But Governments ultimately make decisions about what people will cross their borders, and in NZ's case if you don't make the requisite points (some of which are rather arbitrary)…

In fact I'd actually argue the opposite – it's much…

That was eons ago, and to this day I count myself fortunate that I never did meet those guys.

Interestingly, I had horrible culture shock and was quite miserable until I started hanging out with a few other antipodeans who "spoke my language".…

And nice explanation, George. Very similar to my own feelings on the matter.

I changed my location for a couple of reasons. The first is practical; I'll leave Canberra at some time in the next few months,…

The Great World, if I'm not mistaken.

Very skillful, I thought – though I see your reservation.

Ditto. The frequency of my posts is a clue to my sense of dislocation.

And me too. Along with Skype and a few other technologies and portals, PA/PAS allows me to keep a virtual foot on the right side of the Tasman.

Welcome home, Mr Monkley.
Now about that mango in your luggage..

Cheers.

The mango was in my stomach...

Nice one Gervais!
I moved home last week after four years, the only negative; change the right-hand rule when driving.

My better half told me today that apparently NZ is the only country in the world that persists with that particular rule. Another thing that should be changed. A common…

I moved home last week after four years, the only negative; change the right-hand rule when driving.

I now have two children and would come home tomorrow if I could find a job to…

Perhaps it's function of the later colonisation, I don't exactly know, but I'm grateful that though there remain injustices needing remedy, NZ's committed to remedies whereas not all Australians are.

I think it's a pretty complex combination of factors- later colonisation, differences between the respective indigenous cultures themselves and their…

but the longer I've been here the less appeal it holds- the endless urban sprawl and astronomical property prices in particular are something of a put-off.

Agreed. We've bought and now feel a little trapped into the market movements that constantly recalibrate our "wealth".…

When I lived in Tokyo, 'home' was both Auckland and Tokyo – I'd refer to Auckland as home while in Tokyo and Tokyo as home when visiting Auckland or out of the country.

used to be if you were going home to visit for the (Northern ) summer you could get the earliest flight to Honolulu, spend the day at the beach, then grab an onward flight to AKL at midnight

For my purposes, the flight that used to go direct (I think?)…

Love the naughty step in Buffalo story. We had R's dad decide he really wanted to buy the awful rental car we bounced along in...because it had manual window winder-uppers. Driving my gadget geek husband up the wall :)

Snort! Very funny Amy – just had R's parents staying from the East Coast and that dynamic is so true for so many family relationships.

Hah, I haven't even mentioned the bit about how by the time we got to Buffalo I was threatening to stop the car and put…

And a bit less aware of my weak points.

Snort! Very funny Amy – just had R's parents staying from the East Coast and that dynamic is so true for so many family relationships.

The crunch came, of course, at the border. All three of us, including the two US citizens had to go into the customs office and wait for me to be processed.

Yeah, that was a seriously unwelcome surprise last time my parents came to visit and I went to pick…

Returning from Taiwan I was carrying a couple of commercially made gift boxes from my Taiwanese Client and…

I love him and I speak the langauge fairly well, so, why not? Hopefully I'll graduate and then fly out with him in April.

Absolutely. Other things can wait, love is more important.

New Zealand's reaction to this similar incident seemed to be "get over it", but it was seen in a particularly bad light in Australia.

What makes Abraham's case worse is that he's an NZ citizen. Bad enough to do it to visitors, but doing it to people who have gone…

It's pretty fucking disgusting, actually, and more than a little depressing that we've managed to stoop to that level.

If it was just a one off, I'd give them grace. But it has happened so many times it isn't funny. New Zealand's reaction to this similar incident seemed to be…

And this seems the best place for a home thought from abroad, but why the hell did I have to go to Melbourne to see an excellent Len Lye show at the ACMI?

It was a huge pleasure to see all that work in a coherent whole. They really should…

I have never been more grateful to have two passports, and get a 'welcome home' at both ends.

You're lucky. My unfortunate workmate went across to Australia for a week, to celebrate the end of Ramadan, and now he's in the paper after NZ Customs gave him a "welcome home" that…

It all ended on good terms but it must have been pretty weird to be on the receiving end of all that.

And pretty fucking obnoxious too. Weird as this may sound, on a previous trip to Australia I found myself defending Helen Clark because, you know, she might have…

Thank Christ for Air NZ's direct Vancouver-Auckand

It is wonderful. We flew into Vancouver last month. Stepped off the plane, straight though customs and immigration and then sat in the sun for half an hour waiting for our ride. The crunch came, of course, at the border. All three of…

I missed that so much when I was out of the country! It makes it sound 1) as though we care about what happens in our communities, and 2) as if our problems are pretty small. And I like…

Your first entry is the LA airport hell experience

Thank Christ for Air NZ's direct Vancouver-Auckand route, I say (there's a reason they marketed it on the basis of avoiding US Customs and Immigration).

Even if one enters through San Fran or Honolulu there's the animosity from Customs, plus the…

I think it's more urban/rural. Go to any biggish city in the US and you'll find likeminded people, even in the south. Go to any exurb or small town and you'll be surprised at how many rednecks you'll find.

There's definitely that here. The Eastside (the Microsoft side) is seen…

she had a broad Texan accent – said "y'all" – I'd assumed that people didn't really talk that way, it was some sort of code they used on TV to indicate a corrupt southern sheriff .... but they do ....

Oh Paul. You could have just come to my house…

Most of us would be right at home in, say, San Fran or Portland or Seattle or Austin. And my brother's pro-Obama fiancée hails from Chicago.

I asked R what his experience is, and he doesn't think it is personal or that big picture. He thinks it is more about people's direct experience with the States. Your first entry is the LA airport hell experience – or if you haven't been, you just know…

I got the sense, in Dunedin, that the Brits (at least the white ones) continue to be welcomed with open arms, while the Americans (and by extension anyone perceived as American) are to be snarled at.

This was during the early-to-middle part of the Iraq War, which…

There's a third group that thinks…

Fortunately for me, my man is not from the west coast and has never said "like, you know".

Mine is from Houston, and says 'like, you know' almost constantly (as do I). I'm not sure how this happened.

'white' migrant with an 'American' accent

According to the very young woman who sold my husband a pair of jeans earlier this year his accent was "sooo excellent". She was desperately trying to sound as if she was a valley girl. Fortunately for me, my man is not from the…

Even so, NZ generally feels friendlier than a lot of places. Quite a few fresh off the boat Kiwis say hello to their new London neighbours, only…

TBH, he really hasn't had too bad a time. He is quietly-spoken and self-deprecating, though, so tends to be a 'good fit' in NZ social situations.

Mine is the same. Although I know he cringes when he ends up in group conversations that go on about 'bloody Americans'. It's quite…

At best, they're prepared to stay for the first few years, but as soon as it's time for school they speed home to NZ or to Aus.

As far as this goes the expats are going to have to look more closely as this government slowly but systematically destroys public…

Ask a . . . 'white' migrant with an 'American' accent (real or perceived), just how friendly the place is, and I'm not convinced you'd get many positive responses.

If they project a trailer-trash hillbillyish manner they'll go over a treat with local fundies, to whom Americans are one notch…

What about the snarls... elsewhere in the country, though?

TBH, he really hasn't had too bad a time. He is quietly-spoken and self-deprecating, though, so tends to be a 'good fit' in NZ social situations. Not that that's any comfort to people who are louder talkers or more openly confident…

I'm happy to report no such negativity in Canada – people are generally just happy if you can speak and understand English (or French, as geographically appropriate).

a 'white' migrant with an 'American' accent (real or perceived), just how friendly the place is

If our experience is typical, any person with those qualities will be very popular with teenagers in south Auckland. Of course, they will be asked constantly if they knew Tupac or hung out in…

I miss the friendly culture, the laidback life.

I'll give you laidback, but…

It didn't used to be like that: My father-in-law looking to move his family from the US…

I actually live on a part council/ex-council estate in Bethnal Green, one of the most deprived areas in the UK, yadda yadda, but at least it's not a…

The main way London differs from both NZ and Ozzie cities is simply the hugeness of it.

there are other ways..the endless grey smack filled council estates come to mind.

And a week after I arrived in London I was talking to a NZ friend's UK boyfriend. He worked at…

all that hersheys chocolate that is around. yuck!

I believe they call it "chocolate flavored candy" or "chocolate candy" now, because it's so poor it's not even still chocolate.

When my family last seriously considered relocating back to NZ, our…

I'm not a milk person, but I hear it is not so good here. Probably a big part of the problem.

R misses Auckland coffee – way better than here!

Have you tried making it yourself? Then you can spread the good word to guests ;-)

We love NZ and consider it home, but the work here is good for my hubby R.…

It hasn’t felt like a different country in the slightest, nor required any substantial adjustments that I can think of, except to slightly modify my phone voice at work, so people don’t call me Iain instead of Ben.

I had the same problem in Oz, except they were inclined to…

Well having now spent a couple of years in London I have to say that from the start it has not felt substantially different from back home.

try moving to Newcastle....

which great because it means he can live and work in different places .... until you find out about all the other wives ....

BTW – the trick to moving…

and most of the ex-pats in Australia are dicks

Not true, some of my best buddies blah, blah....

But I'm also of the opinion that moving to Australia, at least to Melbourne, Brissie or Sydney is more like moving from the lower half of the North Island to the Northern…

underappreciated and threatened with destruction

Deliberately undermined by its own Minister, at that. What with recent climate 'negotiations', you have to wonder if they put him in charge of stuff they just don't like.

I'm glad I left, I didn't…

My thought on the negative…

Firstly, I feel a lot greater sense of community through the blogs, and of course this site. I feel like I still have not only a stake but a voice in NZ's national conversation.

But the other side of…

Aaaaggghhhh! Paul!! You outed me!!! So far I've kept my family name off blogs about the place.

I'm genuinely sorry Deborah. I should have known better. Perhaps a admin pixie can delete the unecessary details from my comment?

Deborah [ ] often blogs about moments of enculturation.

Aaaaggghhhh! Paul!! You outed me!!! So far I've kept my family name off blogs about the place.

Oh well.... anyone who was curious and had two spare braincells and a modicum of google-fu could have worked it out anyway. So I'm…

Well nowhere…

OTOH, some of those Your Views people really don't even want to know what's going on. They're just angry people.

My quick scan-through impression of the Your Views posters was that most of the ex-pats in Asia, the US and Europe seem pretty cool (left for work, travel etc) and…

my continuing 'merkin accent

I don't think I ever really collected one of those (except the kind you use for the service industry over there, just to make yourself understood). But I grew up in a house with two accents, and now live in a house with two accents, so…

When I come back to NZ, I know that my UK experience will be looked upon highly

By this do you mean the work that you were able to do in the UK? I say this just because I come across people who seem to believe that simply because their…

So what keeps us away? Well, my wife has a great job at the…

... never (usually) makes it to the front page of the news websites, these expats focus on the bad news and miss out on the cool, ordinary stuff that makes living in New Zealand so awesome. No wonder they don't like the idea of returning.

I'm quite often told by…