Hi friends! A while back, I made a post about ALL the "Things I find weird about living in Melbourne (as a Kiwi)" and now I'm back for part 2. Mainly because I keep thinking of things and WELL, it did do relatively well, with over 200 views. I don't know if I'll make a YT video about this, maybe I will, maybe I won't, but right now, I just wanna get a draft out, ya know.
I do have to say, yes I finally tried a magic coffee. The first time it was delicious and the second time it was very very bad.
Things I find weird about living in Melbourne (as a Kiwi) PART TWO!
The Road Signs - like what? They're SOOO morbid and actually, I just found an article "here" about why they're problematic but I've seen ones like "Only sleep cures fatigue" and "Yawning? A microsleep can kill" - likewut, I feel like the ones in NZ are way more simplistic and less scary.
Everyone gets SUPER excited about snow and I get it, if you haven't grown up around it, it's pretty cool but me, being the person I am, from NZ, I just don't get how it's that exciting. I like it when you can see it settle on the mountaintops but there's nothing worse than when you need to shovel your driveway or you're stuck at school and your mum won't come and pick you up because school's cancelled because of the weather SOOOO ya know. I guess I've had both good and bad experiences with snow, like there's some cute photos of me when I was a kid making snowmen and snow angels which was pretty cool but it's sooo f*cking cold, honestly.
You MUST have health insurance (and it's SOOO expensive, mine is like 126 per fortnight), but if I didn't have it, then my medical bills would be sooo high - whereas in NZ, it's not really expected that you have health insurance because most specialist appointments are free or not very expensive. Like, all my specialists back in NZ were free through the public health system (except you do have to wait ages). Like I didn't pay for any of my IBS stuff or colonoscopies, but here I had to pay for my ENT for my nerve damage. And with that being said, the dentist seems to be a bit more affordable here but I do wish it was on Medicare.
People can be quite condescending if you (as a NZer) use Australian slang. Like once I said "esky" at a party we had at our house and someone said to me "Wow, I'm proud of you for not saying chilly bin" - like okay, calm ya farm.
No one knows what "twink" is - it's literally just white-out but I didn't realise that people outside of NZ didn't say twink and then I learned it was just a brand name in NZ LOL I'm dumb.
There are A LOT more takeaway options than in NZ (it might have changed, but there's soooo many more than I'd ever heard of before). I do really miss Hell's Pizza and the NYC Benedict bagel from Maccas though. Some "different/new" takeaway places here are Red Rooster, Schnitz, Taco Bill (not bell, nz has Taco Bell), Bugartory, and El Jannah. There are probably more and yes, I know some places in Aus have similar to NZ but not in Melbourne haha!
There are SOOO many bugs - spiders, creepy crawlies, and they're bigger too. I may have said this in my previous post but I don't care, I'm saying it again!
The work-life balance is insane - people work 40+ hours a week and still seem to have time to eat out for every meal and do things after work. How are you not tired? And when do you sleep? To be fair, when my health was good, I was able to do this, but just not anymore. And I'm sure a lot of people do experience intense burnout.
Also, going out to eat for every meal is pretty common as well as drinking every night (and I don't mean getting drunk), but it's common for people to always have 1 or 2 drinks with dinner - it does happen in NZ too but I guess when I lived in NZ, I only really had a drink if I went out.
Apartment living isn't seen as scary (and this may be my own bias because I come from CHCH where earthquakes were prominent and there's barely any apartment buildings LOL).
You can still get "Pods" here but they got discontinued in NZ. I remember going to Blockbuster as a kid and getting pods as a special treat so it's exciting that I've been able to get them here.
Twisties (the chips) are different here! The Aus version is "here" and the NZ version is "here" - I'm probably gonna get hate for this one, but I do prefer the NZ ones.
A Golden Gaytime is called a Cookie Crumble in NZ.
There are no hedgehogs (the animals).
I know I discussed parking in part one BUT Luke and I recently came across a parking metre app where you HAD to download the app to pay for parking and it was so complicated. What happens if there's no reception and what happens if you don't have a phone? It was so weird.
The news cycles on free to air TV feels a lot more constant. Like in NZ, you do get news throughout the day but isn't that intense (or maybe people don't watch it that much). But for example, we'd have the first at 5:30pm news in NZ and then the 6pm news on two channels and that was it! But in Aus, it feels like the news is ALWAYS on TV - like give people a break and put something fun on for once haha.
I don't really think this one fits into this category, but I tried a matcha the other day and it was SOOOO good. I don't usually go for them but I was glad I did, made me feel kinda good to.
Winter is cold but it isn't that cold.
People don't like the police her and it kinda feels intimidating when they are around - but in NZ, whenever I saw police, I felt safe. Also, they carry guns in their pockets here - they don't do that in NZ unless absolutely necessary.
People seem to be a lot more open to the paranormal and alike (which I didn't expect).
There is a lot more rubbish around - idk if it's from people littering, the rubbish trucks, or general pollution but it's not super clean and tidy. I know NZ isn't, but it just feels like there's more here.
You have to pay for the musuems and some parts of the art gallery (in CHCH, I believe both of these are free entry).
If someone makes a sheep f*cker joke about kiwis, and you don't get offended, they aren't happy with you (like they just want a reaction but it's not funny lol get a new joke).
You can't really get the NZ gingernut biscuits - I've found them ONCE in a Coles with some L&P (that's a bit easier to get) but here's a quick life hack for ya, gingernuts can help if you get car sick so if you're going on twisty roads, grab some!
Is there scoop of chips at the fish and chip shops? Because Luke keeps saying "minimum" chips and small, med, large etc. In NZ, it's 1/2 scoop, 1 scoop or 2 scoop (damn we are simple creatures, us kiwis lol). But like what? Also, a hot dog is called a sausage in batter and I know it's essentially the same thing at the fish and chip shop, but in NZ, they put a popsicle stick in it and call it a hot dog! It makes it fun - sausage in batter sounds gross.
This isn't one I thought of really but I was talking to Luke about mussels in the supermarkets in NZ and you can pretty much get them at any supermarket for pretty cheap back home (not that I like them, but they're everywhere).
Seafood doesn't taste as good here - kinda like the meat and dairy situation.
People don't say hi to you on the street - everyone back in CHCH will say hi if they walk past you, but here you don't do that and I may have said that in part 1 but cultures are so interesting don't you think?
And lastly, I feel like people are way more nosey in Australia in general - idk if it's just my anxiety but I do constantly feel like I'm being watched and judged.
Benji tax! xx
Thanks for reading, I'll add in a YouTube video if I ever make one so stay tuned for updates!
Much love,
Ash xoxo
Update 2/09/24 - I MADE A YT VIDEO WOO (Check it out below)
Enjoyed the read Ash. Rodz