After years living in New Zealand with her family, English writer Jai Breitnauer is going home. Or is she? I bloody love New Zealand. That might not always come across in the pieces I write, but I do. I love Jacinda and our lefty, greeny, don’t-mention-Winston government. I love the people who take their actual … Read more
Every year, thousands of New Zealand immigrants in London celebrate Waitangi Day by dressing up, publicly getting drunk, and doing the haka, and it makes Madeleine Chapman shudder. New Zealanders acknowledge Waitangi Day in different ways. Some do nothing and are just glad to have a day off work. Some celebrate it, believing that the … Read more
With the March 29 Brexit deadline bearing down on the country at an alarming speed, it’s hard not to wonder whether staying in Britain is really worth it, writes Elle Hunt in the latest instalment of her series on life as a NZ expat. Greetings from Great Brexit – sorry, Britain. It’s hard to think … Read more
When she lived in New Zealand, Elle Hunt never really understood the fuss about Christmas. That all changed when she moved to London, she writes in the latest instalment of her Elleswhere series about life as a New Zealander in London. “36 degrees? Yes thank you I WILL get 97% of my legs out,” my … Read more
Almost every Kiwi who moves to London tries to soften the blow to family and friends by claiming they’ll regularly return. But, writes Elle Hunt in her regular Elleswhere column about life as an expat New Zealander, such hopes are rarely borne out. Just before I left New Zealand again, my mother told the rest … Read more
In her fourth Elleswhere column about life as an expat New Zealander in London, Elle Hunt navigates the lost connections of a 12 hour time difference. I wake up and check my phone. My lock screen is a list of notifications. While I’ve been sleeping, friends on the other side of the world have messaged … Read more
In her third Elleswhere column about life as an expat New Zealander in London, Elle Hunt begs folks back home to spare a thought for a Whittaker’s fanatic stuck with no supply. I am stomping across the office when I hear someone call “EEL.” I carry on stomping across the office. Then I realise it’s … Read more
In her second Elleswhere column about life as an expat New Zealander in London, Elle Hunt writes about seeing the city through the eyes of people who are just passing through. I am at an indoor market in Brixton. I have never been to this market before, though it is held every week, about a … Read more
Leah Hamilton moved to Berlin with her whānau from New Zealand. She explains what it’s like raising children in a haven for kids. When my husband got a job offer in Berlin, my mind immediately jumped to how cool the city is. I had visited six years ago by myself, and had spent most of my … Read more
A displaced Wellingtonian yearns for the coffee culture she once derided. “It’s coffee, but not as you know it.” It made a greater impression on me than any advertising slogan on the side of a bus should. The fact, the bitter reality, was that a new kind of cold Nescafe in a can was besides … Read more
It’s a story as old as the New Zealand OE itself. You move to London, you fall in love, you settle down. But what happens when you start feeling homesick and your UK-born partner doesn’t want to leave? James Quentin writes about the double life of an expat Kiwi. In May I will be bringing … Read more