New Zealand the good the bad and the kiwi

Ok so now that we have been here for almost a year and vacation mode has worn off, what do we really think?

 

The attitudes of People 

People here are just more laid back! 

When it is 5pm, most shops close up and people go home in order to spend time with their families or their hobbies, and lunchtime is also held as pretty sacred.  You see a LOT of people out running walking and everyone seems to have a dog (and usually a cat).  Most notably, they also hardly ever seem to have dogs on leashes.  People here love the outdoors.  Not just for sport, but just to sit outside for coffee.  Even if its cold people put out space heaters and sit outside vs, inside.     So one of my good friends and co-workers in the ED decided to move across the hall to the Wanganui Accident and Medical (WAM) area (fast track/ urgent care). But we didn't just send him over with a cake and some punch, we went throughout the process of a powhiri (poe-firi) which is a welcoming ceremony. It can be used to welcome people to a household, or to a new organization. So we did a powhiri for Will. Sending him from the ED to WAM. There were 30 people there, half sat on one side of the room and "gave Will away" and the other half accepting Will to the new organization. There was some small speeches and it lasted about 30 minutes. This was unlike anything I have seen in the states. The feeling of unity and community really was really special.

 

( Chris Cresswell, Rhihi, Will, Cecil) 

 

(Here is a pic we snapped at a walk in Palmerston.  This dad was talking his 2 kids on bikes out as well as his puppy offleash).  This is pretty normal.

 

 

 

What do we do when we are not on trips?

Most of the time we are writing about our trips.  However, we do have some low key outings that have nothing to do with big trips.  We have people over pretty often.  Sometimes just for "tea" AKA dinner and sometimes for games to!   We try to make it to quiz night at the local pub as often as we can.  There we play on a team with other Docs/RMO's to answer very obscure trivia.  We get invited out for dinner as well for things like birthdays and such.... you know normal stuff.  Finally, we try to hit crossfit 3x/week in addition to running and/or walking 3 times a week.  Cec especially has been running the heck out of the town training for his marathon.  He and will even have run a few times together for practice)

(Here were our crossft instructors and friends with some of thier kids we had over before Karli had her baby.)

 

(Big goodbye dinner for Padraig, Gary, Rhiannon, and Maeve)

  

(A quick snapshot of a quiznight at the red lion pub.  Its exactly what you would expect lol)

 

(Thai with friends for our anniversary dinner)

 

 

(Our crossfit family)

 

(Cec running with will for practice)

 

Infrastructure 

Sidewalks and bike lanes: Amazing!!! Even a small town like Wanganuii has sidewalks EVERYWHERE and there are a plethora of bike lanes.  That being said the "highway" sucks.  They have 2 lane roads everywhere, which may or may not be well maintained.  Travel is slow and has a LOT of bends.      

 

 

(See that little yellow dotted line? That is the median side of the many bike lanes in town.

And driving on the "wrong" side of the road only takes a few days to get used to. )

 

(There are a lot of road bikes out there!  This crazy guy was biking down a hill going close to 60 miles per hour near Wellington)

 

Airports

For most domestic flights there is NO security, which is mind blowing for us Americans, lol. 

You literally come into the airport, check your bag if you have one, and then go to the gate and get on the plane!  You aren't supposed to come to the airport until 45 minutes before your flight! 

 

Also when you check in, you don't wait in line, you punch in your info into a kiosk and then drop your bag off, it's amazing! 

 

(See the self check in kiosks?  Amazing!)

Politics- No TV or raidio addds allowed.  Pople go to festivals or put up signs.,. thats about it.  Sooo nice tyo have all the political BS!

("Advertising")

 

 

Houses: the houses DON'T have double panes in windows, or insulation (well, most of them anyway) so if it is 30 degrees outside, it is probably close to 45 degrees INSIDE     They also have a large indiginous population of a people called Maori that are both fierce as well as incredibly inviting. The attached video is of a small Maori community 45 minutes away that had a hit song in the late 1980's and ended up performing for the Queen of England! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQLUygS0IAQ also there is the world famous Haka (Maori War Dance) that is performed before every Rugby game https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Vxy_-e_hZ8 Trash is still collected house  side.  You actually don't pay a monthly bill, but you do buy thse trash stickers you put on the trash bags you buy.  They are a little over $1 NZD each and good for 20kg of trash (~40lbs).  I this this is a great method as there never are bill collectors or suchforth.  Your bags only get taken with stickers.  Recycling must be sorted and taken to the dump for a much smaller fee than if you just throw it away.  For example, we had a backseat and trunk full of bottles, cans, cardboard etc. and paid $4 to recycle it.  Much less than throwing it away.  The real negative is you need to sort it and go to the trouble of bringing to the dump.

 

 

(Trash sticker you place on the trash bags)

 

(The recycling center at the trash dump)

 

Public Restrooms NZ knows whats up.  Not only does every town have an isite (information site) with flush toilets, they also have port-a-johns called "long drops" at pretty much every trail head and a lot of rest stops.  Don't get me wrong, there are still some long trips between toilets sometimes, but for such a sparsely populated country they are toilet friendly!

(Yes, this is a port a john/ long drop.  No it did not smell and yes it was clean.  See america, it CAN happen)

 

 

Are there really that many sheep?

 

YES.  However there are also a ton of cattle.  Everything is grass fed, NO CORN SILO's!  Its amazing meat.  Sadly, its about double the price of USA meat.  Why?  The locals still have to pay the price its worth to export it to places like China.

 

(This is typical NZ farm country.  Everywhere you look is sheep farming.)

 

 

 

(It says "Peach teats- Calves love 'em".  For the bobby calves when they separate them!)

 

Anything else?

 

Coffee is a big deal here.  Everyone drinks it.  They even have portable plunge coffee mugs!

 

(Because when you are camping, instant is just not good enough!)

 

 

 

NZ is a tourist economy!  Towns will do this to attract people.  This comes from offering free wifi, handing out brochures and having "isites".  I sites or "information sites" are in every town you pass through and are staffed by people who can point you in the direction of anything that might be interesting.  Towns also try to come up with things to attract visitors.

 

 

(These 2 photos are of the isite and other public bulding in a small town.  Throughout the town are all these panel artwork items.  The town is known for this and people come just to see this art!)

Is it Really that pretty? Yes.  I mean there are beautiful places everywhere, but yes it is that great.  Here is a sampling of some of our favorite photos (some new and some repeats)

In our front yard