From a brief talk with my in-laws about their exciting 35 day stay in New Zealand and Rarotonga, or The Cook Islands, which are freely in association with NZ (even though they're nowhere near NZ :-). A number of impressions come to mind:

1. Apparently it's somewhat more difficult for a North American to understand New Zealanders relative to Australians

2. The word "greeblies" is a real (not invented) word which New Zealanders claim to learn early on in school (i.e. "Greeblies shown in Waikato River".)

3. NZ is surprisingly mountainous, and the roads very circuitous, explaining why it takes so long to drive from Point A to Point B

4. All of Germany can be found touring the North Island, while all of Japan is doing bus tours of the South... Just like Brunnen-G said

5. In NZ they will tell you that there are fewer sheep per person than there used to be -- but that's still lotsa sheep.

6. New Zealanders seem quite conscious of exactly which flora and animals are native wildlife, versus which ones have been introduced from off-island

7. People are instructed, in earnest by several NZ'ers, that if one sees a possum on the road, make sure to run it down... (There are even more possums than sheep).

8. Native Rotoruans will show people how to cook food in boiling mud pits.

9. They even have mud pits of different temperatures to do different types of cooking. Yummy possum, anyone? :-)

10. And people do say Grace before meals even in restaurants, especially in the islands.

11. If you rent a Kawasaki motorscooter with which to tour NZ, make sure to dismount on the left-hand side of the cycle. Dismount on the *right-hand* side, and you'll get second-degree burns on your right leg from the hot muffler.

12. It was surprising how many people in the Auckland Airport were walking around with bandaged right legs.

13. Local mail in NZ towns is delivered house to house by bicycle.

14. An Auckland radio announcer's idea of "It'll be slow going because it's Rush hour" is nothing like a Montrealer's or Torontonian's idea of bumper-to-bumper Rush hour...

15. Brunnen-G is a truly remarkable, lovely, and amicable person (all of which you knew already.) My relatives met with Puck for a mere 10 minutes before he had to rush off to a dental appointment. ^_^


Wolf "!" spirit