5 Things That are Harder in New Zealand
To piggy-back off of the last post that highlighted 5 Things that are Easier in New Zealand, I thought it was only appropriate to give an equal dose of things that are harder. In the end, we all have to make the decision as to whether or not the harder things are worth it in the long run. For us, the downside of living at the bottom of the world has been worth it.
Dealing with US taxes - The US, along with Eritrea, taxes based on citizenship, not based on residence like the rest of the world does. There is also a ridiculous amount of administrative work that has to be done every year to satisfy Uncle Sam. Moving to New Zealand has made our tax situation much more complicated, and I cannot stress enough the importance of getting professional help (at least for the first year abroad) to make sure you know everything you need to know. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people post online about tax problems because they didn’t know what they didn’t need to know. It can be painful and expensive to fix mistakes later on.
Shopping - Shopping for just about anything feels like an exercise from the 90s. There are shops online, but the stock may or may not be accurate. Doing and online search for a certain type of good may or may not pull up any useful information about local shops that sell what I’m looking for. It is like the search engines don’t see Kiwi stores when doing a query. Once I do find something I want, shipping is going to be extra, and I need to be prepared for a hassle if I need to return something. Delivery times are hit or miss. Sometimes an item may arrive the next morning after ordering it, or it could show up three weeks later even though it is only coming from across town. It is a total crap shoot. Shopping, in general, is a lot more time consuming and requires much more mental space than it did in the US.
Travel to see friends and family - Covid aside, it was an ordeal to get back to the United States. Fourteen hour plane rides and terrible jet lag are no joke. We found that it wasn’t worth it to take the kids back to the US unless we had a long trip planned, and that is expensive and can be difficult to plan and coordinate. Now in a covid world, almost any trip we take outside of New Zealand means a two week stint in an MIQ facility. That added time and expensive means that we’re more or less stuck here. Most of the time this doesn’t bother me, but as of late, I’ve had a feeling of claustrophobia that I talk about here. I’m definitely ready to get out!
Finding anything different - This is perhaps a Shopping 2.0 gripe, but everything here is the same. There are the same chains at all of the malls/shopping centers/towns. There is very little variety, and it makes it really difficult to find anything unique. New Zealand is small - only 5 million people spread out over islands with a landmass slightly larger than the UK - and there isn’t the business opportunity to bring in a lot of variety. As a result, half the country has the same white and blond wood dining chairs. It is frustrating when you want to be just a little different.
Receiving overseas mail - Anytime we have mail coming from the United States, we know we have to wait one to two months for it to arrive. At best, this is annoying when it comes to overdue birthday cards and Christmas cards, but at its worst, it is a real problem if an organisation like the IRS is trying to reach you. (Side note - it is possible to use shipping companies like FedEx and DHL for quick shipping. This is purely about snail mail from the USPS.)
What do you find hardest about living overseas? Are the tradeoffs worth it?
