is available, it usually is in the top shelf where the cheeses are and comes in slices. Maori is in focus because for years it wasn't and why should the Maori culture be lost. This is its homeland. The trouble is the dominant European culture thought it was and is the only way when in actual fact it isn't. My Maori great grandfather could write his name whereas my English one couldn't. Maori GgFather could also carve and knew his genealogy back generations through memorisation. This was another way of keeping history without a pen.

You’re right about the Maori! Integration into media, reverting land names is all pretty recent stuff. In schools you naturally learn this stuff, if you go out of the way to learn it yourself, it’s all someone can ask!

The schools here are especially focused on Maori culture, so you're in at the deep end as teachers.

Cases in court for slander and/ defamation are rare.

Interesting perspective on those issues and l really appreciate that you're doing what you can to "settle" in NZ. Kudos. I believe that the Maori culture is more active the further north you are. That of course relates also to where the Maori population is greater. Some of us are struggling with the speed of which it appears we be commanded that we embrace that culture, bypassing much of our own personal birthright. I believe that if you make the effort to speak Maori you'll enjoy it, however if you ram it down my throat.... enough said. Hey Daniel, you're looking a bit down in the dumps. Early night for you!👍🏻💖

Edam melts well, the more fat the better the meat will taste. Contrary to popular belief the human animal has evolved to eat animal fats and they are actually good for u

Maori culture is definitely everywhere in NZ. I would say Tauranga is one of the more Pakeha places in the North Island. In the South Island there is less but it's still prominent.

Kiwis are maniacs behind the wheel who use the speed limit as a challenge

The difference between "free speech" in the US vs elsewhere is in the US "free speech" also protects "hate speech" whereas elsewhere "free speech" does NOT protect "hate speech".

Cheese on casserole?Is that actually a thing in the US? 🤔 😅 I just couldn't do that but what the hell... if l wasn't a vegetarian now...l possibly would have had a go at that before l became a vegetarian. As a 60+ year old Nz male (andIf l was able to vote in the US elections) l probably wouldn't vote for the current potus. A recentl conversation with an anti Trump expat American got marginally warm with him saying l wasn't letting him say what he wanted to say while retreating to his car. His daughter who was sitting in the back seat of the car clambered out laughing and walked over to say how amazing it was to encounter someone who knew so much about the current political climate in the US and proceeded to shake my hand when l offered it to her. I totally get it and have done for a number of years. Many Americans are rightfully more interested in their transition to the way of life here, and more often than not want to avoid any political discourse regarding the way things have been going back home in recent years. I don't hate on Americans, l'm just surprised that many don't seem to do a lot of fact checking and choose the first option (often factually incorrect) that they're comfortable with to support an argument. Evidence of this can be found all over Tik Tok, Instagram, KZfaq, Facebook....yardi, yardi, yarda. Thanks for sharing guys. 👍

Maori culture is more prominent the further north you go in NZ. South Island, not so much.

Healthcare is under pressure from the pandemic, worldwide shortages. Not that it was perfect before, but they are playing catch up now. You are making more effort to learn Maori culture than I have. NZ libel and slander laws are more like the UK. USA does have a lot more leeway in law for your speech.

Growing up in NZ until 1989, basically none of the Maori kids I knew really gave a damn about speaking Maori. A couple spoke it fairly fluently for cultural competitions, but didn't converse in it in their regular life. I don't really see how the over emphasis of it now is particularly relevant or useful. It seems more about Govt control to make you obey and support the pyramid of victimhood. Anyone that wants to learn the language can. Everybody else that could care less, shouldn't be shamed, forced to comply or have their jobs affected negatively because they aren't SJW minded. NZ seems weaker for it. Support the current thing, obey, or else!

Maori culture isn't as big in the South island because it was mostly too cold for them!