Random Musings

Right, so we've been in NZ now for about 14 days, and have made a few observations that we wish to share.

Taps:  70% of the faucets here are the opposite way from back home - meaning, the hot is on the right and the cold is on the left.  However, 30% of the time, its normal.  I mean, I don't mind if they want to do stuff backwards, just keep it consistent so us foreigners can adapt!

Ice Cream: very tasty here!  Very creamy - and they call their ice cream shops creamiers (must think they are being exotic or something).  Syd got a teal coloured one called 'this'n'that' and its basically 'lolly-flavoured' ice cream with mini jube jubes in it.  The most famous NZ flavour is Hokey Pokey...which basically is creamy vanilla ice cream with tiny little werthers original butterscotch pieces in it. Yum!

Camping:  they have 2 styles of camping here.  One I will call traditional - as we grew up and know/love - where you have all of your own stuff, you cook/play/socialize at your own campsites, and sometimes have to have your own shower facilities as they may not be provided where you are camping.  The second style is a new beast I never met before.  It's called the 'Holiday Park'.  This is basically a super camp (or in my mind, a pseudo camp) where people set up their campers next to power sites, or even rent on-site cabins and they have full facilities with hot showers, toilets and laundry (and sometimes even internet).  Then this is where it gets weird - there are shared kitchen facilities...so a whole bunch of families congregate into a large kitchen area and mutually cook their dinners.  Maybe we have parks like this in Canada too, but maybe my parents were wise enough to not expose me to them.  At first I thought this was kind of cool (much like a hostel), but then I felt like its just 'too much'.  Like today for instance, we cooked our meal, and ate in the communal dining area, but felt like we were being watched the whole time by two old men sitting beside us.  Very weird.  Needless to say, we took our teas back to our van to enjoy watching the sunset on the beach in peace!

Ferocious sandflies:  Okay, upon entering the south island (and the west coast specifically) we heard about and read about these ferocious sandflies.  We laughed because they are basically the size of a flea and we only initially thought that they they are just pesky buggers.  Now, after being exposed to them for a week, and have our feet covered in their itchy bites, we now start to understand the term.  At one campsite we left right away in the morning without breakfast because they were swarming us and making our morning most unpleasant indeed.  Now, the bites really start to itch, and it's like having chicken pox, you don't want to scratch them because they'll bleed, but it feels sooo good to scratch. ;o)

Roads:  these are the most crazy windy roads ever, most on the edges of cliffs and coasts!  Syd has mastered them pretty well, but I'm still floored by their sheer design.  Thankfully every few kilometres there are passing zones or 'slow vehicle' pullover spots so that Syd can pass those folk by.  Funnily enough, all the roads are in great (paved) condition, and we've only been on a gravel roads a handful of times.  They make for amazing scenic drives though, like this one-laned crag that we drove under.

Road Signage:  The signs here are very helpful to drivers to help keep them on track.  Some choice ones that I noted (and have yet to capture photos of), are: 

• Penguin Crossing, 10km.
• Slippery roads when frosty (i.e. no such thing as icy here).
• Speeding is lethal (and its a picture of a bullet on wheels), 
• Driver, Are you sleepy? All you need is a 40 minute nap. 
• Passenger, is your driver alert?  If not, tell them to pull over.
• 100.  It's not a target. Drive to the conditions.
• Driving Drunk. Driving Tired. Same Result.

Lingo:  they enjoy using terms such as 'sweet as' or 'choice' to describe cool things, and say 'heaps' all the time to indicate loads or tonnes of something.  We can definitely tell the difference between an Oz & Kiwi accent, and quite like to listen to the radio shows and commercials to see how pronounced the accent is. ;o)

Astrid.