Review: Getting Rooted in New Zealand

Getting Rooted in New Zealand by Jamie Baywood

Craving change and lacking logic, at 26, Jamie, a cute and quirky Californian, impulsively moves to New Zealand to avoid dating after reading that the country's population has 100,000 fewer men. In her journal, she captures a hysterically honest look at herself, her past and her new wonderfully weird world filled with curious characters and slapstick situations in unbelievably bizarre jobs. It takes a zany jaunt to the end of the Earth and a serendipitous meeting with a fellow traveler before Jamie learns what it really means to get rooted.

This book was actually very enjoyable. Being an autobiography it’s easy to put oneself in the author’s shoes (especially being a young woman) and understand the problems she has with friends or men… but what the book is mainly about are the cultural differences between her native California and New Zealand. Ok, I’m not from any of those places and therefore I might have missed some of the references but the book is really fun and witty from beginning to end and you can actually enjoy it even if you’re not from the places mentioned.

It was quite interesting to realize how two countries that share a language can be so different, and it was also cool to know a bit more about New Zealand (there are lots of books and movies set in the US but not in this island). Also being an English student I personally enjoyed things like different meanings that same expressions can have in these countries or weird pronunciations of words that the writer found in New Zealand (the title of the book itself).

All in all I sure would recommend the book; it was definitely a good read, quick, easy and fun.