We meet a Texan...

In New Brighton Mall, the open plaza of shops that we took pictures of the first week here, there is a Tex-Mex café. Now if you know me, you know I love Mexican food, but for various reasons I never got around to checking out this café.  Last week while out, Greg reminded me of it while we were debating lunch and so we decided to check it out. It was a surprise when I went to place my order to hear the familiar patterns of American English, Texan English to be specific.  The restaurant is owned by John and his wife, Texans who immigrated to New Zealand three years ago. The food was pretty good and we got to talk to John for a while only to find out he and his wife with their three kids would be leaving New Zealand this month. Why? Because the New Zealand government is making them.

When John and his family originally came over on work visa he worked as a plumber. He made good money and his family made a life here. His kids love it and the schools are great for them.  His five year old is already fluently reading.  But unfortunately due to the global recession he lost his good paying job plumbing, just before it came time to apply for full residency.  So in response to this he and his wife opened up the Mexican café, which while not as popular as the ever present fish and chips, seemed to be doing ok. But despite this and the three years spent here the government has denied their application for full residency/citizenship. John told us that when they first came here the government was much more foreigner friendly, but since the last elections, those in power are now pretty against foreigners and immigration.

I found his whole situation pretty sad and frankly wrong. It just doesn’t seem right to me to let people come and make a life somewhere, open a business, raise their children, then just yank it away. It’s not like they were leaching off the system, they were business owners, contributing to the community. It made our small bid to make a life here seem rather pointless because if someone with that situation can’t stay, what chance did we ever really have.  Though I do wish I had managed to wander into the Tex-Mex café earlier because John seems a pretty nice guy and Greg has been hanging out with him a bit.  The other night Greg came home with stories of the cannibals on these islands. Apparently the Maori cannibalized who ever lived here originally and munched on quite a few Europeans before they got entrenched here. I have no idea how true these things are, but Greg’s been having a blast making endless cannibal jokes. :)
 
Other then hanging with new friends and working on school and illustration stuff, we’ve been wandering a bit. The other day we checked out the Botanical Gardens. A little late though, it would have been nicer last month when it was in full bloom. But oh well, still a nice place to wander for the afternoon.  Here are some pictures, Enjoy!