Soccermom..

Hey...I was curious....what is NZ like? Is it tropical? What are the temps?
And the people...do you have a "local" thing there like Hawaii does?
Population? I guess I could google it, but it would be much more interesting from your perspective...
thanks.....
Kerry
Kerry,

I was stoned most of the time I was here, lmao. I can tell you how to get to my dealer's apartment by public transportation but I don't remember much else.

JK. It's subtropical on the North Island, but the southern tip of the South Island is pretty close to the Antarctic. Population? I think I remember that there are almost 5 million NZ passport holders but that 1 million of them are living overseas at any given time. Kiwis are some of the best travelled people I have ever met -- very interested in the rest of the world. They have gun control, are a nuclear-free zone and US submarines are politely asked to park in Australia. They have a socialized healthcare system. Women got the vote here before any other nation in the world. Parliamentary political system, with many women in positions of authority, including head of state, Prime Minister Helen Clark. Labor (the party of the left) is currently in power.

I'm not sure what you mean by a "local" thing. A small-town feel? It's a small country. It's easy to get a hold of almost anyone at any level of society if you just ask around. People are very friendly and curious about visitors. They are self-effacing (it's called "the tall poppy syndrome"), people don't push themselves forward, and are generally not pretentious. The indigenous people, the Maori, are highly-integrated and their traditions honored. Because it's such a young, and until recently, isolated country, they value adaptability, inventiveness, originality, hospitality, and teamwork as well as self-reliance.

They are behind the times on certain social issues: addiction, domestic abuse, integration of the physically and mentally handicapped, mental illness. Only a third of the population receive university education.

School violence is unthinkable to the average Kiwi. Children of a fairly young age (14?) wander safely all over town on their own. It's a safe place to have a family.

That's a completely disorganized gloss of a gem of a country. We came here as potential immigrants and not as tourists so we looked at different aspects of the nation than perhaps would be of interest to you. If you want to see what NZ looks like, watch Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy.

This is probably more than you needed to know. Your turn. I've never been to Hawaii.

Cheers, Gina
Thanks for all of the info...let me see if I can do justice to your description.
Maui used to quite unprentious, a fews years back. It was very expensive to live here, as everything had to be shipped in. You were better off to be underdressed than overdressed; the aloha shirt and slippers are proper wedding attire here...
We have a huge infulux of money now; I drove through Beverly Hills last year, and it looks like Wailea without the traffic. About 5 years ago, Money Magazine quoted Kihei (the little 8 mile town Iive in that has 2 roads going through it..) as the fastest growing city in the nation. Our housing market has skyrocketed; our median home price is now $700k...so, it is quite expensive now. Thank God, though for Costco; you can actually buy groceries here.
Alot of our industry focuses around construction, and the visitors, of course.
Our population now is mostly transplants; I am not sure of the native population on Maui, but there are very few locals here now. The other islands are different; Maui is the most expensive, so most of the locals were priced out of their homes, which is sad. And I read yesterday that 40% of the Hawaiian population are incarcerated...usually due to the ice epidemic. Which is quite sad.
Our school systems are behind and their is quite a bit of contention here with the kids in school; you will probably never see a gun in the schools here; but you will see kids getting beat up; it is still quite backwards in that aspect.
Our government is like a third world country...they are part of the good ole boy network....so politics are a joke. They usually wait until the volcano blows before they put out an evacuation map...figuratively speaking..
Maui has about 5 microclimates. Where I live we get 15 inches of rainfall a year; while 20 minutes away is oneof the wettest spots on the earth. The beaches here are spectacular, and we are right in the middle of the island chain, so we have great views.
This island is growing fast; very fast. I used to walk down the road 10 years ago, and always get a ride..many of the people that came in search of the island lifestyle went to Thailand...he he.
But, it is beautiful..and 85 year round.
Kerry