Some Things We Like About New Zealand

Hey All! Instead of lamenting the cold, rainy weather that the onset of Spring has brought to New Plymouth (and much of the country), we have decided to share some of the things that we are enjoying here.

The Language — Expressions
While we all speak English, we appear to use our words and/or put our words together a bit differently. I’ve become partial to the more colorful way that the Kiwis use the language. Some examples:

A Noter — someone who keeps up with the Joneses AND makes sure you know it. (Bob and I have noted the Noters that we Know.)
Mutton dressed as a Lamb — an older women dressed a bit young for her age
It’s going to piss down for the next few days — It’ll be raining.
Panelbeater — auto body repair worker
Cabs off the rank — prioritized items
Donkey’s years — a long time

More to come. . .

The Language — Pronunciations
Bob and I are completely aware that we are mispronouncing lots of the local names — Puke Ariki, Pukekuru, Te Henui, Te Rewa Rewa. However, what we didn’t realize is that we actually “mispronounce” just about every word we say because we haven’t yet (and probably won’t) master the local dialect. However, it’s all good. We have been able to make ourselves understood, and it makes listening to the news that much more interesting.

Sports, sports, sports — did we mention sports?
This is a sports mad country. Really! I am convinced it is one of the reasons that their news is an hour long. Half of it is needed to cover (in depth) all of their sports.

Biggest sports news has probably been the preparation for the World Rugby Cup which will begin in a couple of weeks in England. Not sure what the coverage is in the states, but I’m sure I would be unaware of it. The the final New Zealand team was announced yesterday, and it was (and will continue to be) big news.
The International Darts Competition was just held in Auckland and received lots of coverage. I don’t know anything about professional darts but apparently fans like to attend these competitions in costume.
Horse racing is big with lots of coverage in the papers about the various horses, odds, races, etc. We’ve seen some local races.
Net ball that we referenced earlier. It is pretty common in commonwealth countries and is based on an early version of basketball. You have to know how to pass, block, and shoot. No dribbling allowed. Each player wears a bib with their position on it, and the basket is on top of a pole that stands on the floor. I believe it is mostly played by women.
Cricket, croquet, yachting
Coverage of results by Kiwis in all sports — olympic prep competitions, race car driving, golf, American football (a couple of Kiwis are vying for spots with the 49ers and Arizona Cardinals based on rugby conditioning — neither has played American football before but are doing pretty well), etc.

Bread
This place loves their bread!! Besides having a cafe or 2 on every corner with every naughty baked good (savory and sweet) available, every (and I do mean EVERY) restaurant has some type of bread as the first item (and maybe 2 or 3 of their items) listed under Entrees (which here means appetizers — “Mains” are what we consider Entrees).

Ice Cream
In addition to having to suffer through all the lovely bread options, we have landed in dairy country so have had some lovely ice cream selections as well. The Iona Dairy (Dairy being basically a convenience store that can serve ice cream as well) is known for their generous portions. We tried it the other day. They were not kidding!! A “small” cone was 2 ginormous scoops for about $1.80 USDollars each!! Luckily, we had done lots of walking beforehand and had another 1+ miles to go to get home. Eating the cone was itself a workout — but a lovely one!

Geography/scenery
See below for a selection of uniquely New Zealand photos.