The big OE

It’s quite common for young New Zealanders to travel to other parts of the world before they settle down to adult life. They may be away for a year or two, or maybe even longer. This is what is known as “the big OE”,
the big overseas experience. Listen to Martin talking to Lindis about when he moved to Australia.

Lindis:I know quite a lot of New Zealanders leave New Zealand and go to other countries for education or training. Er … did you do that?
Martin:Yeah, I was erm … I finished my apprenticeship. I was working on a, a golf course, I was working there for … so after I left school and erm … as soon as my apprenticeship was finished, I thought, “OK, need to get out and see the world.” My sisters had been overseas, four of my five sisters, and they’d been around in er … Australia and South Africa and er the UK. So er saved up enough money, after my apprenticeship, and then I went to erm …, to Brisbane in Australia. I had a friend there so I stayed with him and got work and stayed there for … a year and a half. Yes, it was a, it was a good time there. Good to go from the south of the South Island in New Zealand. It’s a bit like Denmark. It’s a bit cold in the winter, get a lot of wind. Erm the summers er, a good summer you get about 25 degrees and if you get three days of 25 degrees you call it a drought, eh! It’s on the TV and the newspaper. I’m going to go to the east coast of Australia, I’m going to get some sunshine, and get some better money.
Lindis:Did you notice any differences between Australians and New Zealanders?
Martin:Yeah, it was, I think erm … the Australian attitude is … can be quite relaxed. So er … Like a, a good example is: Why go, why mow the, the lawn? It’s just going to grow again. Er, why er tidy up your bed? You’re just going to mess it up at, tonight anyway. So er … It’s hard to pinpoint what the … the differences are.
They’re outside a bit more and erm so you go down to-, yo- you’re eating outside a bit more often. You go down to the beach and you’re eating down there. But where I come from in, in New Zealand, there’s nothing stopping the, the wind coming up from the Antarctic. So you get the cold winds, bit like you get the northerly winds here in Norway.
Maybe they’re a bit more … cocky in er … Australia? Less humble. “We’re bigger and better!” Yeah. “You’re, you’re the little brother!” Er … “We were down in the southern hemisphere first!” And er … yeah. “So we’ve got the bigger economy, defence forces and – you all come over here!” So er …
Lindis:So does that mean that you felt that you were being treated as someone who wasn’t quite as good as them?
Martin:No, it was more friendly, put the elbow in the ribs: “There you go!” “Aus-, Australia’s much better than New Zealand, isn’t it?”
Lindis:What didn’t you like about it then?
Martin:I guess it took some time to get used to the, used to the creepy crawlies, er with the snakes and er, and er … spiders. Cos in New Zealand there’s no snakes, and the spiders aren’t er poisonous. So it took, it took a bit of time. Especially when I was working on the er, in the garden centre. So, often we’d er … have to get rid of er snakes that go into the shed.
Lindis:Oooh!
Martin:Er … so it was er, it was quite exciting! Where- whereas they were a bit more relaxed about it.
Lindis:What kind of snakes were there?
Martin:Erm … Red-bellied blacks and brown snakes and er … some Taipans.
So when you’re, if you’re out there in the grass, you’d rather hear crunch-crunch than slither-slither. So it was er … (laughs) if you hear slither-slither, you’re “Ooooh!” (both laugh) But they’re, they’re a bit more tougher there!
I remember one time we had a, – they had a bonfire at night er … at a friend’s place and there was a, they were throwing logs on the fire and a scorpion come out because the er log was too hot. And I was going: “There’s a scorpion! There’s a scorpion!” “Yeah, is it big or small?” “It’s a big one!!” “Oh, that’s OK, then. It’s the small ones you have to watch out for.” (laughs) So I was like: “Ooookaaay …”

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The big OE

The big OE

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