18 Things New Zealanders Like
We have arrived at Auckland Airport four hours before our scheduled departure time and to kill some time we have drafted this last blog post of our trip.
So here is a list of 18 things Kiwi’s are particularly fond of…
Fishing
With the best freshwater and sea fishing in the World, fishing is very popular…
Impressive, but nothing like as big as my fish
Boats
Big ones - needed for catching lots of big fish
4x4s
Big ones - needed to tow the big boats used to catch the big fish.
Rugby
Until we in the UK take to the game with the passion and fervour of the Kiwis, we will never consistently match the standard of the All Blacks. When the All Blacks do the Haka at the start of a rugby match, it isn’t only for show. They really do mean to kill and eat their opponents.
Walking and Hiking
Towns in NZ are almost always laid out in a grid. The Kiwis like to walk, so unlike in the UK or USA, cars, walkers, joggers and cyclists are all well catered for. All streets are very wide by our standards.
What we call hiking, they call tramping. Trails are well market and maintained in good condition. There are plenty of short walks, but also lots of multi-day, long distance walks. Some of which, in national parks are guided and must be pre-booked.
All of this amid stunning scenery.
Pies
Every street has at least one bakery. These bakeries have two kinds of customers:
- Confused Europeans wondering why the can’t buy bread in a bakery.
- Locals feasting on home baked meat pies washed down with fresh brewed coffee.
In NZ pies rival pizza in popularity - for a good reason; a hot meat pie paired with a steaming mug of coffee is one of the World’s great breakfasts.
Served with a touch more gravy, Kiwi pies would go from great to awesome.
Coffee shops
Coffee shops abound and come in every possible variation; often with several next to one another. They also serve beer and wine. The closest you can get to filter coffee is to ask for a Long Black. Note that inadvertently asking the waitress to bring you two All Blacks causes raised eyebrows.
Public Toilets
The New Zealanders do public loos better than anyone else. They can be found everywhere, including on foot paths and viewpoints in national parks. They are always fresh smelling, spotlessly clean and occasional quirky. Important but mundane things like public loos, adequate car park provision and keeping the roads in good shape are clearly treated as a priority. As they should be.
Shipping containers
We have never been anywhere that makes greater and more creative use of shipping containers. This was most apparent in Christchurch, where, post earthquake, shipping containers, being tough, stackable and readily available were used every where; to prop-up damaged buildings, to provide emergency accommodation for homeless businesses of all kinds and to store the countless tons of displaced possessions.
This trick seems to have caught on and every where you go you see them put to creative uses.
Old Cars
The benign nature of the climate here, means that old cars are not afflicted by body rot as they are in the UK. What a difference, a few degrees in average temperature makes!
New cars seem to be expensive, so old cars are kept running for ever. It is common to see cars that are 40-50 years old. Including lots of huge American chromed rocket-ships from the 1950’s and 60s.
Botanical gardens
Any town of any size has a botanical garden. All are free and immaculately well kept. With little in the way of frost to worry about, plenty of rain and rich volcanic soil, the plants absolutely thrive in a way they don’t back home. Gardening in NZ must be an especially rewarding hobby.
Hamilton Gardens
Museums
As the last major habitable land-mass to be settled by humans, by UK standards, the Kiwis don’t have much history yet. Despite this, boy are they big on museums. Every settlement - however small, has a museum staffed by enthusiastic local volunteers. Usually, they will be themed around a single noteworthy local event or activity (e.g. the Hokitika sock machinery museum).
In time, the Kiwis will gather more history; when they do, they will have plenty of museums ready and waiting.
All joking aside, they have some great museums. The New Zealand Maritime Museum in Aukland deserves special mention. It is a fraction of the size of the Maritime museum in Greenwich, but it wins hands down due to the fact that it keeps some historical vessels in the water and permits visitors to take trips on them around the harbour.
Rain
When we arrived, there was much fuss being made in the media about the drier than normal summer and how this amounted to drought conditions. When it rained, the locals welcomed the rain with enthusiasm.
We had ten hot sunny days, the rest were either 10/10 cloudy or a mixture of sun, wind and rain. Based on a sample of four weeks in the height of the NZ summer, we came to the conclusion that the weather here is exactly the same as the UK with two differences:
1) it is just a tad warmer.
2) the Kiwis don’t complain about the weather like we do.
We put this hypothesis to our English shuttle driver, who has been here a while, and he was in full agreement with this.
Motels
Kiwis have the whole motel thing down to a fine art. They are comfortable, spotlessly clean, and inexpensive.
Like budget hotel chains in the UK, somehow, these independently owned, often family run, establishments, maintain an impressive degree of consistency, with every one providing virtually identical facilities.
The rules are:
1) make your own breakfast (fresh milk is always provided)
2) don’t cook curry or fish, otherwise we will charge you to deodorise the room
Hobbits
The Lord of the Rings film franchise was the best thing to happen to the NZ tourist industry in years. All filming locations are marked on maps and milked mightily. Watch this (very clever) Air New Zealand flight safety video to see what I mean.
It can only be a matter of time before New Zealand is renamed “Middle Earth”.
Food
They love good grub. With exceptionally good ingredients and a multi-cultural population, the food in NZ is varied, great, and good value for money. The variety of fish and shellfish is huge. The Southern Hemisphere has different fish species to the UK, so fish eating is a very enjoyable culinary adventure.
Lamb and beef are exceptionally good too and the service in restaurants is first class. Which brings me too…
Indian restaurants
There are lots of them. They are run by a younger, more inventive crowd than back home, so the establishments are more stylish and the food is more varied and interesting than in the UK (i.e. better). You will be asked if you want your food Kiwi hot or Indian hot. Going for Indian hot will get you a stonking, awesome curry.
Doing things properly
Everything is well thought out and works as it should. It is an easy place to be.