Healthcare and Ducklings

Thursday, November 29

Just settling into Queenstown life.  Besides the canned pumpkin, we can find most of the same things as in the States or similar things at least.  Sometimes I think of all the adjustments and things that the four of us are struggling to figure out.  Then I try to imagine if we couldn’t speak the language.  At least we speak English so that we can ask questions and understand the answers.  Sometimes the similarities between NZ and the States can be misleading, which we are discovering as we try to navigate the healthcare and tax systems.  We make assumptions based on what we did in the States, but we have learned to avoid assumptions and to question everything because the differences occur where we least expect them.  In New Zealand there is public healthcare system and as permanent residents we are eligible.  Many New Zealanders also have supplemental private healthcare insurance.  We plan to do the same thing.  One of the challenges has been trying to figure out what the public system covers to then make sure our private insurance will fill the gaps minimizing overlap.

p.s. I know I am trying to write chronologically, but I am going to make a quick trip into the almost real-time present (photos taken 29 December). We don’t have any November pictures, but we do have lots of late December shots. And, we have new babies to show you, eight to be exact.  They swarm around Mom and zoom round the island, in and out between the pond reeds.  Colin, Doug, Liam and I are thrilled watching them.  We sit on the deck and spy on Mom and her ducklings below in the pond.  They are nesting on the island in the middle of the pond.  Liam and Colin were floating around the pond on the old kayak, but we are staying out of the water while the ducklings get their sea legs.