There’s something…integral, primal, refreshing, more natural, uplifting, romantic (can’t quite find the right word)…about clothes/laundry drying on a line, the image of clothes flapping on a sunny day. (though they don’t dry as quickly, esp on rainy days, & are sometimes crusty from the lack of dryer sheets)
Most houses in NZ don’t have central heating, just wimpy wall & space heaters that manage to warm an area about 2” in front of them. In combination w/ floors destitute of carpeting, what are NZers thinking? How hardy do you have to be to live here? After all, it’s supposedly summer, yet we’ve got a high of 9 degrees C tomorrow, & we’ve been experiencing freezing cold rain & hail for days. It’s freaking summer! Give me a break! Who didn’t get the memo? The S. island even had a chance of snow yesterday (Dec). Combined w/ the wind chill, there’s no way I want to spend a winter here. The weather folks have claimed it’s the worst (in regards to rain & cold) summer they’ve had since 1986. We can probably blame this on me, under the maxim, “If a Doster pitches a tent, it’s bound to rain.” In other words, poor weather for entire seasons.
Most places in NZ have separate hot & cold faucets—frankly, this is dumb. You almost never want all hot or all cold when you’re washing your hands. To get “warm” water, you’d have to swish back & forth as quickly as possible, which is esp difficult, due to the extreme closeness b/w the faucets & the sink, which also makes no sense. This means you have to touch the back of the sink to get your hands completely wet, & since the sink is often narrow as well, you splash water onto the bottoms of your pants & the floor, as well!
I remember as a child thinking roosters only cock-a-doodle-dooed a couple times at dawn, & didn’t realize until later in life how absurdly wrong that impression is. We just camped somewhere that a picture-perfect, perfectly annoying rooster started crowing @ 3 a.m. & didn’t let up until afternoon.
No one has drip coffee, only ever instant. Ugh. Instant is even served at a tea in a café/restaurant for a group of people (Buried Village)
NZ is a tiny country, they even do weather for the whole country on radio stations & such. Even with its lack of size, however, they still have plenty of wide-open, undeveloped spaces.
I've discovered that I don't like the NZ accent; I thought that it might grow on me, but it has not. here they actually say "toe-maaaahhh--toe", as in, you say tomayto, I say tomahto; previously, I'd never met anyone like that.
sign in an Indian restuarant (& others, as I later discovered): BYO wine only (b/c of the expense of & difficulty in obtaining liquor licenses)
billboard on the highway--Calves Love Peach Teats
NZ is also full of oddly/creatively named restaurants & cafes, such as: the Stunned Mullet
the Chocolate Fish (among other unappetizing things, that I can no longer remember)
