Where are all the Kiwis?

Traveling really puts into perspective the things that are most important in your life. One of the things that you find out pretty quickly is that there are so many material things that you can do without and not really even miss. There are also things that you discover that you aren’t willing to do without and things that you miss most of all. I’ve always been fairly frugal but I have also always been able to buy the little luxuries if I really wanted them. That’s not exactly the case now that I am living in an expensive resort town and getting paid by the hour.

So here is what I have learned to live without: a hair dryer (eventually it will dry on its own anyway), a car (I have two feet and a bike and a bus pass and occasionally even the access to rental car keys from work), a clothes dryer (the sun does a good job as long as I remember to bring the clothes in before it rains again), a walk-in closet full of clothes (it would just mean more to wash, right?) and finally my coffee maker (there is always a coffee shop if I need an espresso fix and instant coffee isn’t the worst thing in the world).

The things that I miss most: friends and family (you guys know how much I love you), my Guinevere (I look at her pictures everyday and can’t wait to have her here with me but know that mom is taking great care of her), pictures on the wall (the sterile look of the beige walls of my cute little house is really starting to get to me so I finally broke down and bought some colorful candles today), and a ceiling fan (I can’t really explain that one but I love having a ceiling fan on when I am trying to sleep).

What I am not willing to live without: internet access (the ability to see what is going on in other parts of the world and to keep in touch with folks from back home is priceless), my cell phone (as much as I complain about the phone, I still feel like a piece of me is missing if by some tragic happenstance I leave it at home. I may ignore it but I want it there to ignore), and mascara ( realize how vain and silly that sounds but if you had blonde eyelashes you would understand how important mascara really is).

*FYI the title is a reference to the Jungle Book. I know that in general I can’t spell but this time it was on purpose

I finally managed to meet up with the girl here in Queenstown who went to law school at Virginia and is now practicing for a law firm in town. She had a lot to say about the practice of law in New Zealand compared to the US and almost all of it revolved around the difference in lifestyle of the attorneys. Lawyers in New Zealand, in general, do not get paid as well as layers in the US but the trade off is that you might actually get to have a life and see the sun if you are a first year associate in New Zealand. She has been with this firm now for a year and a half and has never worked a weekend and has never been in the office past 7pm. In fact, most days she heads home around 5pm and she is still on the partnership track. Incredible.

We discussed the process of getting qualifications assessed and she suggested that I should go ahead and find a firm that I want to work with before I start the process because they will be able to help get me out of certain prerequisites that I might otherwise need to meet, like taking another property class (although with the Property Prof that I had it might not be a bad idea to take property again anyway). The exam itself is apparently not anymore difficult than taking the bar in the US and she said that she would be happy to loan me all of her study materials so that I don’t have to purchase them, which would save me a fortune. All in all it was a very informative and very positive conversation.

So now the hard part begins. Trying to figure out if this is something that I really want to pursue. If I am only going to stay in New Zealand for another year or two then its not really worth the initial investment to become a qualified lawyer here. However, if I am going to consider making New Zealand my permanent home then it is a path that I should venture down. There is no reason to live here and not practice law if it is really as cruisy as she makes it sound and seeing as she is not trying to sell me a job she really doesn’t have any reason to be anything other than completely honest about the legal market here. The debate in my head and in my heart rages on as I try to decide if I think that I might want to become a Kiwi someday. Then the answer to this blogs central question would be answered… right here!

There is a reason that people pay so much more for a room or a home with a view. It provides much of the background entertainment that you need. You can sit on a porch in the late afternoon in Queenstown and look out over the lake and watch theRemarkables in the distance change from steely grey to orange to pink to blue and finally to black as the sun sets behind you. As long as there are other people around or some music playing in the background, or better both.

Last night, a group of us were sitting out on the balcony of the girls cabin enjoying the spectacular views that Queenstown at dusk provides and debating on who was going to get the task of going into the house to start getting dinner ready. The kitchen in the cabin is so small that only one person at a time can be working in there and it is set up in such a way that no one else can even be close enough to keep talking to the poor buggar who get stuck with kitchen duty. The debate raged on until everyone’s stomachs were growling and the idea was tossed out that we at least start by chopping the vegetables while sitting out on the porch. Thats easy enough because all you need to do is bring out a couple of cutting boards and knives and the chopping can be done at worst on your lap and at best on the small patio table. A food fight was inevitable and the tops of the pepers soon became projectiles for anyone who was silly enough to walk down to the car below and within range of the balcony. The vegies got chopped easy enough so then the suggestion was made to just go ahead and debone and cut up the chicken outside. This proved a little bit more difficult as the unsteadiness of a lap meant that was no longer was an option but the table was still there and eventually even the chicken was chopped and ready to go. Finally, all that was left was to cook everything together (we were making fajitas by the way). Since you cant exactly look fajitas on your lap, someone would have to go inside and use the stove, right? WRONG! One of the boys had a camp stove which he set up on the porch and Morven started cooking the stuff for the fajitas outside so that noone was ever banished to the kitchen.

It was all going great until the chicken got put on the banister to wait for its turn on the stove and then gravity decided to rear its ugly head and the chicken was the nights first casualty. The scene went by in slow motion as the chicken fell the 15 feet over the balcony and landed in the grass below. At least the possums will be well fed this week. The rest of the meal went off without a hitch and I think that I have decided that I am only going to eat outdoors for the rest of my days. Life doesnt get much better than good friends, good food and a great location.

As you are all by now aware, I am working at a car and campervan rental place in the Queenstown airport. So far its been great and I have realized in this time that I might actually be a people person after all. Who would have guessed? There was even an older man from Ireland the other day that told me that I have the gift of the gab! HA! Oh well, if it means that they book more cars so that I get more commission, I am happy to talk to anybody about anything thing that they want for just about as long as the want.

But that’s not the point of today’s little entry here. Today’s entry is about those little bonuses that come along with working at an airport. I’m talking about seeing all of the people that are coming into town and Queenstown is a mecca for people from all walks of life to come and explore the self-proclaimed adventure capital of the world. Since I started working here, I have seen Peter Jackson (director of the Lord of the Rings and King Kong) and one of the Princes from the United Arab Emirates (he was in the biggest private jet I have ever seen). That’s all well and good and it is quite exciting to see someone close up that you have only ever seen in the glossy magazines, but there are lots of other semi-celebrities that come through the airport here that I have never heard of and that when I realize that as an American, I’m more out of the loop than I would like to believe.

I’m sitting here at my computer today and it is a fantastically gorgeous day outside and I would like nothing more than to just head down to the lake with a book at a cup of coffee and enjoy the fleeting summer sunshine, but sadly that is not to be. While I’m dreaming of being outside, my co-worker is watching as team after team of netball payers pass by our desks and she is finding it incredibly difficult to maintain her composure and contain her excitement. She has, on more than one occasion this morning, tried to flag one of them down to say hi. She did manage to get one of the player to stop and that’s when we learned that there was a netball tournament in town starting today which is why they are all flying in. But here is the problem, first of all I don’t even know what netball is. I had to google it to learn that it’s similar to basketball but they don’t dribble the ball (weird, don’t you think?). Second, because I had never even heard of netball before today I certainly had never heard of any of these teams. And finally, because I have never heard of any of these teams, I cannot get star struck by the apparently very famous netball players that keep walking less than five feet in front of my desk.

Note to self: must spend more time acting like a local and less time acting like a tourist which means learning about local sports teams and musicians.

If you want to know how much longer that I am going to be living in New Zealand you are going to have to tune in next Monday night for full details.

I have been thinking about possibly playing lawyer here in New Zealand because if I am going to stay I might as well try to get a job with a few more numbers in my pay check if you know what I mean. To that end I started a desperate search to find any American who has done something similar in coming over here with a US law degree and getting their qualifications assessed so that could practice. So I started to research local lawyers (and by research I mean stalk the web page of every teeny tiny law firm in town and check out the profiles of each of the lawyers to see what their background and qualifications were) and after a few hours (Queenstown is just a small town afterall) I was able to find one girl who graduated from UVA with her JD in 2008 and is now practicing at one of the best firms in town. Her email address was listed on the site so I felt little guilt in sending her a message shamelessly asking for her help in trying to figure out all of this legal mumbo jumbo sorted out. After several nail biting days (it was the weekend so who can blame her for not checking her email) she finally emailed me back saying that she would be happy to talk to me about how the process was for her and the best way to go about it.

So there we have it. My coffee  meeting with this girl on Monday at 5pm will potentially help me to decide whether or not that I will one day become a Kiwi. Then the answer to this blog’s number one question will finally be answered. Right here!

The longer that I spend in New Zealand, the longer that I want to be here. The beauty of this place overwhelms me on a daily basis. Every morning on the way to work as I watch the sun’s brilliant rays of light crest over the rocky peaks of the Remarkables, I am struck by the majesty that surrounds me. Never does a day go by that I am not thankful that I am here now because I can think of no place that I would rather be. It is very far from home, family and friends but the far corners of the world are not as isolated as they once were and while the flight here is long and tiring, it is by no means prohibitive. The world is much smaller than it once was and international travel is now the norm. Families still manage to stay together even when they are spread out across the globe and with skype, communicating with everyone back home is easier than ever (if only they would ever remember to sign on).

Currently, I have a one year working holiday visa that allows me to work anywhere in the country until January 14, 2011 and a flight booked back to the US in late October 2010. If I decided to stay longer than January 2011, there are several options open to me. First, if I find a job that I really like and want to keep me on longer, they can sponsor my work visa and I can work in that job, but no other, indefinitely. After two years with that type of visa, I could then apply for residency. Second, if I get my legal qualifications assessed and can get an offer for legal employment, I can apply as a highly skilled migrant, which would allow me to immediately apply for residency and work in any job that I choose. The third and final option is to apply for a partner visa, being sponsored then by someone who is a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident. In order to qualify for a partner visa, one must have been with one’s partner for at least twelve months and be able to show that it is a sincere and committed relationship. This type of partnership is incredibly common in New Zealand and does not refer only to same sex relationships, like it does in the US. The term partner is used when the couple is unmarried but more committed than just a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. With a partner visa, I could work in any job and stay in New Zealand indefinitely. But let’s be honest, even if I could qualify for a partner visa I would be incredibly reluctant to do so because of its potential insecurity. If the relationship ends then so does the visa and then I would be back in the same place weighing the first two options again.

The best course of action would be to take option two because it provides the greatest flexibility in terms of what jobs that I could take and eliminates the need for the two year waiting period before I could qualify for residency. On the other hand, the easiest way to be able to remain in the country is through option one, by convincing an employer that I am worth keeping around. Well, if there is any thing worth doing, it is worth working at so I am going to start working toward becoming a highly skilled migrant. Along those lines, I have contacted a local attorney who is from the US and received her law degree from the University of Virginia to get her experience and to see if she has any suggestions for the best way to go about getting my credentials to practice law here in New Zealand. Now, some of you may ask, but Steph you don’t really want to be a lawyer anyway so why on earth would you go through all of that trouble to be a lawyer in New Zealand? Well, that is a good question but I think that the biggest problem that I have had with being a lawyer is the total lack of a work life balance in most law firms in the US. That is why speaking with the American attorney here in Queenstown is the best way to start this inquiry to find out if things would be any different working in a firm here than they are back home. If I do want to stay in New Zealand permanently, it seems a waste not to use at least some of those many many many years of schooling that were so expensive and could serve to make me more money here, which I could then use to do more of the things that I love, like traveling, skiing and skydiving. This is just the very beginning of the process and who knows what tomorrow may bring, but for now, I am seriously considering making New Zealand my permanent home.

When you travel abroad to other English speaking countries, you cannot assume that they will speak the same form of English that you are used to speaking back home. Even within the US, there are variances; though they aren’t usually incomprehensible. In other parts of the English speaking world there are terms used that will, at least upon first glance baffle the average American English speaker. This is a list of some of the commonly used English words and phrases by English speakers from countries other than the US, mostly Australia, New Zealand and the UK.

Hiya or Heya: a variation of the typical greeting of hi or hey that includes an understood you in the ya.

Sweet as: the idea that you are proposing is fine by me.

Easy as: the thing that you are asking me to do is no problem.

Half five (or any other number from 1 to 12): this means thirty minutes past the whole number that follows it. In this case, 5:30.

Gas: propane

Petrol: gas

Lounge: living room

Getting on the piss: going out for an adult beverage or two or three or four

Brecky: breakfast

Bubbles: champagne

Flat: a place to live that you are renting. Most often, but not always, an apartment.

Tely: the Television, aka the TV

Barby: this is the bar-b-q or grill

Trousers: pants

Pants: underwear

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it should be enough to get you started. Do you have any other words or phrases that you need translated? Just ask!

There are five of us living in this cute little four-bedroom house and it has been surprisingly harmonious given the varying backgrounds and personalities of everyone. For the most part, everyone keeps things clean and tidy and we have had no problems with people coming in really late and waking the whole house up in the middle of the night. No one has thrown any loud and obnoxious parties and we generally all get along well, although the other American girl rarely comes out of her room. The biggest issue has been over internet use because only one person was able to sign on to the wireless internet at a time and my American housemate always left her internet on constantly so that no one else in the house could get online. However, before the frustration levels could reach a boiling point, we were able to convince the internet company to let us have two people able to sign on at the same time. So now she can be on all day and the rest of us can take turns getting online which isn’t a problem because the rest of us only get on for a few minutes at a time to check email or facebook or the occasional bank balance.

But even that small annoyance will soon be gone because the American has finished her 30 day hot yoga class (apparently the reason that she came to Queenstown was just to do hot yoga. Why on earth would you come to Queenstown and do absolutely nothing but go to hot yoga and then sit in your room on the internet?) and will be moving out in just a couple of days. Well that means that it is time to find a new housemate to fill her room and the crazies have already started coming by to take a look. Our landlord, who lives next door in a house with 4 other people that looks exactly like ours, said that we would be able to have a say in who was going to move in. They come over and we show them the house and talk to them to make sure that they aren’t crazy and then he gives them all of the details about rent and all that jazz.

The first guy that came to have a look, looked like he was probably in his mid-thirties and smelled like he doesn’t shower regularly. We all looked at each other and shook our heads no immediately. The next guy that came in was younger and looked familiar but I couldn’t place him. He had a look around the house and said that he would love to have the room so we started talking to him to see what we thought and I racked my brain trying to figure out where I had seen him before. When he said that he worked at Fergburger (the all night burger place) it clicked why I knew his face. When I was here last year, my friend and I had stopped by Fergburger to get some fries on the way home at like 2am. At night, you don’t go into Fergburger, they have a window that you walk up to to place your order. I was waiting back away from the window by the curb while he went to order so I couldn’t hear anything that was going on but the next thing I knew, my friend and two other guys were tumbling away from the window toward the benches on the other side of the sidewalk. No punches were thrown and they all got separated and then one of the guys walked up to my friend and head butted him in the face! Then the two guys ran off and we had Fergburger call the police so that we could report the assault and that is when we learned that the two guys were actually off-duty Fergburger employees. That was who it was; the guy that wanted to rent the room in my house was the same guy that had head butted my friend. My landlord came over to say that the guy wanted to take the room and ask us what we thought. I told him that story and said that if that guy moves in them I was going to move out and since my room is more expensive than the room that is available, the landlord (who is an accountant in town) quickly decided that it would be silly to swap having the expensive room empty in order to fill the cheaper room. A girl came by who seemed normal enough but decided that the room was too expensive and then my English housemate remembered that his friend’s girlfriend was looking for a place. I have none of the details about here because she came by and had a look while I wasn’t home but everyone else seemed to think that she was great so I think that she is going to take the room. I just hope that she doesn’t hide up there like the American did.

How long does it take to break a habit? If you bite your fingernails, there is a nail polish that you can use that has a bitter taste that reminds you when you stick your nails into your mouth not to bite them. For smokers, there are a myriad of options to quit smoking from patches to pills to that ridiculous inhaler that looks like a plastic cigarette. There is rehab with Dr. Drew for alcoholics and drug addicts and even sex addiction rehab for Tiger Woods. Are you an anorexic, bulimic or compulsive overeater? They have therapy for that. But what help is there for someone who spent the last three plus years staring at legal mumbo jumbo and reading documents for details that may or may not be pertinent down the road in the case of some situation or event that may or may not ever occur?

Law school taught me many things. The sad part is that most of the stuff that stuck was completely unimportant both for purposes of the exam and in a future legal practice. If there is a baby lying face down in a puddle there is no duty even to turn it over. But who is really just going to leave the baby like that, legal duty or not? Relevant or not, there are certain habits that law school instilled in my that I just cannot break no matter how hard I try. I cannot sign any sort of contract without thoroughly reading it first. Well, that is not so bad. You should never sign anything that you don’t read. The problem is that I pick it apart. It takes every bit of strength that I possess not to read it with a pen in my hand marking the pertinent terms and conditions and any issues that may be raised by them. Worse still is the fact that I do this in my job at the camper van rental place, but with the pen and I make comments in the margins and my co-workers think that I am insane which I very well may be. They aren’t giving me these contracts to read to get my opinion on how well they are written or whether certain phrases may apply better in certain instances. They are giving me these contracts to quickly glance over so that I know what it is that I am giving to the customers when they rent a vehicle.

Do they have a rehab for that because I am pretty sure that I am going to need it if I want to keep my job? That and learn how to drive a manual without being a dangerous hazard to the very expensive campervans or other people on the road.

Kia Ora (Maori version of Hello that has been picked up as English slang here), Happy Waitangi Day! What, you don’t know what Waitangi Day is all about? Don’t despair, neither do half the people who live in New Zealand and even those who do will probably argue with the others about the true meaning of Waitangi Day. Waitangi Day is celebrated in Waitangi, New Zealand, and elsewhere around the country, every year on February 6^th to mark the signing of the treaty of Waitangi, the treaty which some claim was the creation of New Zealand. This was the treaty between the native Maori population and the crown of England bringing them together, promising the Maori the continued rights to their lands and the full rights of British citizenship. Apparently, the interpretation of this treaty has always been in dispute (big shocker there, isn’t it? I’m having flashbacks of Native American history) with the Maori believing that the treaty is law and the crown believing that is more of a suggestion than a mandate. Oh Britain, you were so kind to your colonized peoples weren’t you? Maybe the Maori should have had a tea party instead, but what do I know? Those good former colonies that didn’t pick a fight with the crown get to move around without much hassle and live and work in almost any of the other countries under the crown. It is rarely that easy for Americans, but that may also be because we make it insanely difficult for anyone else to come in and live and work in the US. But that is all better left for another day and another discussion. Back to Waitangi Day.

For most people in New Zealand, Waitangi Day is just another public holiday where they either don’t have to go to work at all or they get paid time and half plus they get a day in lieu (another day that they can take off and still get paid for it). The big scandal this year was that February 6^th fell on a Saturday, so for many people they got neither a day off nor time and a half. This prompted a public outcry to make the public holiday extend to Monday the 8^th as well. As you might imagine, this did not go over very well with employers and the government opted not to extend the public holiday to the chagrin of many Monday to Friday workers.

In Queenstown, Waitangi Day for those who weren’t working meant one of two things; you either got tickets to Rippon, a big music festival over in Wanaka, or you went down to the beach and sat in the sun and listened to the DJ playing Bob Marley. Either way, the sun was shining and people were enjoying the day off in paradise. I still have not heard a single haka and I’ve only seen one United Tribes flag and that was hanging off of the DJ’s booth down by the beach. The New Zealand Sevens Rugby Tournament in Wellington seems to have gotten much more attention than Waitangi Day, so I’m not sure what that says about the importance of the day, but there you have it.