Stuff that I noticed when I went to the states

Pedestrians give way to traffic here... unless you have the little green man saying you can walk... and even then- watch out!

Other stuff... no beggers (or very few)... no tipping...

WE HAVE PIES!!!!!

When I was walking around Wellington in the late afternoon, I encountered a small group of teen skateboarders...

...who were very polite!

In the states, i'd have to be braced for them to 'mess" with me somehow...


Also, the only place I saw a ranting crazy man was in the downtown streets of Christchurch. It was just the one. I'd been in New Zealand traveling for a month.


In California, you see them all over the place.

I also felt very safe hitchhiking alone around the South Island. In Californina, that would be akin to suicide. There, I met lots of really nice people, including a sweet logging truck driver named "Warren".

When a brown skinned person is walking towards you on the sidewalk, you look them in the eye and say hi, and they say hi back. They don't look at you and say what's your problem!

Hey! I'm from Austin too. I've been in Auckland for four months now.

One of the major differences is that businesses close early! It's hard to find a 24-hour or late night restaurant/shop. Most businesses close by 6 PM.

One of the cool differences, if you like coffee, is that they have GREAT coffee here. There are different types too, like a "flat white". You can even get coffee in a bowl! That's how big coffee is here!

My thoughts from the three weeks I just spent there:

Forget about late night dining out. If you don't have something to eat and fancy something other than Weet Bix from the local all-night dairy, you'd best get yourself in gear before 9-9:30pm to catch an open restaurant. There were a handful of notable exceptions but I was truly surprised at how universally "until late" seemed to mean sometime roughly in the one hour window between 9 and 10 with 9:30 being the safe bet to shoot for as your last chance. As Myles points out, pubs will be open later but I rarely found any serving much beyond chips at that hour. Also, as for the bars being "open later" I think that is going to depend on where you're from. Having grown up in Chicago, even Auckland seemed to roll up their sidewalks early for me. :)

When you're done with a meal, I never fully figured this out, but it seems most of them want you to come up to the register to get your bill. Just when you think you've got that one figured out, though, someone will go and bring it to your table. That's actually when the real fun starts because now you get to wonder "ok, so do I give the money to the server or do I still go up to the register?" Also, there seems to be very little expectation for tipping which is weird because they still get shitty wages just like servers here. I generally offered tips if the service was good and never got anything but gratitude. I figure I was working with a favorable exchange rate anyway, so what the hell.

It's "take away" not "to go".

The petrol prices will seem absurdly low. Then you'll fill up a tank and say, "30 gallo...oh...litres...right...ok...damn!" The $1.49NZD/litre I was paying for 91 octane petrol translates to $3.70USD/gallon. As far as I can tell, 91 was the lowest octane I could buy. Since here in the US that amounts to "premium", which I never buy, I can't compare that to what I'm used to seeing but it was a heck of a lot more than I was thinking it was when I looked at the sign at any rate.

Diphenhydramine (you may know it as Benadryl, they only seem to know it as Unisom) is not sold over the counter. No prescription is required but you do have to ask a pharmacist for it. Meanwhile, while also only available in pharmacies (as far as I could tell), you can readily pick up a box of codeine tablets off the shelves yourself. I asked about this and the pharmacist just shrugged. They're worried about how drowsy diphenhydramine makes you so don't offer it OTC but do offer the eminently abusable codeine OTC. I guess that part falls into the "what will be exactly the same?" category. Silly policy decisions seem a universal human trait.

On a side note there, said pharmacies are not open late at all that I could ever find. We were stuck trying warm towels when April's eustatian tubes failed to unblock after a flight from Christchurch to Auckland. We did get treated to what was a very pleasantly bizarre experience once we did get to a pharmacy the next morning, though. The pharmacist took the time to listen to why we wanted the diphenhydramine, suggested a course of treatment and adjunct route of delivery, was very worried about her not taking it during "waking hours", listened to her history and amended his suggestions as appropriate, etc. It was like we had a doctor to talk to for free just because we were purchasing what amount to sleeping pills in the local common usage. For those who are missing the irony when I say "it was like we had a doctor to talk to" I *do* understand that pharmacists *are* doctors (in most countries anyway) but in the states you'd never actually be reminded of this fact through interacting with them.

In some places you will find those wacky intersections where all the pedestrian crosswalks are green at the same time and you can cross both streets at the same time. I'm sure the novelty wears off eventually but I still got excited every time I got a chance to do that. Also the crosswalks almost everywhere were very fancy and most people actually used them. There was still some crossing against the signal or even in the middle of a block but far less than I see here.

The bus stops will, I shit you not, tell you when the bus you want is going to arrive. Even stranger, they're generally correct!

Starbucks is freaking everywhere. Oh wait, that's the same. Same for McDonald's and their wacky McCafe cybercafes.

Toilet seats are weird flat things even in fancy places. And don't forget to lower the lid before flushing! Not only will you *not* see the water go down the other way, you will now be wet since they don't actually flush there, they aggressively shoot water everywhere at top speed with some notion that eventually "down" will be part of the equation.

They're deforesting delicate areas to convert to farmland in one of the windiest areas of the nation amounting to a loss of something like a tone of topsoil a day to the Pacific. They will also do neat things like irrigate the hell out of desert regions and call it "reclaiming the land to make it productive" as if A) a desert is somehow stolen land to be reclaimed and B) as if it's somehow a net productivity gain in the larger picture to eek a living off of desert land at a massive water cost and god knows what other energy costs associated with such massive land change. Oh wait, that's all the same as here also, never mind. ;)

Meth addicts. D'oh! Also the same. They're all in Northland anyway. ;)

My friend from Australia keeps telling me about kiwi immigrants that tell him stories about how it's all going to hit the fan soon with the Maori and they don't feel safe there any more. Maybe I'm just missed stuff you won't notice until you're there longer but I have to say one of the most wonderful realizations to hit me about two weeks in was how completely devoid of skin color based *anything* it was there. On the other hand, if you're having to go back to the states this can be a bad thing. It only made dealing with LAX that much more painful a shock when I got back.

The big urban center with high population density is *not* the coolest city. It's got a very pretty harbor, pretty purple needle thingy, and hot drunken babes falling out of their tops on Queen St. Saturday nights, though, so if that's your thing it's still a fine place.

No tribal reservations.

Driving on the left side of the road is subtlety more difficult than it originally seems because you'll probably be just fine with remembering that you're on the wrong side of the road (they've got all sorts of cute little arrows to remind you to stay on the wrong side if you don't remember anyway) but what nobody mentions is that since you're also on the wrong side of the car your "centering" is off by a fair bit. I just started aiming for the side of the lane instead of the center until it became natural.

Little self serve pie and roll cases everywhere. For that matter, pies and sausage in a bun everywhere. Some of it even quite good. I agree some of the best was in Christchurch as someone else said.

Oh look! Sheep on a hill! Don't see that every day!

Prostitution is legal. Among other things this means you'll want to learn the difference between a massage "parlor" and massage "therapist".

Tomato sauce (what they use instead of ketchup) is actually worth eating there though the people putting it on eggs or steak and cheese pie are just as much weirdos there as they are here in my book. :)

Everywhere you look you will find something gorgeous to look at and super friendly people.

Motels have kitchenettes and laundries. Youth hostels are not age restricted. People bumming around from job to job with all their belongings in a bag they carry around with them are called backpackers, not vagrants, and there is a whole industry set up to serve them.

Everywhere you stay wants to give you milk. What do you mean what for? For your tea. Duh.

You can't smoke indoors in public establishments. You *can* smoke directly outside open windows and doors of those same public establishments though.

Gambling is legal.

The football players don't wear padding but the baseball players do. ;)

"Z" is pronounced "Zed", as god intended.

They keep talking about violent crime spiraling out of control and you will feel safer than in any US city no matter where you go. It's cute, really. Not to say the trend isn't troubling but for all the attention being given the really quite marginal threat currently present I have serious doubts we'll ever see a Cabrini Green in Auckland, for instance.

Which brings me to: they seem to give a rat's ass about social problems.

Zero degrees isn't cold. Not *really*. 30 degrees is hot. Despite the really large jump each degree represents when using celcius, decimals don't seem universally used for things that control temperature. I've found them from time to time but get used to being frustrated close to half the time if you're counting on thermostats you didn't buy yourself.

You can drink the water. What's more, you'll want to.

Restaurants are freaking expensive. So are most things you'd find in the pharmacy.

Three words: Possum Fur Pluckers.

When you get on an airplane you empty your pockets of change and run your bag through an x-ray machine. Two seconds later you're at your gate. Unless you're traveling to the US that is. :)

Hot chocolate isn't too sweet.

Most places offering you plain black tea will serve some mystery liquid that actually tastes good and doesn't require sugar.

80s music!

They actually seem to hate someone more than us! (I'd totally forgotten *where* that Rainbow Warrior thing went down even though I'd remembered the event itself quite clearly.)

I shit you not, I think I went an entire three weeks without once seeing any overt reference to Disney anything.

There's probably more but that'll have to do. I've got an early train to catch in the morning.