mrlew1's Profile

Lemon, Lime, and Bitters is a popular drink in NZ (and Oz, and the UK) - ice, a few drops of bitters, juice of a lime (or lime cordial), and top up with sprite. Yummy!

Janis on the Farmette - try "beady eye vegetarian." In other words, you eat things with beady eyes (poultry and seafood), but not things with cute, lashy eyes (cows, etc). :-)

Bronzeager (and others!) - canning jars aren't recyclable, just reusable (they're tempered or something to withstand the high temperatures of canning).

When I moved to New Zealand, it was supposed to be for a year, so I came with a backpack only. (I'd learned from my first OE to pack lightly!) Six years later, I shipped over all my furniture. I was perfectly happy without it (and all my "keepsakes") until then, so in my opinion, for 14 months, go without. You may change your mind about some things, and realise how much you appreciate others. Insured storage is the way to go.

Oh, and packing well makes unpacking soooo much better!

I love the "factory tour" style - reminds me of PBS shows and the crayon or cookie factory tours!

@ beyourownsaviour - not likely (in the short term, anyway) on a blog with the tagline "abundant design for GREEN homes."

Oh, and RosieGreenie - these are cape gooseberries, not gooseberries, so I guess they could say the same thing - why do we call them cape gooseberries when they're not from the cape and they ain't gooseberries. :-)

I know this is a bit late, but please be careful if you're cooling and reheating rice: http://www.nzfsa.govt.nz/processed-food-retail-sale/fact-sheets/cooked-rice/index.htm.

I am in love. Especially with the first picture. Sigh...

Another expat here - American living in New Zealand. Definitely agree with Kelliptical, RosieGreenie, Suavehouse, and Maurs - in my experience, dryers were/are the norm in the US and optional elsewhere I've lived (the UK, Australia, and New Zealand). I'm not sure if Ansela is trolling or serious, but I certainly have no problem with "the States" (I say it myself). Think about it - you can't say "America" without possibly offending everyone else in North and South America, you can't say the United States (as there is also the United States of Mexico), so unless you say USA everytime, you can't win. The States works for me!

As for the post - I miss my dryer sometimes, but not enough to get one (I did have one here in NZ, but sold it when we moved to our current house). It rains all the time, so I probably only line-dry half of the time and dry inside on racks the other half.

The "lower class" tag on line drying - yep, I'd heard/thought that too - I don't know why or where I picked that up, but it would have seemed "quaint" to line-dry growing up. (I realise now how narrrow-minded and ridiculous that is.) Now that green is all the rage, it does seem to be picking up, and that's a very good thing, regardless of the cause!