No bach is complete without questionable cooking arrangements, an ancient book collection and a random assortment of shells and trinkets. Glad you picked a good one ☀️🌊
Oh my, I had to look this up...that word's a pretty awful slur in the US. Turns out in NZ it's just a stove that's, like, kind of next to the water tank! Check. Didn't work, or maybe I build lousy fires :)
As someone who loves jewel tones and brass (and has both in her newly renovated home), I am wounded!!!! I am whimsical and unique! (She says, reading this month’s issue of NZ House and Garden.) 😂
Hi Mary! Go with your jewel tones! Fashion is such a cruel master. We thought were were so unique and cool for having succulents as our wedding centerpieces, but realized even before the big day it was the most generic hipster thing you could do in mid 2010s America. Whatever! We must do what we like, knowing it'll all look silly in ten years or so :)
As the great David Berman wrote, “Have you ever even rented a room?” And to continue on his theme of self-mythologizing: I once borrowed a room he rented for some time, as his end overtook him, during the only very brief time I was a bachelor myself, post-20s.
We just returned from an AirBnB, which was very much that - very nice, big, in a pricey neighborhood in the center of Melbourne, and I just marveled at how much effort they had had to put into scooching over their stuff, to make it more hotel-like: emptying the fridge, condensing closets so some could be empty, others locked. Seemed like almost as much effort as moving. Not a hotel, but not lived-in either.
The big question, Dan, is: Did the bach have a Guest Book, and part 2: Did you leave a note in it?
That's amazing! You were the hipster, my friend! I often think of Self Potrait at 28 when writing this blog ('I know it’s a bad title / but I’m giving it to myself as a gift'). Gone too soon. I would've like to read/listen to Old David. Poor dude.
Those Melbourne folks...so interesting. I want to say something fancy like: 'this is the self-erasure that capital requires' and I mostly just worry about their long-term condiments, like where did they go?? Are the pickles OK? We stayed at a place in Somerville MA years ago that was delightlfully full of family life and kids stuff and spice jars and cool wall art that I still think of those folks as near-miss friends even though I forgot to leave a review.
The bach absolutely had a guestbook! W wrote in it, and S drew some hearts and W drew one of those cryptic squares from Geometry Dash. Will doutbless charm and unsettle the next guests in equal measure.
Arriving in Aotearoa 2 months before giving birth, we were in a rush to nest. Pre-internet and just about everything else, I couldn't find a 'crib' seller anywhere in Wellington's very slim yellow pages. The salesperson in the only BABY store told me they didn't sell cribs - until I pointed out they had about 20 in the back - little did I know we wanted a cot!
I think the main difference between Air BnB and a bach is that there are some regs around Air BnB - a bach can be anything - to some Americans my house near the sea would be bach.
Hi Susan! Kids really do force you to learn the local language! I have surrendered on 'jumper' much faster as dad than I would have otherwise.
I wonder if Americans (back home) even know the word, or can pick it up on first gloss? I think the difference is that the regs of Airbnb are dictated by the app and the rental market it serves, whereas the (very loose) regs of a bach come from tradition. The former are more formal/strict/enforceable, and thus will (I fear) eventually win out over the latter. Who knows. Lucky you, living by the sea!
I was booking a bach years ago (before AirBnB) and thought we’d all fit because it had a cot - I was thinking camp cot, which my early-20s back would have been fine with. My kiwi friend was horrified before gently explaining that a cot was a crib and was I really sure I wanted to try to sleep in a crib?
This is great, thanks! Everything I know I learned from The Spinoff. Hmm...we were at the top of the South so I think we were still 'bach'? And 'crib' in US English is something entirely different. I grew up watching MTV Cribs, which was itself a winking use of older slang, but nothing bach about it!
Yeah, tend to think of the crib as a hardened deep south thing. There is a hardy type down there that thinks New Zealand ends north of the Waitaki (River).
This is great! You’ve captured the essence of a kiwi Bach. Growing up I thought it was spelt batch, but was corrected in my 30s 🤣🤣
“Holiday home” Is another term we used for short term rental accomodation. And the main competitor to the bookabach website was holidayhomes.co.nz. Both have probably been hurt by Airbnb. In my mind, holiday homes tended to be nicer, but still had the expectation you’d clean it yourself before you left. Whereas “bach” carries the connotation that the wind would whistle through the walls.
Thanks, Tim! It should be spelled batch, throughs me everytime, and the autocorrect always capitalizes it to the composer. Whistling wind is all in the charm, ain’t it? Why stop waring jackets indoors just because we’re on holiday?
Hi Susan! I love this taxonomy. Expectations...yes we went it pretty blind, and that seemed right! You do expect the bach will have gumboot tea and random paperbacks, right?? I think the expectations for a bach are lower, or just chiller. You hope it's nice but she'll be right. An airbnb BETTER be nice or else you'll call the manager. And so an airbnb is made safe and nice for the widest range of persons and uses--totally generic--where a bach is like, we know you just came here for tea and a game of cards, right? Maybe a little fumbling with a wood stove? A hut, well that's whole other glory. The work makes the roughest hut just about holy. Must write than letter one of these days!
Long may the endangered bach be about! NZ has seen a slow creep toward the bach becoming akin to a millionaire's holiday home (eg Taupo, Wanaka, BOP) to its decasualised multi-generation build (thanks to build regs) and like you say, an homogenisation of looks. The best baches are in random places, an amalgam of all the odds and ends the family no longer need, but which will come in handy on holiday at the bach. Those semi working number 8 DIY places are deep relaxation and remind of when life and down to earth values were resolute and straightforward. Sand between the toes, threadbare bits of carpet, lumpy but servicable beds, a hotchpotch of interior decor and that old couch. Thwy are relax with idiosyncratic style.
read this on holiday at our rented bach :D we don't like it quite as remote and rustic as you describe but the vibe is much the same; sandy kids, lazy afternoons at the beach, jigsaw puzzles and faded novels, nowhere in particular to be and all the time in the world to get there. Marvellous.
Airbnb is gross, forcing all users to sign a pledge to be an ally to a sexual preference cult, to a charity enriching its creators with 3 homes such as those that just burnt down and doing nothing for the cause that has disappeared now its not politically expedient. Users are slaves to reviews, set prices, reporting your additional income direct to the government. Oh and since you are making this much out of the property that means we can charge everyone double the local property rates, because somehow that makes sense. Airbnb is another Etsy and Amazon dictating left and right how humans can buy and sell and taking a massive unearned cut. All the while collecting info to better swindle you. Gross.
I've lived here in NZ for 19 years and this feels deeply familiar and reads like home 😀🏡
Thanks, Vicki!
I reckon you’ve nailed it Dan!!
No bach is complete without questionable cooking arrangements, an ancient book collection and a random assortment of shells and trinkets. Glad you picked a good one ☀️🌊
We got lucky :)
Don't forget the wetback for hot water!
Oh my, I had to look this up...that word's a pretty awful slur in the US. Turns out in NZ it's just a stove that's, like, kind of next to the water tank! Check. Didn't work, or maybe I build lousy fires :)
Oops, yeah sorry, I should have clarified. It took me aback where I 1st heard it here
It can also be a boiler hooked to the wood burning cook stove
That's what ours was. With a coal stove
As someone who loves jewel tones and brass (and has both in her newly renovated home), I am wounded!!!! I am whimsical and unique! (She says, reading this month’s issue of NZ House and Garden.) 😂
Hi Mary! Go with your jewel tones! Fashion is such a cruel master. We thought were were so unique and cool for having succulents as our wedding centerpieces, but realized even before the big day it was the most generic hipster thing you could do in mid 2010s America. Whatever! We must do what we like, knowing it'll all look silly in ten years or so :)
Anyway, excellent piece. ;)
As the great David Berman wrote, “Have you ever even rented a room?” And to continue on his theme of self-mythologizing: I once borrowed a room he rented for some time, as his end overtook him, during the only very brief time I was a bachelor myself, post-20s.
We just returned from an AirBnB, which was very much that - very nice, big, in a pricey neighborhood in the center of Melbourne, and I just marveled at how much effort they had had to put into scooching over their stuff, to make it more hotel-like: emptying the fridge, condensing closets so some could be empty, others locked. Seemed like almost as much effort as moving. Not a hotel, but not lived-in either.
The big question, Dan, is: Did the bach have a Guest Book, and part 2: Did you leave a note in it?
That's amazing! You were the hipster, my friend! I often think of Self Potrait at 28 when writing this blog ('I know it’s a bad title / but I’m giving it to myself as a gift'). Gone too soon. I would've like to read/listen to Old David. Poor dude.
Those Melbourne folks...so interesting. I want to say something fancy like: 'this is the self-erasure that capital requires' and I mostly just worry about their long-term condiments, like where did they go?? Are the pickles OK? We stayed at a place in Somerville MA years ago that was delightlfully full of family life and kids stuff and spice jars and cool wall art that I still think of those folks as near-miss friends even though I forgot to leave a review.
The bach absolutely had a guestbook! W wrote in it, and S drew some hearts and W drew one of those cryptic squares from Geometry Dash. Will doutbless charm and unsettle the next guests in equal measure.
Excellent! Unsettling guest messages are a particular favorite! I got to see Berman read poems, twice!
No way I want details!!
Arriving in Aotearoa 2 months before giving birth, we were in a rush to nest. Pre-internet and just about everything else, I couldn't find a 'crib' seller anywhere in Wellington's very slim yellow pages. The salesperson in the only BABY store told me they didn't sell cribs - until I pointed out they had about 20 in the back - little did I know we wanted a cot!
I think the main difference between Air BnB and a bach is that there are some regs around Air BnB - a bach can be anything - to some Americans my house near the sea would be bach.
Hi Susan! Kids really do force you to learn the local language! I have surrendered on 'jumper' much faster as dad than I would have otherwise.
I wonder if Americans (back home) even know the word, or can pick it up on first gloss? I think the difference is that the regs of Airbnb are dictated by the app and the rental market it serves, whereas the (very loose) regs of a bach come from tradition. The former are more formal/strict/enforceable, and thus will (I fear) eventually win out over the latter. Who knows. Lucky you, living by the sea!
Yes - and only a two minute walk to the shore tho on the wrong side of the Tsunami line.
There are regs about baches? Maybe only on Baches-R-US.
Bach regs are only in our hearts, I suppose!
I was booking a bach years ago (before AirBnB) and thought we’d all fit because it had a cot - I was thinking camp cot, which my early-20s back would have been fine with. My kiwi friend was horrified before gently explaining that a cot was a crib and was I really sure I wanted to try to sleep in a crib?
In the New Zealand context, there is of course the moderate tension between the "bach", or the more localized "crib". Staying on the South Island may have identified your accomodations as a crib, but possibly not far enough south to grasp that qualification. There has been some discussion previously: https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/04-02-2024/when-and-where-does-a-bach-become-a-crib?utm_source=spinoff-share-button&utm_medium=spinoff-web-mobile
This is great, thanks! Everything I know I learned from The Spinoff. Hmm...we were at the top of the South so I think we were still 'bach'? And 'crib' in US English is something entirely different. I grew up watching MTV Cribs, which was itself a winking use of older slang, but nothing bach about it!
Yeah, tend to think of the crib as a hardened deep south thing. There is a hardy type down there that thinks New Zealand ends north of the Waitaki (River).
Great writing!
As a note, depending on which side of the fence one is on, aIr b$b is still on the BD$ list
Thanks for reading! Ah, didn’t know that. Crazy world, this is.
This is great! You’ve captured the essence of a kiwi Bach. Growing up I thought it was spelt batch, but was corrected in my 30s 🤣🤣
“Holiday home” Is another term we used for short term rental accomodation. And the main competitor to the bookabach website was holidayhomes.co.nz. Both have probably been hurt by Airbnb. In my mind, holiday homes tended to be nicer, but still had the expectation you’d clean it yourself before you left. Whereas “bach” carries the connotation that the wind would whistle through the walls.
Thanks, Tim! It should be spelled batch, throughs me everytime, and the autocorrect always capitalizes it to the composer. Whistling wind is all in the charm, ain’t it? Why stop waring jackets indoors just because we’re on holiday?
I really loved reading this Dan - all so true
So a bach is up a road and you don't really know what to expect - from the road or the bach?
And an AIRbnb can also be up the road or down a street or at the end of an uber ride, but you know what to expect - or hope you get it?
But a hut - well you have to work to get there - and one way or the other it's usually worth the work - or you're too tired to care.
Hi Susan! I love this taxonomy. Expectations...yes we went it pretty blind, and that seemed right! You do expect the bach will have gumboot tea and random paperbacks, right?? I think the expectations for a bach are lower, or just chiller. You hope it's nice but she'll be right. An airbnb BETTER be nice or else you'll call the manager. And so an airbnb is made safe and nice for the widest range of persons and uses--totally generic--where a bach is like, we know you just came here for tea and a game of cards, right? Maybe a little fumbling with a wood stove? A hut, well that's whole other glory. The work makes the roughest hut just about holy. Must write than letter one of these days!
Huts can be the source of nightmares or the magical place where your first born was conceived.
♥️
Long may the endangered bach be about! NZ has seen a slow creep toward the bach becoming akin to a millionaire's holiday home (eg Taupo, Wanaka, BOP) to its decasualised multi-generation build (thanks to build regs) and like you say, an homogenisation of looks. The best baches are in random places, an amalgam of all the odds and ends the family no longer need, but which will come in handy on holiday at the bach. Those semi working number 8 DIY places are deep relaxation and remind of when life and down to earth values were resolute and straightforward. Sand between the toes, threadbare bits of carpet, lumpy but servicable beds, a hotchpotch of interior decor and that old couch. Thwy are relax with idiosyncratic style.
Agreed. A special sort of threadbare carpet, indeed. Just enough, nothing more, plus some 70s armchair by the woodburner
I can smell the salt water and feel the sand in my toes!
read this on holiday at our rented bach :D we don't like it quite as remote and rustic as you describe but the vibe is much the same; sandy kids, lazy afternoons at the beach, jigsaw puzzles and faded novels, nowhere in particular to be and all the time in the world to get there. Marvellous.
I call it an airbnb when it has breakfast and a bach when it's by the beach. 😀
I can dig it. Our airbnb offered single cereal packets in basket. The bach, nah mate, gumboot tea
I feel like single cereal packets isn’t enough “breakfast” to qualify for the name “bed and breakfast” 🤔
Airbnb is gross, forcing all users to sign a pledge to be an ally to a sexual preference cult, to a charity enriching its creators with 3 homes such as those that just burnt down and doing nothing for the cause that has disappeared now its not politically expedient. Users are slaves to reviews, set prices, reporting your additional income direct to the government. Oh and since you are making this much out of the property that means we can charge everyone double the local property rates, because somehow that makes sense. Airbnb is another Etsy and Amazon dictating left and right how humans can buy and sell and taking a massive unearned cut. All the while collecting info to better swindle you. Gross.