-The City of Christchirch picks up everyone’s compost buckets every other week and then turns the contents into beautiful compost using the Bokashi Method.
-Leaves are often used as mulch, rather than being stuffed into plastic bags and sent to the dump.
-The cyclist lanes are painted green, so they are obvious to all.
-The watermelons have seeds in them! Did you even know black watermelon seeds still existed outside of paintings of them?
-Mailboxes are all at the curb, so the posties are all on bikes and can easily deliver everyone’s mail without having to go up front steps, or inside apartment buildings to do so.
-The weather. Kiwis keep telling me that winter is fierce once it arrives, but we have been here for eight months now and winter has yet to make an appearance. We have not had to heat our house in all this time.
-The freedom to roam. There are hills and beaches and forests and rivers everywhere here, all accessible, all free, all gorgeous!
-Free range eggs everywhere! Chickens are everywhere, and as a result, so are their eggs, for sale of course, but very available and fresh and free range.
-The lushness; green everywhere, with bits of mist, or sparse clouds, floating between hills and in valleys.
-No fuss, no glamour. New Zealanders are incredible for their practical side; things are functional, well maintained and appropriate. Thrift stores charge a fortune for second hand goods as they are truly hard to come by. People keep items alive well beyond their use-by date meaning there is little consumer culture, and items maintain their value, even once broken or rusted.
-Lots of people create their own businesses to survive. Creativity is rampant, and this is demonstrated through the incredible range of small businesses in NZ. Coffee shops being a good example; there are no two coffee shops alike in Nelson, but many, many, many coffee shops!