> Roadsigns were great. My favorite was easily the "!" sign, although that was followed closely by the sign Sam didn't mention, the white arrow pointing at about 7 o'clock on a blue circular sign. These were found usually close to the ground on islands in the middle of the road. They were basically pointing directly at the road in front of us. Our interpretation was "Drive On Road." I thought it was awesome that New Zealanders needed signs to remind them of this. "Oh, bugger, I've driven through the bush again."

Since both you and Sam mentioned this, I figured I should comment. The "!" sign seems to be an international sign. They had that sign in Russia and I made sure to take a picture of it. One of the other funny signs was a picture of a car hurtling itself into one of the canals in St. Petersburg. Often, the "!" sign was followed by the Car in the Canal sign. We figured it meant, "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! CARS CAN'T SWIM!"

Back at home, one of the most amusing signs in recent memory was at Yosemite around some of the waterfalls. It said, "Do not scramble upon the rocks. Deaths occur here annually." We could only imagine the festivities at the annual Rock Scrambling Festival of Death.

> The only other thing I find worth mentioning is about lunch on Day 1. I knew that the British call french fries "chips" and potato chips "crisps". We learned fairly quickly that New Zealanders use "chips" for both, thus forcing them to sort out in context which you are talking about. However, when we ordered lunch at the place by the beach, the woman asked me if I wanted "fries." I said yes, but realized later that she had called them "fries" rather than chips. This severely dissapointed me. I had been looking forward to hearing them called chips. I had come all this way, about 8000 miles (give or take a hectare) to hear people say "chips" when they meant "fries" and the first opportunity I get the woman hears my accent and talks down to me. BAH.

A British Pub recently opened near me and they have "Chips (alright, French Fries)" listed on the menu. When I ordered chips, though, they had to check with me by asking, "You mean fries?"

Ferrick