Holiday-swap family have a problemnow they want to make N.Z. home

Press, 12 October 1982, Page 17

Holiday-swap family have a problemnow they want to make N.Z. home

By

KEN COATES

For years the English artist. Bob Ixer. and his wife Pat dreamed of spending a long holiday in New Zealand. It was to be achieved by the simple expedient of temporarily swapping their house in Lincolnshire with one in this country. Eventually, they arranged exchanges with two New Zealand home owners. But now. after living at Otaki. at the foot of the Tararua ranges, and nearing the end of their stay in Cashmere, they have a problem. They and their four children — Warren, aged 19. Sally. 16, Lee. 15. and Russell. 14 — do not want to go back to live in England, or face another bleak English winter. Pessimistic about future job opportunities for their family in Britain, and depressed about the prospect of nuclear war in Europe, they are talking about applying to live permanently in New Zealand. Meanwhile they will soon leave for Tonga which they see as a South Pacific compromise. “Maybe I could start a business there." says Bob Ixer. The family could live there for only half the cost of living in England and would not have to meet expensive heating bills during the winter, he adds.

It is more than a year since I first talked with Bob and Pat Ixer on a rawautumn afternoon in their double-storeyed brick house on a third of an acre on the outskirts of a sleepy village named Ingoldsby. Bob was working on one of the Constable-style paintings of English landscapes in keen demand for bars, hotel lounges, and living rooms up and down Britain.

The couple had hit on the idea of house-swapping for

holidays seven years before. They had been to Boston and to Oslo, where they had the use of two boats and a log cabin on an island. They amounted to a cheap holiday for four, with only the cost ot the air fares.

But they had never ventured into the Southern Hemisphere, and with the urge to travel still strong. 800 had advertised in NewZealand newspapers for anyone who wanted to have a holiday in Ingoldsby, to use his house and car for a time, in return for the use of theirs in New Zealand. Bob Ixer. a Cockney brought up in the tough environment of Dagenham. East London, and once a boxer of note, is not the usual home-loving Englishman.

He went to art school, worked in advertising in central London for six years, but then decided to leave the “rat race.” After trying his luck in Canada, opening an art shop in Cornwall, which later had to close down, he got a job as a lifeguard and then as a swimming instructor.

During his spare time he worked at painting, and his landscapes sold readily. Eventually, he made his pictures a full-time occupation.

The travel bug developed after he arrived home from a round-the-world trip which included a visit to New Zealand. After an initial flurry of interest in the exchange idea, when the Ixers received 14 replies, the - firm offers reduced themselves to two.

As Bob . points out, not everyone can be bothered organising this kind of holiday "which is the reason why

package tours are so popular."

Bob's paintings, which he sells in Britain for up to §lOOO each, enabled him to finance the family's long trip to New Zealand.

Their first swap was with Mr Terry Maddison. aged 80, of Otaki, whose wife had recently died, and who owns a house virtually in the country. “The house, on the main road, was a perfect exchange.” enthuses Pat Ixer. "It was real homely, with lots of open space. It was like being in the middle of nowhere, and you can't really find anywhere quite like that in Britain." How did Mr Maddison fare. 12,000 miles away? "When he first arrived, he was very despondent about the cold, but had cheered up by a later letter,” Bob says. "The old boy hadn't been to England since leaving there when eight years old, and he has had a great time. “In Canterbury, our car, which he was driving, broke down. But it turned out well because the bed and breakfast place in which he stayed had once been owned by his father."

The second swap was with Walter and Edna Turtle, two retired teachers. The Ixers speak warmly of this couple who had to cope with the effects of torrential rain in Ingoldsby. There were two inches of water in the Ixers' lounge, but the New Zealanders drained it out, took up the carpet, and dried it out in the garage. While the Ixers are very comfortable in the Turtle house, tucked away on a back section near the foot of the Cashmere Hills, they

have found that suburban life here, particularly in Christchurch. is very much like it is back home.’ While there is an absence of population pressure, they have more neighbours than in Lincolnshire where their home looks out over gently rolling fields.

"The way of life and attitudes here are similar to what we have been used to — people work to the limit to buy material possessions," says Bob Ixer. who doesn’t see materialism as the ultimate goal in life.

He has worked here, though. His studio has been above a warehouse in Lichfield Street where he has painted more English countrysides from photographs. They sell well in New Zealand, too. especially to older people originally from Britain who like something to remind them of the beauties of their home land. He has tried a few NewZealand landscapes but was disappointed with his initial efforts. “The colours in New Zealand are sharper and not so 'muggy' as in Britain. I will stick to what I do best.” The Ixers have noticed other sharp differences: Older people are more active and involved in New Zealand. perhaps due to the warmer climate.

“People of our age are still dancing disco in England (Bob is 41. Pat 40) whereas here it seems to be old-time ballroom.” Pat observes.

They have found living costs about the same: items like clothes and electrical goods much higher, but housing half the cost.

“If we ever settle here, we would live in the far north where there are no big heating bills," Bob says. “We’d keep the overheads down.”

Bob Ixer does not have much time for New Zealand

women drivers. “They are lethal." he says. But he admits that part of his problem is that he is used to driving much faster than people do here.

"I realise now I’ve just got to poodle along too — New Zealanders are a little more relaxed, and I guess that's a good thing.

“The men here are about on a par with English women drivers; but no kid should be allowed to drive at the age of 15."

He has little to say in favour of New Zealand pubs. The Ixers soon found they could not drive out into the country, meet friends, and have a nice quiet evening with good food at any local pub.

Against that, he has enjoyed going to clubs, such as the Cashmere Club, “Where you can go for a nice drink and have a relaxed evening." He misses Britain's variety of pubs. “Mind you. if you

can afford to visit them: beer is twice the price." The couple like what they call the lack of snobbishness in New Zealand. "A labourer will drink with a Minister; it's not like in England,” Bob savs.

“And people who look scruffy, wearing those jandal things, mix with people looking smart. But no-one takes any notice of how others are dressed,” Pat adds. “And there’s none of this business of being judged by how you speak, rather than bv how successful vou are."

Bob Ixer says that he needs only to step aboard a British aircraft to be aware immediately of class distinction. It is a question of how you speak, he says: you are supposed to know your place. While Pat likes a great deal of what New Zealand has to offer, she does miss the English countryside — and her. dog, an Old English sheepdog named Shep, which

friends are taking care of.

She likes New Zealand television better than she remembers programmes at home, although both she and Bob find the commercials hard to take. “The ads are just thrown at you," Bob says. “They are repetitious and treat peole like morons.”

Both are keenly aware of massive unemployment in Britain and the better prospects New Zealand offers their family. The average person seems much better off; and more work is available here, they say.

Bob Ixer is pessimistic about the chances of a major war between the two superpowers. “In the middle is the pawn they play with. Europe, where the Americans have sited all their missile bases,” he says. “In a war. England must get blown up, purely as a result of greed and selfinterest. I don’t see how a

war between the main Powers can be averted.

"We've got to think of what future there is for the kids in England. At least they would have a chance in the South Pacific.”

The Ixers were disgusted by some of the attitudes brought out by the Falkland Islands war.

“We are supposed to be among the most cultured people in the world, yet we had young men saying. ‘Let’s kill the Argies,’ and the papers full of jingoism.”

Bob Ixer does not see a lot of hope for the world. He talks of wanting to help less fortunate people in the developing world; his wife says she likes to think they will never go back to England-for good.

Yet one is left with the impression that there could be quite a deal of wandering yet before this family eventually finds a place, it can truly call home.