KEY POINTS:
What represents the biggest difference between Aussies and Kiwis? The answer is Coronation Street. Geoff Dickson is mystified as to why the show is still on prime time TV here.
"You guys love it. I've never watched an episode, but I've watched the promos and know I
would absolutely hate the show." He's convinced Coro explains the difference between us.
Neighbours, the country's quintessential home grown soap, pushed Coro aside when it began its sunny, brash and unashamedly Australian run in 1985. Here, our equivalent, the tortured, Shortland Street, didn't dent Coro's ratings when it began in 1992. Dickson thinks it's proof of royalist forces at work. "Australia has been trying to separate itself and stick it back up the motherland for the best part of 200 odd years."
Geoff and wife Jo moved from Rockhampton in central Queensland to Auckland with Rachel (17) and Ben (16) in 2003, largely to advance Geoff's academic career in sports management. They are among the 63,000 Australians who live here. Dickson finds our cultures quite similar _ "nothing that you put into the incomprehensible category."
Except, perhaps, the OE. Before they arrived, they had never heard the term. They're now familiar with the cherished rite of passage their daughter has just set off on hers with her Kiwi fiance.
School _ Takapuna Grammar _ was a bit of a shock. Both children had come from private schools in Rockhampton and were surprised by the liberal attitudes towards dress codes, mobile phones, makeup and hair length. They also struggled with the machinations of NCEA and couldn't believe how far behind the school was _ particularly in maths.
Geoff was lured to Auckland by a job offer in sports management research at AUT University, where he's now associate dean at the Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences. It was a step up from his position in Rockhampton. But there were questions about taking Rachel and Ben away from their friends and how it was going to impact on their schooling.
As it turned out the children were quite keen to leave small-town Australia and have since formed long term relationships here. When Geoff and Jo eventually decide to respond to the call of returning home, it's likely their children will stay in Auckland.
Geoff reckons Australia left behind its blinkered sports rivalry with New Zealand 20 years ago, "In many ways New Zealand is still stuck in the as-long-as-we-beat-Australia mentality," he says noting that, while New Zealanders have a healthy ego, they sometimes come across as "the angry little man who wants to be taken notice of."
Yes, he does get a fair bit of ribbing for being an Australian here, but mostly he doesn't mind. "As, one, an Australian; two, a Queenslander; and three, an ex-footballer, the idea of the sledge is something I'm pretty comfortable with." He takes the verbal sparring as evidence of a strong bond and deep respect for one another.
Jo agrees, although she says we're way too obsessed with losing at rugby and some of us take a long time to move on. Sometimes, the Australian baiting is tedious _ like the Dunedin taxi driver who brought up the "bloody underarm bowlers" incident. "Come on, that was how many years ago? Can't you drop it?"
Where does New Zealand have it over Australia? Geoff highlights race relations: "I can't remember anyone in Australia arguing the case that they wanted to identify as being aboriginal _ most would sweep that aside or conceal it. Here people are encouraged to identify their culture, embrace it and celebrate it." He's impressed too with us having a female prime minister. "It says something about the two places and the standing of Kiwi women."
