New Zealand: How we do 'The Big OE' Wrong












Kiwis are often told, that we are the World's best
travelers, mainly by our own media, report after
report in the print media, in  the online media and
on Television and Radio all say the same thing,
New Zealander's are the world's best travelers,
and no one does 'The Big OE' like Kiwis.

Well I tend to to disagree, I think Kiwis are the
world's worst travelers, not all Kiwis of course,
but the ones who tend to mouth off the most
about how they are so well traveled, but when
you hear their stories, it doesn't seem like they traveled
at all.

I'm not of course talking about Kiwis who may spend
a year or two traveling thru Africa thru various organizations,
or going to college in the USA, or tramping thru South America,
or getting cultured in Asia or the Middle East.

I'm not talking about the Kiwis who may spend thier time
working their butt's off in Europe somewhere and on their
days off, going where the Euro rail will take them, having
experiences that will last them for the rest of their life's

The people who do it wrong, are the Kiwis who are most
likely to tell you, they're the ones that are doing it right.

They're the people who as soon as they arrive in
London, will head straight to the New Zealand/Australian
district, will put on their 'NZ Rugby' shirt, order a
steinlager and spend the majority of their two years
in England hanging out with other Kiwis, watching
Rugby, drinking NZ Beer, eating "Weetbix"

What a horrible 'OE' that must be, how it can be
called an Overseas Experience is beyond me, travelling
to the other end of the world, to do exacetly what you
do in New Zealand is not an Overseas Experience.

What memories do you create for yourself??

That you drank beer in a bar with other kiwis?

You watched a Rugby game?

The thing that gets me, these are the type of people
who would ripped into a person who actually got
to see Europe, the Real Europe.

The media can't wash their hands of this, whenever
their is footage and talk of how Kiwi's travel, these
are the guys they show.

My advice to any Kiwi doing 'The Big OE' and
being based in London is, "Your doing this for
a experience you cant get in New Zealand, stay away
from Kiwi centered places and Kiwi's, get to know the
local's, buy yourself a Euro Rail pass, and just go out
and explore.

Here's hoping more and more young Kiwis will do this.

Time will tell.

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